Nearly two years on from COVID-19 case zero, many people are starting to seriously reassess their living situation, and the areas of life that they may have some control over, reports Forbes.
Work from home
Initially, the shift to remote working during the pandemic gave many employees, especially highly skilled ones, the opportunity to relocate to regional or more remote areas, as short to medium term business demands didn’t require them to live close by metro areas and head offices of expensive capital cities.
Heading into 2022, the focus has shifted. Having had a taste of working from home, people have realised there is more to life than going to the office every day.
Employee happiness from April 2021 to July 2021 dipped 3 per cent and burnout rose 9 per cent. These results suggest that very few people want to return to pre-pandemic work life. Here are three ways leaders can keep top talent inspired to meet the challenges of the new year and long after.
Continuously listen and act on employee feedback
Remote and virtual teams are becoming more siloed and digital exhaustion is a real, long term threat. Listen to your employees and revisit working conditions and policies. Don’t limit employee sentiment tracking to an annual survey that ticks a box. Instead, embed employee experience and talent management into every stage of the employee lifecycle.
Have a visible process in place that demonstrates to employees that the organization is not only seeking feedback, but acting on it, implementing the change people want to see. Emphasise employee well-being, equity, and transparency across the business.
Rethink workforce practices for the hybrid world
Develop a support network to drive changes based on employee feedback. Humans are more resilient than ever because of what we’ve been through during the last 18 months, but change is still not easy and it’s even more challenging for a distributed workforce.
Hybrid and flexible working will be the norm moving forward. Invest in the right tools to make remote working as seamless and easy as possible for both the end user, and the employees who manage critical business processes. Upskill your managers to adapt to this new way of working so they can help sustain company culture.
Make everyone feel connected and valued ─ no matter where they sit. Evaluate the physical work environment for this new reality as well. Assess office seating and make adaptations to create a more seamless hybrid environment. There are great examples of where this is already happening at scale.
Retain employees with new career paths
Promote opportunities for career development and lateral movement. A change of role and scenery doesn’t have to mean an external move to a new company. Look at programs which offer employees the opportunity to explore a new role they feel may be more meaningful to them.
Offer structured and on-demand learning, shadowing opportunities, or full or part time fellowships to another team or department. If some or all these already exist at your company, make them visible and easy for employees to tap into.
It has taken a global pandemic to force companies to rethink how they recruit and retain top talent. Top performing companies have already implemented and revolutionised the employee experience to hire and retain the best people.
To avoid losing your best people in a competitive talent market, be proactive but be careful not to assume you know what your employees and the business needs to survive and thrive in the future. Now is the time to listen to your workforce and implement change to create the company that your employees are proud to be a part of.
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Source: Forbes
