Why employees are like consumers and what you can do about it

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Your employees are key to driving the success of your business so it’s vital to understand and engage them. As with anything though, people and practices change so what may have been a motivational tool for employees ten years ago, could pretty much be redundant in 2015.

Co-Director of the Henley Business School Centre for HR Excellence, Professor Nick Kemsley recently spoke out about how today’s talent is more consumer-like than ever before. What does he mean by this however and why does he think that employers should see their staff as consumers?

They’re looking to build their CV – Long-gone are the days where people join a company for life  – employees are thinking long-term and whilst they climb the career ladder, they’re building their portfolio for future positions.

It’s easier to find new prospects – Thanks to emails, online job boards and social recruitment (LinkedIn), it’s easier for employers to find passive candidates than ever before. This means that high quality candidates are more likely to get snapped up by the competition and with flexible and remote working becoming the norm, location is nowhere near as much of a problem as it used to be.

Skills shortage – The current skills shortage means that recruiters are becoming more aggressive about poaching quality employees. They’re not afraid to chase and they’re not afraid to offer a benefits package that is too good to refuse.

In order to attract and retain your employees, you need to ensure that you’re really engaging with their needs. How exactly can you do this however?

Look outwards – Change your HR approach to ensure that it’s looking outwards towards the employee, not inwards towards ‘Core HR’. Ask yourself how many major initiatives you have introduced or used in the last three years that really provide value to your employees.

Your engagement strategy must impact employees daily – Yes it’s great to set long-term objectives but remember that employees work in days and hours, not quarters or years. As well as having your long-term incentives (winning holidays, away days, accruing time off), also set some short-term initiatives that have a daily impact. Anything from dress down days and team lunches to flexible working and daily competitions.

Engage your management team – The managers are often so busy setting these incentives that they themselves get overlooked. If your management team isn’t engaged and appreciated however, how do you expect them to be able to do this for others?

Get employee-specific – One of the biggest mistakes companies make is assuming that all their employees are going to want the same benefits. In order to ensure the greatest success however, there needs to be a genuine interest in the individual employee. A recent graduate just starting their career for example may be more interested in training opportunities whereas someone who has been working for many years and has just become a new parent may value flexible working hours over being bombarded with more training.

If you would like information, advice or help recruiting top talent into your team, please feel free to contact Choralis Consulting and we will be more than happy to help.