An attractive salary has traditionally known to be a key factor in recruiting and retaining employees. However, of late, employees are expecting more from their employers than just attractive pay-cheques to take home.
In a research by Towers Watson, a company offering professional services, career growth opportunities, job security and confidence and trust in the organisation’s senior management, have emerged as equally important reasons for employees to choose to be with a company. A total of 1,637 companies and 32,000 employees from around the world were researched for the above study.
Employers Fail to Understand Employee Expectations
Given the shift in priorities of employees, how updated are you, as an organisation, in understanding what your employees really expect of you?
The study also offers insights into the extent of employers awareness of expectations of their existing and prospective employees. It has been found that despite the significant revelations, employers failed to rank any of the above-mentioned factors as important for employees.
Employers showed an awareness of the importance of factors such as attractive salary benefits and career advancement opportunities in hiring and retaining employees. However, they failed to recognise the relevance of job security and trustworthiness of senior leadership in hiring and retaining employees.
Employers are Setting Themselves Up for an Irreparable Loss
An increase in hiring activity is making hiring and retention of high-performing talent very difficult – in fact, about two-thirds of the employers who participated in the study revealed that they find it extremely difficult to attract top talent, says the Towers Watson study. This figure is higher than the statistics that existed 2 years ago, the study goes on to explain.
If you, as an employer, remain disconnected with your employees’ expectations, then you stand to lose a lot including your top performers.
A brilliant and hard-working workforce is the foundation for a futuristic organisation and a powerful brand. Ensure that your pool of top talent is happy to be with you while newer candidates are excited about joining you by enabling your workforce to experience the following.
Greater Job Security
The Towers Watson study reveals that employees rate job security as the second key factor they look for when joining a company. It is also the fourth most important factor that governs employees’ decision to keep working for a company.
The study goes on to state that employees feel that their employers can do much more to retain top performers. In fact, only 42% of employees in the Watson survey said that their employers put in good efforts to ensure that their top talent stayed with them.
Trust in Senior Management
Trust and confidence in an organisation’s senior management rank third in significance for employees looking to stick to a company, according to the study.
Trust in a workplace is crucial to ensure transparent communication between employees. It is also key to motivate employees and get them to see the vision as you see it, for your company. Motivated employees are more likely to go the extra mile for you and be with you.
Integrity of the senior management is crucial in building and maintaining employee trust. This is because it is the senior management that directs the company in the right direction. It is from here that the vision and mission of the organisation get cascaded.
A team that believes that its senior management has its best interests in mind is more likely to believe in the management’s decisions. A trusting workforce is a primary requirement for organisational success.
Trust gets built through small accomplishments on a daily basis. Some ways to build trust include clear and transparent communication of key matters of organisational concern by the senior management to its employees. Keeping employees informed of the thought processes that led to specific decisions also makes them feel more valued and involved, facilitating trustful relationships.
Career Growth Opportunities
Employees expect their employers to provide opportunities for their career growth. The Towers Watson research reveals that over 40% of employees who have been recognised as high potential candidates by the company felt they had to quit the company to realise their career growth objectives.
The same study, in fact, reveals that just less than a half of the employers surveyed admitted to providing effective career growth opportunities for their employees.
Without proper career growth, employees, especially top talent can feel stagnant, which can fuel attrition. Lack of career advancement opportunities within a company also makes it less attractive to new talent.
With hiring continuing to increase, it has become more important than before for employers to retain their top talent, and providing best career growth opportunities is one of the fundamental ways to do it.
Social Recognition
Genuine praise for your employee’s work delivers numerous benefits, including increased employee productivity, greater job satisfaction, greater employee retention, and increased peer engagement, reveals Gallup’s study.
Gallup, a performance management consulting company with a global presence, involved over 4 million employees from across the globe as part of its study on social recognition. The latest findings come from the company’s research of 10,000+ business units and 30+ industries.
The traditional method of social recognition comes from the senior management. While this is commendable, encouraging internal peer recognition is another effective way of social recognition.
In fact, Google includes peer recognition in its work culture where Google employees exchange praises for a job considered well-done. The appreciation is then shared on social media for other Google employees to see and share. This method of recognition has a good effect on both the individuals – the giver and the recipient – according to Google.
To ensure that such programmes work, ensure that praise is bestowed upon employees for actions that are related to the core values of the organisation.
Get Results with Preferred Training Networks
If you are looking to live up to your employee expectations, and invest in professional programmes that increase the hiring and retention rates of your company, then Preferred Training Networks can be your valuable partner in helping you accomplish these goals on a consistent basis.
We are Australia’s leading provider of non-technical training programmes, offering over 300 professional development programmes. We are, in fact, the largest provider of non-technical training in Australia. Each of our courses is customised to your organisational goals and requirements.
We have a well-designed team of seasoned facilitators, trainers, instructional designers and consultants, all of who come with an excellent reference from the senior management of Australia’s top 500 companies.
We operate nation-wide with six offices across Australia. Call us at 1300 323 752 for a free no-obligation consultation.