Human Resources (3)
Human Resources
Flexible Hours Are What Employees Want
With the Covid-19 pandemic still raging on two years in we are seeing a huge shift in the core desires of employees. You can’t have a worldwide long-term crisis happen and not experience an overhaul of cultural norms. Values have changed. People want different outcomes from life. Most families want to spend more time together now that they got a taste of what life looks like when they actually interact with each other during weeks long lockdowns in the homestead. Working moms and dads realized the priceless experience of seeing their kids for more than a couple hours a day. These new values mean changed demands from the workforce. We already know the demand for remote work has skyrocketed. The companies who are able and have caught on to this trend are seeing steady success. The organizations able to adapt to remote work may not be experiencing the hardship of hiring during ‘the great resignation’ or ‘the great reshuffle’ as CEO of LinkedIn, Ryan Roslansky, has coined it. But what about those industries and organizations that are not able to adapt to a remote work environment? The nature of some operations, whether it be healthcare, manufacturing, retail, etc., simply require in person human interaction. Flexible Hours Survey Results According to a recent New World of Work survey from Workable, 44.9% of businesses plan to go a different route to maintain and retain talent during this new world of working environments. They are implementing flexible scheduling. The data from this survey prompted Workable to do a deep dive into the desire for and feasibility of flexible scheduling by researching the origin of discontent from employees. In comparison to the appeal of remote work, their survey suggests that there is a larger trend – 58.2% of respondents — citing flexibility in their schedule as completely or nearly completely necessary to them. The researchers at Workable wanted to know not only how many people are longing for a flex schedule but also why. According to them 55.8% of US workers say the ease of integrating personal and professional priorities is a major benefit of having a flexible work schedule. 40% of all US families live with children under 18.1 When parents recognize there are companies willing to hire them, pay them a higher wage, AND allow them to schedule work duties around personal life, they are walking out the door… quickly. What can employers do to adapt to this change in demand? How can they stay relevant when their progressive competitors are dangling promises to allow employees to “Do whatever you want?”2 That’s what CEO Dan Price told his employees when he ran the numbers and found that his company would save money by allowing employees the choice on how and when they would work. How Employers Should React The truth of the matter is that our work environment has been upended. If you aren’t on board with adaptation, you will soon start to lose quality talent if you haven’t already. What can companies do to offer flexibility AND keep operations running profitably? LISTEN. Don’t be out of touch with what your employees really desire. Roll out a survey that asks them how you can adjust to their changing values. As the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. Are there any areas where occasional flexibility can be offered? Allowing employees to switch shifts with one another is a great way they can find the time off they need without causing a void in operations. Can your employees flex their lunch time? Can your staff be given extra time in the morning or afternoon hours by starting their shift earlier or staying later? Would it be possible to move a portion of the job to an at home environment? Maybe an employee has administrative duties that can be completed from home one day a week. How about a job share? Many workers are looking for part-time opportunities. Can any of your positions be shared between two workers? A job share likely takes away the cost burden of providing company sponsored benefits and gives the ability to offer the kind of flexibility that many parents are looking for. If flexibility in schedules can absolutely not be offered, something else is going to have to be on the table. Companies may have to ramp up their PTO policy, parental leave opportunities, or offer insanely competitive pay. The basic 8 to 5 simply isn’t going to cut it anymore. Article contribution by Stephanie Mauney, PHR, SHRM-CP
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Human Resources
Relocation Benefits Less Attractive in Remote Era
Just as Covid is changing the nature of work, it’s caused workers and their employers to rethink the meaning of employee relocation and just what kind of benefit it still is. Before 2020, relocation meant geographically reassigning workers as part of a promotion, or because they had special skills needed elsewhere, or to grow the business, or some combination of these. Relocation for new workers meant covering moving expenses and maybe some additional help with housing. Especially overseas relocation was a plum benefit that could be counted on to attract and retain the best talent. Fewer Workers Willing to Relocate Since the pandemic, some of the luster of relocation has worn off. The relocation benefit in a time of labor shortage and remote work isn’t as exciting a benefit as it was just a few years ago. For many workers, accepting a new job across town or across the country doesn’t have to mean relocating and insisting on it could be a deal breaker for the company. According to the 54th Annual Atlas Corporate Relocation Survey, 60% of companies had workers refuse a relocation om 2020. A third of respondent report the number of workers turning down a move has increased from previous years. Why, is hardly a surprise – Covid. “The COVID-19 pandemic eclipsed all other factors impacting relocation last year,” the survey report said. “In 2020, the most frequent reason given by employees declining relocation was health concerns/illness/the COVID-19 pandemic, both overall (52%) and internationally (44%).” That doesn’t mean workers haven’t been relocating. Since the pandemic and increasingly in the last year, workers are relocating on their own, bypassing corporate relocation benefits and policies. Meanwhile, cities and towns, states too, have jumped at the opportunity to lure workers by offering their own relocation benefits. Hints of this can be seen in the Atlas survey. It found a sharp decline (from 52% to 32%) in the percentage of employees declining corporate relocation because of the employment of their spouse or partner. “This shift downward may reflect the impact of higher unemployment levels during the COVID-19 pandemic (fewer dual-income households), as well as flexible work arrangements (telecommuting/work from home) being leveraged by many companies during this time.” Mobility, the relocation trade association’s magazine, pointed out that, “Workforce mobility is no longer just about the relocation of employees. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift toward more remote work, which has become a key aspect of mobility and requires the use of technology to facilitate that increasing aspect of the industry.” The impact of remote work on the relocation industry and corporate relocation benefits was a key topic at the trade association’s conference last fall. “How does the rise of remote work affect who needs to move and why?” was key discussed topic at Worldwide ERC’s Global Symposium. As the relocation industry wrestles with the changes accelerated by the pandemic, companies are worrying about a different type of relocation. Call it remote work’s do-it-yourself relocation benefit. A Harris Poll survey in March 2021 found 11% of the US population moved during the first 12 months of the pandemic to take advantage of options afforded by remote work. “Among those recent movers, three quarters (75%) say they moved for positive reasons, such as being closer to family or friends or living in an area they’ve always dreamed of,” reported Zillow, the digital real estate company that sponsored the survey. Most did that without help or even the knowledge of their employer. That’s causing headaches for corporate managers, says the Society for Human Resource Management. When companies relocate workers they know where they are going and when and how they’ll work. With DIY relocators, companies learn this only after the fact, if at all. “Managers need to know where their employees are working and when they are working, so they can stay in compliance with the laws of the jurisdiction where the employees are doing their,” says the SHRM article. Given the current labor shortage, companies are casting a wide net to attract workers. For many candidates, dangling generous relocation benefits is not much of a lure and may even be a negative. Instead, companies are promoting jobs as being remote; no need to relocate. The number of jobs advertised on Indeed.com doubled in the first year of the pandemic and continues to rise. Cities Now Offering Relocation Benefits Cities, towns and some states are taking advantage of workers newfound mobility, paying them $10,000 or more to relocation. The AARP listed six areas of the country – including the entire of West Virginia – offering relocation benefits. So eager are communities to attract well paid, remote workers that they’re sweetening the deal with all sorts of perks. Move to southwest Michigan and the Move to Michigan program will give a worker $15,000 toward the purchase of a house. And an annual memberships at fitness clubs. And a membership at a driving range. And a coworking space and free car service to the airport. In northwest Arkansas, relocating workers get the $10,000, membership to local cultural organizations and their choice of a bike.
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Human Resources
Remote Work is Changing Performance Evaluations
Performance reviews are no one’s idea of fun, as useful and valuable they may be when done well. But since the Covid pandemic they’ve become a critical tool and a difficult challenge as entire teams are now working entirely remotely. The continuing pandemic has forced companies to adopt new ways of managing workers and maintaining some semblance of corporate culture. Techniques like the famed “management by walking around,” in-person check-ins, stand-ups and informal team lunches and meetings have been radically adjusted if not abandoned in the face of a dispersed workforce connected only by technology. In this new world of work, performance evaluations of remote workers require a different, more consistent, and more frequent approach. Instead of an annual or quarterly review, “Systematic, frequent, and brief reviews focused on task performance, effective feedback and coaching, and guidance in wise decision-making will replace it in organizations that want to survive and thrive in the post-COVID world,” writes behavioral economist and author Dr. Gleb Tsipursky. His advice and that of writers at Fobes, the Harvard Business Review, Reworked and elsewhere echoes what companies have been hearing for years: Performance reviews should be frequent and focused on coaching and goals, and less on critiquing. Remote work has made this more essential and put far greater emphasis on communication and cultural reinforcement. Remote Work Is Killing Old School Reviews “Performance evaluations are one of the strongest anchors and artifacts of your corporate culture,” says Mark Mortensen, associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD. His point is that managers need to communicate the company’s long and short-term goals as part of the evaluation process. “What leaders do and say now in these times is going to be remembered,” he insists. Communication, frequent and both formal and informal is how to hold together a team. Regular communication with every employee was always important. But without those impromptu “water-cooler” conversations, managers must make an intentional and deliberate effort to speak regularly with each of their reports. “Don’t allow remote workers to operate within an information vacuum — you might need to communicate (or even over-communicate) far more than you did previously. Remember, the goal of a performance review is to improve performance by influencing behavior,” says Paycor’s Guide to Conducting Remote Performance Reviews. The tendency is to still think of a performance review as a formal, once a year structured event documenting (almost always imperfectly) a worker’s performance, often by assigning numeric scores. That old school approach didn’t work so well when workers were mostly all in one place. Gallup made that clear reporting, “Traditional performance reviews and approaches to feedback are often so bad that they actually make performance worse about one-third of the time.” Remote Work Check-ins With a distributed workforce toiling off site, the traditional approach is replaced with short, frequent conversations as brief as a 15-minute weekly check-in. That shouldn’t be the only conversation of the week, but it should be the one not sacrificed for convenience. “Schedule uninterrupted time without distractions to ensure the employee knows he/she is the priority during that window of time,” says Jennifer Preston, HR consultant at FlexHR. If this advice about performance evaluations for remote workers sounds so much like basic good management, it is. It’s effective even for organization that still cling to the practice of annual reviews. Managers who regularly communicate with their team members, check in with them formally, and note their achievements and accomplishment will have a strong record to rely on when the yearly evaluations are due. But even better, they’ll also have a successful team of remote workers. Contribution by John Zappe
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Human Resources
The Great Resignation Wave
The Great Resignation Wave became a meme in 2021 and is poised to stay in the news as we head into 2022. There are lots of reasons for this trend. And after holiday bonuses are paid out in the new month the resignation will become even bigger, experts predict. A new report from GoodFirms, entitled “Who Can Stop This Unstoppable Great Resignation?” uncovers the reasons for the mass exodus of employees in the as the pandemic continues. The research reveals some of the most shocking trends and employee work-life metrics leading to the great reshuffling. “Pandemic’s greatest impact on the business world was ‘shift to remote work.’ The pandemic afforded unprecedented flexibility. People accustomed to it cannot fathom returning to work from office mode. Therefore, inflexible employers are struggling to keep up their workforce.” says GoodFirms. Quit Rates Driving Resignation Wave Their research also iterates how the attrition rate has increased in the pandemic era, with most employees quitting voluntarily. 4.4 million quit in September. This wave shows no signs of slowing. Life shocks, acquiring new skills, desire for upward mobility, and changed priorities are some of the elements driving the great resignation. The research also dives deep into how vaccine mandates from employers and fear of infection are affecting employee psychology. The research concludes with a commentary on how the great revolution mirrors the worker’s revolution in the newfound world. Employers that wish to retain their workforce will have to go the extra mile to survive amidst the biggest turnover in the modern business environment. Companies will have to restructure their compensation plans, rethink recruitment, invest in the human resource management systems (HRMS), strategize employee well-being programs, implement flexible work models, and allow employees space to create a better work-life balance. A Great Re-imagination “Whatever the trigger may be for this great resignation, the market will soon witness an improvement in the work world, and workers are likely to bring the best out of them, crafting a career that best fits their lives. It is surely a great re-imagination,” concludes GoodFirms. Here’s the key takeaways from the GoodFirms data: Pandemic changed employee perception and compelled employees to rethink their priorities. 33.7% of employees still want WFH(Work from Home) 21.2% of employees are planning to quit their jobs while 29.8% are not sure about it 37.50% of employees fear infection while working from the office 21.1% of employees think their current salaries are not enough 25.9% of employees remain discontent with their increments and promotions 21.1% are not happy with career development opportunities 19.2% of employees are indignant about their managers’ role and behavior towards them. 30.7% of employees cited frequent stress and work-related burnout 23.08% of employees are struggling with mental depression 17.31% of employees think they can do better if they leave the current job There is a sudden talk about the flexibility in work hours, mental health, and well-being equations. Workers are craving flexibility in jobs. Prospective hires and employees are now negotiating more easy-to-handle work hours and shunning companies with a rigid job hour policy. If you can’t offer flexibility in your roles you are going to lose out on the best talent. Other data shows that many employees are also quitting to work for themselves. Since 2018, new business applications filed per week averaged 67,000, but that number has skyrocketed to 100,000 new business applications per week since June 2021. A lot of folks want to take control of their lives and be their own boss. I expect employers to do the following in 2022 to help counteract the resignation wave; Increase salaries and hourly wages for incoming workers while also incentivizing employees to stay. Increase flexible work options, such as hybrid, fully remote or flexible hours for new hires and existing staff. Increase recruitment advertising around job vacancies. Chief People Officer, Amy Zimmerman of Relay Payments told me that she thinks the biggest challenge with hiring right now is that there are so many companies doing it. Strong candidates have more options now than they probably ever have before. Employer brand has never been so important and differentiating. Hiring teams need to approach the process by putting their best foot forward — there’s no margin for error. The companies who present strongest will attract the best candidates. She thinks the challenges will continue into this year. “As long as the job market is as hot as it is and companies aren’t doing the work it takes to retain, the struggle remains. Companies who are intentional about their cultures, invested in their peoples career growth, and differentiating in the market are generally not the ones losing above average number’s of team members.” The pandemic has taught them a lesson about controlling your career path. I think this period is a sea-change in the mindset of job seekers. Of course a recession could put the brakes on that but even if we get a slowdown, I don’t think job flexibility is going to disappear from job hunters radar. It’s the next great benefit.
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Human Resources
Companies Plan Biggest Salary Increase In Years
Beset by rising inflation and hiring difficulty, companies are poised to give workers the largest salary increase in 14 years. The Conference Board is projecting an average salary increase of 3.9% for 2022, the largest since a similar hike in 2008. “Faster growth in wages for new hires and accelerating inflation are the main causes of the jump in salary increase budgets in recent months,” said Gad Levanon, the Conference Board’s vice president for labor markets, in an announcing the results this month. The forecast comes from a survey last month of 240 compensation executives at the nation’s largest companies. They were asked what they were budgeting and what they were projecting for salary increases in the coming year. Six months ago, they reported planning for a 3% average rise. But as the labor shortage continued to worsen, businesses were forced to boost new hire pay to attract workers. The most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows job openings went from a seasonally adjusted 6.4 million in January to 10.1 million in October. In the two decades the Bureau has tracked job openings, only the 10.7 million openings recorded in July was higher. At the same time, unemployment has plunged from a pandemic high of 14.2% in April 2020 to 4.0% in November. Salary Increases To Remain at High Levels Saying “It is likely that severe labor shortages will continue through 2022,” Levanon anticipates that, “Overall wage growth is likely to remain well above four percent. Wages for new hires, and workers in blue-collar and manual services jobs will grow faster than average.” In addition, with no sign of a slowdown in inflation, Levanon predicts cost-of-living adjustments will increase. “In this environment, the upward momentum for salary increase budgets is likely to continue into early 2022.” Mercer, a global human resources consulting firm, estimates a more modest salary increase of 3.5%. Like the Conference Board, Mercer, too, upped its estimate from an August survey when the salary increase came in at 3.3%. Even that forecast, the result of surveying some 950 employers in October, may turn out to be low, Mercer suggests. “The reality is that these numbers may still change, particularly with the economic uncertainty surrounding Omicron.” “Pressures have continued to mount over the past several months with both inflation and quit rates being at 20-year highs. This has resulted in many employers taking a harder look at compensation plans for 2022.” Bonuses and Merit Pay Increases to Remain And, in fact, Mercer found that the percentage of employers increasing their merit pay budgets by 3.5% or more doubled since August, going from 13% to 27%. The percentage of employers increasing their bonus payouts by 10% or more is 24% higher than in 2020. With the labor shortage and rising inflation, Mercer says “employee expectations are still running high… the tough reality is, at the moment, most employees would likely have no trouble finding a new role – and likely command a premium for job switching.” To limit attrition and be competitive when recruiting workers, Mercer advises employers to: Prioritize their hourly workforce – “Our research has shown that this is the segment of the workforce driving the continued attrition in the workforce — and wages are moving fast.” Address gaps in merit pay – “Organizations should ensure that their merit budgets are sufficient enough to close gaps in competitiveness — and also ensure that the budget is distributed where it’s most needed.” More than pay – “While pay matters, a lot, in many cases it’s when the broader employee experience falls short that employees will start to shop their options.” One other survey, this one from Empsight International, found the average salary increase to be 3.7% with half of the responding companies budgeding more than 3.5% and half less. 2022 Salary Predictions Emspight forecast merit pay increases to average 3.25%. Here, half of the 122 responding companies budgeted less than 3% and half budgeting more. Commenting on 2022 salary increases, Angelo Kostopoulos, CEO of the business data and survey development firm Akron Inc., told The Washington Post, “Companies now see inflation as something they’re going to have to deal with for the next several years. If you combine that with the Great Resignation, plus a heavy focus on technology and related skills, I think that’s where a lot of your overall budget planning increases are coming from.” Contributions by John Zappe
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Human Resources
Mental Health Benefits Are a Recruiting Edge
Well before the Covid pandemic, the importance of mental health benefits was becoming apparent to both employers and workers. Employers expanded coverage and began offering stress reduction and access to mental health counselor and other programs as part of the growing focus on workplace wellness. Still, as late as 2019, mental health benefits were only just moving from perk to benefit, as an article on the Society for Human Resource Management website said. Now, mental health benefits have gone from “from a nice-to-have to a true business imperative,” write two CEOs in the Harvard Business Review. Citing data from surveys conducted in 2019 before Covid and again in 2021, the authors report a rise in mental health related attrition, especially among millennial and Gen Z workers. Mental Health Challenges Among Employees The pandemic, the authors observe, has exacerbated stresses of all types. “Mental health challenges are now the norm among employees across all organizational levels.” Employers have responded by improving and broadening their mental health programs. Reporting on how businesses responded to the mental health impacts of the pandemic, the Kaiser Family Foundation said, “The social and economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have placed an unprecedented level of stress on people all over the world. Many employers took steps to assist employees and family members facing these stresses.” In a survey of companies with more than 50 workers, the Foundation found that 39% have made changes to their mental health benefits since the start of the pandemic. Among firms with more than 200 employees, 49% made improvements: 5% increased coverage for out-of-network services 8% waived or reduce the cost to employees for these services 17% developed new resources such as an EAP program. By far the most popular change was to expand access to mental health and substance abuse services: 36% of business under 200 employees and 43% of larger ones added new services such as telehealth and direct access to counselors. Mental Health Benefits Often Limited These resources, most often through online mental health providers, supplement the often limited coverage in typical employer health plan. For example, Learn to Live is an online provider that uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help employees with anxiety, depression and some other mental health issues. Clinicians conduct live coaching sessions and access is 24/7. Another online service, Talkspace matches users with licensed mental health workers for therapy, medication, assessment and healthy living support. Citi, Lionsgate and the LPGA are among the company’s customers. Lyra Health works with companies like eBay and Morgan Stanley offering a broad range of mental health services. Employees can work online or in-person with a therapist. Therapists are also available to work with individuals and groups of employees on-sire. Coaching for short-term support, medication and supportive mental health tools are also available. Since Covid, the numbers of employees using mental health benefits has increased by double-digit percentages. The Kaiser survey found that overall, companies have seen a 12% increase in the number of workers taking advantage of these services. At companies with more than 1,000 employees, 38% more workers are taking advantage of the mental health benefits their employer provides. Despite the attention employers are giving to mental health benefits, workers say it’s not enough. An October Calm for Business survey of 3,000 full-time workers found 40% feel their employer hasn’t done enough to support their mental health. Ironically, workers are hesitant about taking advantage of even the simplest of self-care. The Calm survey found three-quarters didn’t take a metal health or sick day in the last month even though they knew they should have. With just a little encouragement from management, 78% said they’d find time during the workday to take a mental health break. Perhaps the most telling point for employers is the importance of mental health benefits in recruiting: 76% of workers in the Calm survey said metal health benefits are one of the critical factors they consider in evaluating a new job. Contributions by John Zappe
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Human Resources
Employee Burnout Is on the Rise
Workers are feeling more burned out than they have in years and the Covid pandemic is why. A survey by the job search site Indeed.com of 1,500 workers found 52% of them reporting feelings of burnout. That’s up from 43% in a similar survey in January 2020, two months before Covid caused the shutdown of most businesses worldwide. In October, a broader survey by the American Psychological Association found a third of all Americans feel so stressed by the pandemic they sometimes struggle to make even the simplest of decisions. “Pandemic stress is contributing to widespread mental exhaustion, negative health impacts and unhealthy behavior changes — a pattern that will become increasingly challenging to correct the longer it persists,” said Arthur C. Evans, Jr., the organization’s CEO. Difficulty making decisions, along with a loss of motivation, a higher level of irritability, tiredness, difficulty concentrating and other behavior changes are all among the classic symptoms of employee burnout. Employees Feeling the Stress The World Health Organization describes employee burnout as a “syndrome” characterized by: “Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and Reduced professional efficacy.” While research and personal experience tells us we all have feelings of job stress from time to time, Covid has made employee burnout worse. Two-thirds of workers in the Indeed survey blame the pandemic for worsened those feelings. Over the years, research by Gallup, Deloitte and others found that lack of recognition and management support, consistently long hours and an unmanageable workload were the leading causes of employee burnout. Those same reasons – especially feeling overworked — are behind the stress employees are feeling now. Concerns over health (25%) and finances (33%) are adding to it, according to the Indeed survey. Employee Burnout Syndrome Those working remotely are more likely than their counterparts working onsite to feel Covid’s effect on employee burnout more strongly. 38% of remote workers says burnout has worsened since the pandemic, compared to 28% of those who worn onsite. One reason for the difference could be that those working from home have a harder time stepping away from work. While both virtual and onsite workers report putting in longer hours, 61% of those working remotely say they find it more difficult than ever to unplug from work. Among onsite workers, 53% find it harder to unplug when they leave the office. And regardless of whether they work remotely or onsite, if they have access to office communications on their phones, 8-in-10 say they’re more likely to work after hours. No employer can afford to ignore the impact of employee burnout. The World Economic Forum a few years ago estimated the cost of burnout at $335 billion globally. Stanford researchers put the cost of workplace stress on the U.S. healthcare system at $190 billion. Gallup estimates burned out, disengaged workers cost companies $3,400 out of every $10,000 in lost productivity, absenteeism, retention and medical expenses. Employers can reduce employee burnout by emphasizing the importance of work-life balance and backing that up by limiting after hours work and encouraging employees to take time off. Better than a third of workers told Indeed that more time off, greater flexibility in scheduling and remote work would all help ease employee burnout. Gallup detailed a more comprehensive approach in Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures. The report proposes three broad strategies for companies: Emphasize wellbeing in the company culture; educate manager to identify signs of burnout and equip them to prevent it, and improve the employee experience. Echoing the Gallup recommendations, Indeed concludes its report with this advice for employers: “Awareness of the employee experience can help you develop an action plan to mitigate feelings of burnout, prevent costly churn and protect workers from burnout in a post-pandemic future.” Contribution by John Zappe
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Human Resources
Reskilling Your Employees
What does it say about an organization when the employees are more pessimistic about their chances to find a new job within their current company? According to the Career Mobility Outlook recently published by Ranstad RiseSmart, workers are unsure of or don’t know how they can advance their skills internally. That’s bad news for people who want to learn more. According to the report; These findings are in direct contrast with employer sentiment, which found that 95% of organizations are looking to hire, including promoting from within, to fill existing job openings: 68.4% of employers are optimistic about filling open roles with current employees, down 11% from Q2. By contrast, only one third (30.3%) of employees said they are likely to opt for an internal job change, while those who were likely to make an external job change dropped even further to one-fifth (20.6%) of all respondents, indicating that the pace of “The Great Resignation” of employees leaving their jobs for external opportunities may be slowing. This conundrum is why you are seeing more applicant tracking systems improve their internal job boards for their existing employees. The “reskilling” of the workplace needs to become a bigger priority for C-suite leaders. Employers and Employees Not Aligned on Reskilling Sometimes referred to as ‘upskilling’, reskilling means teaching your employees new skills so they can take on a new role inside your organization. Ranstad’s report says only forty-three percent (43%) of workers are optimistic about finding new roles internally. Thats down 10% from the previous quarter. Internal talent teams seem to do a poor job of promoting these roles inside company walls. Employees are also doubtful their manager will let them move anyway so that is another obstacle in the way. Employees see skepticism about their about the ability to find internal positions but in the report, employers “overwhelmingly said they plan to fill existing job openings through internal mobility, with 71% of employers saying they plan to fill 10-50% of open jobs internally, a percentage that is relatively unchanged since the first quarter of 2021.” The “Career Mobility Outlook” report also shows some major disconnects exist between employees and employers regarding reskilling and career path development. 73.5% of employers believe they are offering their employees such internal opportunities. However, only 52.3% of employees agree with this sentiment. This disconnect is even larger within specific industries, such as financial services. “Individuals are telling us that they want to learn new skills to be able to grow and develop their careers, and businesses want to train their employees so they can advance within the company. But for some reason, they can’t get on the same page,” said Dan Davenport, CEO at Randstad RiseSmart. “Our goal is to help organizations and their workers realize that they both want the same thing and provide them with the career coaching expertise and tools to build agile workforces that benefit individuals and the organization.” Benefits of Reskilling Investing in your people through reskilling has a number of benefits that can’t be ignored. Especially in the tight labor that exists today. In the short term you save time and money but in the long term you can strengthen your brand as a great place to work while increasing retention. 1. Reskilling Reduces Hiring Costs Before you can hire you have to advertise, source, interview and more. That process is expensive and takes time. When you initiate reskilling for your workforce you can avoid those expenses and long time horizons. Thus you free up other recruiting resources to focus on more important projects. 2. Reskilling Boosts Talent Attraction Companies that invest in their employees are ones that people want to work. Wouldn’t you like to be a ‘company of choice’ among potential job seekers? Reskilling shows candidates that you value them and that always moves the needle when it comes to talent attraction. Workers who can learn will tell their friends and your employer brand will become more attractive once reskilling is in place. Make it part of your company culture. 3. Reskilling Equals Retention Those employees who feel valued will stay longer and in a world where job hopping is rampant that’s a good thing for employers. As the pandemic starts to fade, most job seekers want more out of their lives including what they do for a living. Recognizing that fact will only make your company better at talent acquisition in this new era. In conclusion, your company’s reskilling effort will be most effective if your team embraces a learning culture. It has to start from the top down. Will it take time to build this out? Yes but I don’t think today’s employers have a choice. The war for talent is in full effect and shows no signs of letting up.
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Human Resources
Soft Skills In the Workplace
Soft skills in the workplace have become as important as technical skills, and many employers say they’d hire and promote someone with excellent communication skill over a more technically abled candidate whose soft skills don’t measure up. “Having the right experience and technical skills for a job is not enough,” says Emmett McGrath, president of the staffing and outsourcing company Yoh. “Job candidates also need to fit in culturally and have non-technical skills in order to success.” A survey Yoh commissioned found 75% of the 2,000 respondents would hire a candidate with soft skills even if they had less than the desired experience or qualifications. Importance of Soft Skills That echoes the importance recruiters place on soft skills in the workplace, according to Linkedin’s Global Talent Trends 2019. 92% of 5,000 talent professionals across 35 countries said soft skills “matter as much or more than hard skills when they hire, and 80% say they’re increasingly important to company success.” It’s not just white collar workers who benefit from have strong soft skills in the workplace. A research team led by Namrata Kala, MIT Sloan economics professor, conducted a year-long soft skills training program at a garment manufacturing factory. Eight months after it ended, productivity improvement and gains from quicker problem solving and better attendance returned 250% on the investment in training. Though surveys and employers often use different names or labels for the same types of soft skills, they all agree on the core important soft skills in the workplace: Communication, both listening as well as speaking and often writing Teamwork, collaboration, cooperation all mean the same: the ability to work smoothly with others. Adaptability. Employers want workers who can adjust quickly to changing circumstances and who can figure out how to that. Creativity is the ability to think of better or unique ways to solve problems or improve efficiency; out of the box thinking. Interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence. Both are used to describe the ability to get along with people and understand them on an emotional level. Since Covid, employers are placing an even greater emphasis on adaptability and resilience, adding them to the list of the more important skills in the workplace. A Lever report said the pandemic, which forced companies to make changes overnight, made adaptability even more prized than it was in the past. Communication Skills Most Wanted Good communication skills, long a recruiting priority, are still one of the top skills employers want. Companies also seek creative thinkers and workers with good emotional intelligence, skills that LinkedIn tells us are in short supply, but high demand. While all surveys agree on the importance of soft skills in the workplace, as a group, managers are most invested in improving their soft skills and learning new ones. A survey of learning and development professionals and managers discovered that managers spend 30% more time than the average employee learning soft skills. That survey also found two-thirds of Gen Z workers spent more learning last year than they did in the past and their rate of participation in learning was higher than every other worker age group. Much of their emphasis was on learning hard skills, compared to older workers who were more focused on improving their soft skills. That may be a consequence of age. Younger workers have simply had less job experience and time to learn technical skills and expand their range. Yet, as Tanya Staples, VP of product and content for LinkedIn Learning, says, “Companies today want employees that can solve difficult challenges and dream up creative and innovative ideas that technologies cannot replicate.” Contribution by John Zappe
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