As we head into the final weeks of the year, thoughts start to turn to what 2017 has in store for us. While on a personal level we may be considering lifestyle changes or travel plans, 2017 will also inevitably bring change and developments in the world of HR.
The way we work is changing. Whilst the majority of us are currently classed as ‘office’ workers, based permanently at our organisation’s main office or site location, this is unlikely to be the case for very much longer. We are seeing an ever-increasing trend towards remote working, whether from home or from smaller satellite locations which could be just about anywhere on the planet.
Over the last few decades, the function once almost exclusively known as Personnel has gradually rebranded itself as the Human Resources department. Theories abound as to the reasons why: anything from an increasing US influence to a desire to demonstrate a harder edge and move away from the ‘tea and tissues’ stereotype.
Today, 27 October, marks my two-year anniversary at Benefex. Prior to that, I spent almost nine years heading up the HR function at the FMCG business Candyking.
What can I say? I’m a big fan of committed relationships 🙂
Reflecting back though on the last eleven years – two at Benefex so far, nine at Candyking – it got me to thinking, what exactly is it that drives employee loyalty? What is it that persuades an employee not to jump ship every 18 months and instead commit to a long term relationship with their employer?
Pick any organisation you like, and the chances are that, alongside their mission statement and corporate vision, they will have a set of core company values. Each business will try and spin these in a slightly different way in order to give the illusion of originality, but the fact is that they will all ultimately be saying the same thing: ‘Follow these guiding principles and we will achieve our organisational goals.’
Sounds pretty compelling, no? A set of guidelines which, if followed, lead to the assured achievement of objectives? It’s no wonder corporate values have become a key topic of discussion around the boardroom table.
In a previous post, I talked about the importance of structured management development programmes when it comes to equipping individuals who may be promoted into management roles to really deliver results. For me, such programmes are vital when it comes to ensuring managers are truly effective within their roles and are delivering value against the business objectives.
What happens, though, if you don’t have access to formal management training? Perhaps you’re brand new to management, and are yet to have an opportunity to get through the training. Perhaps your organisation doesn’t yet offer a structured management development programme. Regardless, I believe there are a number of small yet critical things which every single one of us can do as a line manager, which will transform the experience of the employees we have responsibility for.
I am open about the fact that I find recruitment simultaneously one of the most frustrating and rewarding parts of my role. Rewarding, because when you get the perfect fit between candidate and role, there is nothing more satisfying. Frustrating, because, despite everything you might hear and read, there is no cast iron guaranteed method of getting to that desired outcome.
It’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? What makes an engaging place to work? How do we design the utopian workplace which maximises employee engagement, and therefore business output?
I was speaking on the phone to a family member yesterday evening. They have recently handed in their notice as they have decided to take early retirement from their role as a senior director within a large, global organisation.
We got onto the subject of exit interviews. They’d asked their HR team whether they were going to have one. Apparently exit interviews were carried out ‘at the discretion of line managers’, without intervention from HR. In any case, the individual in question was apparently unlikely to have one. After all, they were retiring. The reason they were leaving employment was obvious. Where would the value be in spending time undertaking an exit interview?
Now, more than ever, we live in a world where our employees demand to be heard. Read any article you like on the relative virtues and perils of the Millennials now flooding the workforce (and if you want to read one, this one, by Benefex’s very own Gethin Nadin, is a great one to pick), and the theme that comes through loud and clear is that here is a generation who has a voice, and wants it to be heard.
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