Today, with the pendulum swinging in their favour, employees have more power than ever before. Employees want more of a work-life balance, the ability to work remotely or hybrid, and they want to work for companies with transparent, creative cultures, who have the same values as they. There is a lot of talk about the unreasonable demands of employees, but if companies don’t sit up and listen, they will lose out on talent and struggle to recruit people, let alone retain them.
Follow these top tips to attract and retain talent.
Adopt a transparent and creative culture
Employees want to work for a company with a transparent and creative culture. They want to spread their wings, learn on the job, learn from others and grow and develop their career without the fear of making a mistake. By adopting a transparent culture everyone in the company knows the mission, the vision, and the objectives you are all working towards. In a transparent culture people can communicate freely, expressing their views. It is important to demonstrate that every voice matters and will be listened to, and that everyone makes a difference.
Advocating creativity spurs innovation, helping to generate new ideas on the services and products you offer, the way you do business, and how you can improve or do things differently. By encouraging employees to share their ideas, no matter how big or small, they all help, so it is important to let employees know that all ideas are welcome.
Allow work from anywhere
According to MRI Software, today 60% of people in the UK still regularly work at home, and 40% of people work hybrid (TravelPerk). So, it is essential that companies embrace remote and hybrid working, supplying employees with the correct technology to enable seamless connectivity and working.
Companies need to deploy a unified communications solution for employees to communicate and collaborate with each other when they are working at home or remotely, so they can have video calls, work on shared documents, and send instant messages. These solutions enable employees to be connected virtually, ensuring that everyone has access to the technology they need to do their jobs and communicate with each other.
Empower employees
It is crucial to provide autonomy to employees to empower them, so they remain motivated, engaged, and passionate about their jobs.
AI technology allows employees to get creative on how to use this technology to benefit themselves and the customer. AI does this by providing employees with tools that give them both access to data and autonomy, so they can make better decisions to improve their roles and the customer experience. Empower and involve employees in sharing their perceptions and ideas to improve their experience and the customers’. Work with them and ask them what changes in processes and what technology they require to do their jobs more effectively.
Track but trust
Managers can deploy workforce management solutions to track employees’ work progress and to help stop quiet quitting. This is especially useful in the case of employees based at home or remotely. Workforce management solutions enable managers to monitor their employees’ workload, and can be used in conversations to ascertain if the employee would like more fulfilling tasks, or to reduce workload in certain areas. Be careful here not to be watching over your employees like Big Brother, so they feel like they can’t be trusted. Make it clear that you are doing this so you can understand their role more, and assist where need be.
Invest in employees
By investing in your employees, developing new leadership styles, and devising new management strategies and performance metrics, you will improve the employee experience. Listen to your employees, act on their feedback and suggestions, and encourage and foster a culture that puts employees first. Then, managing and navigating the new workplace of hybrid and remote working will seamlessly come together, reducing quiet quitting, giving you employees who are engaged and empowered, and enabling you to attract top talent.
By Jonathan Sharp, CEO at Britannic
