One of the biggest challenges for any organisation is attracting and retaining employees, particularly top talent. I am often asked by clients, how can they compete with larger organisations and the bigger financial packages they are able to offer? At the beginning of a new year this can be a particularly big concern for companies, as the new year brings thoughts of finding a new job and challenge.
The workplace has seen huge changes over the years with increasingly diverse workforces, including multigenerational workforces. Today’s employees have a very different approach to work and their working requirements have evolved. Engaging with the modern employee means that employers need to change and adapt the working environment to remain competitive and to attract and retain the best talent.
How can your business adapt to do this? You need to understand the mindset of your workforce and provide a culture and working environment that meets their expectations and demands.
Company culture and values
These are key, and are as important as salary and job title. Embedding these in to everything is fundamental. Company culture and values may feel like a fashionable term, and whether created intentionally or not, they are a key part to a company and its brand. They differentiate your business and inspire behaviour, at the same time as aligning the goals and vision of your organisation with employees.
Company culture and values play a key role in attracting today's modern worker and in retaining them, they want to work somewhere that reflects their own values.
Continuous feedback
In the workplace today, people expect regular and continuous feedback, rather than an annual appraisal or review. Without it, employees become more easily disengaged, and it is more difficult to align company values and goals with individual values and goals.
Personal development
In the past, career development was more strongly associated with vertical promotional moves. Today organisations are becoming flatter in structure and there has been a shift towards horizontal learning and development.
Traditional learning, for example in the classroom is still relevant, however, with rapid changes many organisations are taking advantage of technology and using online and mobile learning methods.
Blended learning and active learning are also increasingly being used. Blended learning utilises more traditional learning (face-to-face) with technology. Whilst active learning allows employees to directly apply their knowledge from the training, to their role.
Flexible working
There has been a shift in the value and importance placed on job security, length of service and presenteeism. Instead performance, continuous development and flexible working are regarded more highly, and people are not expected or expecting to remain in a job for life. If an organisation does not offer their employees the ability to work flexibly, they are very likely to lose out to competitors who do.
There are a multitude of ways an organisation can offer employees flexible working, these include:
- part-time
- job-share
- flexitime
- compressed hours
- mobile working
- working from home
- career breaks.
To remain competitive an organisation needs to understand the mindset of their workforce and what is important to them. Continually evolving and implementing changes to adapt the working environment, to meet the demands of the modern employee are essential, if you want to attract and retain the best talent.
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