It requires a shift of mindset. Today, attracting dedicated, skilled and enthusiastic employees is more of a challenge than ever before. Millennials, and increasing numbers of all other working-age generations, are not interested in just getting a job. They won’t even settle for just a career. And it isn’t all about money, either. The HR game has become much more complex, requiring
more strategy, creativity and applied psychology than ever before.
Your Future Star Players: What Do They Want?
If you’re seeking top employees, who are energized and engaged in furthering your business, you need to inspire them. Today’s job hunters are looking for, not just a job, but an adventure, (to borrow from an old Navy recruiting ad that is more true now than ever). The need for inspiring, purposeful work is there, all across the board of employment sectors.
If you’re having trouble attracting the employees you truly want, you are in good company — In recent Deloitte and Gallup surveys, two-thirds of business leaders said they struggle with attracting high-level talent, with another one-third feeling this the situation is critical.
More Options Means Higher Standards for Employment
Job seekers these days are willing, and often able, to go out and create their own jobs and careers. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in today’s workforce. The idea of having a one-company or even one-industry career is no longer a possibility (or a goal) for most workers now. So what goals must you help your workforce satisfy, in order to attract top talent today?
Today’s Workforce Values Daily Quality of Life
That can be by configuring it so there’s more interaction as you suggest, or simply finding ways to hook their interest and engage their brain differently – to bring more of themselves to work – by gamifying the work – building in challenges, levels, competition, rewards for certain KPI thresholds etc. Different things will work in different settings, but it doesn’t cost money for a manager to be curious about what lights people up and experiment with ideas.
If you’re hiring for a boring, repetitive job, you’ll likely need to have strong advantages to balance out those underwhelming daily duties. it’s not about providing expensive benefits, a five-star chef in the company cafeteria or free massages – that’s all window dressing. It’s about improving the experience of working in the job, however mundane.
Fewer people these days are working just for a paycheck. They want to enjoy their days, and not just on their days off. Employees want to interact with interesting co-workers and customers, they want to learn and enjoy new experiences—and yes, they want to have fun at work. A job that doesn’t provide a positive, stimulating atmosphere will likely only hold the attention of your new hires for the short term.
Without the right atmosphere and perks, you may not get the pick of the best qualified and most motivated job seekers. simply finding ways to hook their interest and engage their brain differently – to bring more of themselves to work – by gamifying the work – building in challenges, levels, competition, rewards for certain KPI thresholds etc. Different things will work in different settings, but it doesn’t cost money for a manager to be curious about what lights people up and experiment with ideas.
Although there is some cost involved in brainstorming and providing the right benefits and creating a positive culture, without these you may experience budget-busting rapid turnover.
Today’s Talented Workforce Wants to Make a Difference
Your employer brand, your company mission and reputation are incredibly important these days in attracting the best and brightest. Not only do you need to make “the day-to-day” as engaging as possible for your employees, you need to make them proud to be associated with your company.
If you market your company brand as a great place to work, and applicant values are
aligned with your mission, you stand a good chance of bringing the best workers on board. Unfortunately, less than 20 percent of those surveyed expressed confidence in their company as a sought-after employment brand.
Winning Them Over (Again) Every Day
Things like allowing staff to work from home, offering flex-time and a pleasant, comfortable, high-tech workplace are expected of the best employers. Daily perks like free healthy snacks or even yoga classes in the afternoon will help employees become dedicated evangelists for your company.
Finding out what your crew (your employee demographic) wants and offering what you
can, is crucial. Adding new perks and development opportunities regularly will also help keep employees, interested, engaged, productive and loyal. Nearly 90 percent of execs and HR management surveyed express little confidence in their talent pipeline.
Ubiquitous technology keeps us all moving faster than ever, with ever shorter attention spans. Hence the need to work at keeping employees interested and winning them over every day. Technology of course, has also lead to amazing productivity—but it has also blurred the lines between work and the rest of life. So, providing more hours off than on the clock may not be enough.
Making sure employees don’t become overwhelmed during work hours is also crucial to avoid burnout. Burnout naturally kills energy, enthusiasm, morale and productivity–and fuels turnover.
So today’s working world has to be inspiring and exciting, as discussed above, but it also must be well paced and properly supported. It’s incredibly easy for staff members to become overwhelmed with ten (or more) crucial social websites to check, react to, share and post on, several times a day.
Combine this with email, text messages and calls to keep up with—each individual is literally pulled in too many directions. Almost 80 percent of HR management are concerned about employee retention, with almost one-quarter of survey respondents seeing this as a significant, even dire concern.
Creative Solutions for Successful HR
Eliminate the Overwhelm: Consider overstaffing to allow each team member to go the extra mile—to delight a customer, for example. The less-stressed team member might have time to (and be motivated to) come up with your next time- and money-saving process improvement. Long term, both outcomes are well worth the extra headcount per shift, and result in a win for the company bottom line. Allow for flexible hours and/or work styles to get the best out of your team.
Coach rather than Evaluate: Performance appraisals, given in an authoritarian manner, often make employees cringe. Arrange your appraisals so that the involve more back-and-forth, and so that you give kudos more than demerits. A valued employee should feel empowered and inspired to achieve more, rather than mistrusted and criticized.
Collaborate with the employee to improve the potential of the position, provide development opportunities, and respect the individual as part of your talent pool. Better yet, try thinking of your staff member as your brand’s valued customer.
Create an Inclusive Culture: Diverse teams can spur creativity and have been shown to perform at a higher level.
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