Lavish perks and trendy benefits are nice, but employees
seek something much more basic from their bosses: sustained respect and
honesty.
Faced with a red-hot job market, employers are offering
perks like free ski passes, complimentary e-readers and on-site acupuncture to
attract and retain quality employees.
These benefits are certainly fun and may help attract top
talent. Certainly, some people may jump at the chance to work at a firm that
offers in-house yoga and spin classes. But there are organizations where once
the luster wears off, employees begin to see that these benefits are simply
camouflage over a toxic work environment.
They speculate that such perks are provided simply to entice
employees to never leave as opposed to rewarding them for jobs well done.
Catered lunches and dinners might make employees think that leaving the office
for meals is frowned upon, while free trips cause skeptical workers to question
whether they’ll be able to make their own vacation plans or do as the company
dictates.
Workplaces with low employee morale see constant churn, and
right now, the number of U.S. workers quitting their jobs is the highest it’s
been in more than a decade. Seven in 10 American workers are not engaged in
their jobs, according to Gallup’s recent “State of the American Workplace”
survey.
Given today’s robust job market, employers must work to
develop positive, healthy workplaces that entice top talent. Dedicating
resources to the benefits that matter most — competitive compensation and
respect for a healthy work-life balance, to name just two — will help ensure
that workers join the right firms and stick around.
So how can businesses build and sustain a positive culture?
It starts the day they receive a prospective hire’s résumé.
Promote Timely Hiring Practices
Many businesses drag out the hiring process and
make prospective hires fret for weeks after they take an interview. That rubs
applicants the wrong way. In a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by my organization,
Robert Half, 40 percent reported that waiting just one to two weeks after an
interview for an offer was “too long.”
This lengthy hiring process causes 40 percent of
U.S. adults to lose interest in the role and pursue other job openings,
according to the same survey. Nearly 1 in 3 adults reported that a lengthy
process makes them question the company’s ability to make other decisions.
It’s imperative for employers to put their best
foot forward the moment an applicant submits a résumé. Managers should
interview all candidates on-site and make sure that everyone who needs to meet
with the applicant is available that day. Employers should also offer
applicants a chance to see the office and meet their potential co-workers,
which allows candidates to quickly assess the company’s culture for themselves.
After the interview, employers should let
prospective hires know when they can expect to hear back. If there’s a delay in
the decision-making process, employers should update candidates as soon as
possible.
These simple courtesies go a long way in ensuring
that prospective hires feel wanted and respected, which increases acceptance
rates and builds goodwill.
Focus on What Matters Most to Workers
Employers also must make sure that they’re giving
employees what they want. Workers aren’t as interested in extravagant perks as
employers may think.
According to a survey by software firm Qualtrics
and venture capital firm Accel Partners, 80 percent of millennials rank
in-office perks as the least important benefit when considering a new job. The
same survey found that millennials want a workplace that fosters a sense of
pride and offers competitive compensation, a positive culture, opportunities to
advance and flexible hours.
Getting the Fit
Right
According to “The Secrets of the Happiest Companies
and Employees,” a survey of 12,000 workers by Robert Half in collaboration with
engagement-analytics company Happiness Works, the biggest factor affecting
worker happiness is the sense of pride an employee takes in their job. Workers
who share a company’s vision derive more meaning, satisfaction, and happiness
from their jobs than employees who see their work as a mere paycheck.
But employees also want competitive compensation,
and they want their managers to be proactive about giving it to them. Ninety
percent of workers think they deserve a raise, but only 44 percent planned to
ask for one in 2017. In fact, many professionals would rather be cleaning their
house, getting a root canal or being audited by the IRS before asking for a
raise.
Given this hesitancy, employers need to be
proactive. They should clearly communicate guidelines for raises and they
should be more vigilant about ensuring that they’re paying competitive
salaries. It’s no longer enough to compare salaries once a year. In today’s job
market, employers should strive to cross-compare salaries at least twice a
year, if not quarterly.
To that end,
managers also should set up meetings with their employees to discuss
compensation. These meetings can help professionals understand the factors
affecting compensation levels and the steps needed to earn a raise.
Recognizing workers’
successes with consistent compliments and encouragement costs managers nothing
but makes employees feel valued. In fact, nearly 1 in 2 employees ranked
management’s recognition as “very important” to their job satisfaction,
according to a survey of 600 U.S. employees by the Society for Human Resource
Management.
Workers also want an
opportunity to climb the company ladder. Prospective hires consider advancement
as one of the chief considerations of taking a job, according to that same SHRM
survey.
Finally, a company
culture that gives employees the flexibility to attend to their private lives
is of high importance to employees.
More than half of
workers are willing to change jobs for a position that offers more flexible
working hours, according to the Gallup survey. This is understandable, given
that today’s workers spend an average of 49 minutes commuting each day, according
to my company’s research.
Businesses can offer
this work-life balance by allowing telecommuting where it makes sense and
bringing in project workers when the core team is overwhelmed.
Following these
guidelines would do wonders to attract and retain workers as well as boost
employee happiness.
The Benefits of
Happy and Engaged Workers
When employees are
invested in their work and committed to doing their jobs well, company
productivity also improves. According to the Gallup survey, business units that
score in the top quartile of their companies on measures of worker engagement
experience 41 percent less absenteeism compared to the lowest quartile of
units. They are 17 percent more productive. These companies also are 21 percent
more profitable, the survey noted.
Happy and engaged
workers are also considerably less likely to leave their jobs, thereby reducing
turnover-related costs.
By comparison, when
workers are not engaged, the company’s bottom line suffers. One disengaged
employee costs his company more than $2,200 per year, according to a study by
ADP. That equates to hundreds of billions of dollars overall.
At a moment when
talented employees are increasingly hard to come by, attracting top talent
requires more than quirky company perks. Businesses need to invest in creating
the kind of workplace culture that supports happy, engaged employees.
If they don’t, their most valuable workers will have no trouble finding the exit no matter how many trips to posh Caribbean resorts they are offered.
About the Author: Paul McDonald is the senior
executive director at global staffing firm Robert Half.
Article
Source: http://www.workforce.com/2018/01/15/employee-loyalty-not-sale/