In today’s competitive market, understanding what your employees and potential candidates want from the workplace is extremely important. After all, you can’t expect to attract or retain individuals who don’t feel their needs are going to be met in your company.
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But how exactly can you access these insights? Well, as a leading job board in the United Kingdom, and a fast-growing job board here in the United States, we regularly survey the nation’s workers to find out more about their attitudes toward key workplace trends.
So, to help you understand what your current and future employees want from the workplace, and how you can facilitate this, read on for our helpful advice, below.
Flexibility
Our recent data found that over half (53.6%) of professionals want to work more flexibly—essentially choosing the time frame that they’d like to work their 8 hours in each day.
Ultimately, this means that the early birds can crack on with their day as soon as possible, and those who struggle in the morning can start later and work into the early evening.
So, consider this: How flexible is your workplace? Do you let your employees work from home or work the hours that suit their personal life?
With more of a focus on workplace well-being, thinking about how you can facilitate flexibility and help your employees to strike the right balance is extremely important.
Work/Life Balance
Furthermore, we recently surveyed professionals on the topic of the “always-on culture” and found that over three-quarters (78.3%) of workers think that this pressure is having a negative effect on professionals.
In fact, 34.9% of workers have access to their work e-mails from their mobile phones, with 62.1% admitting that they access these outside of work. Worse still, 33.4% check their phone for work-related purposes before they go to sleep.
As an employer, you have a duty to look after your teams and ensure that they aren’t overworking themselves to the point of burnout.
Is it necessary for them to work outside of their set hours? Could you recognize the signs of stress, depression, or anxiety in your workplace? What are you doing to manage mental health in the workplace?
This is an extremely important topic right now, so it’s important to ensure you’re doing your bit to support your workforce.
Fair Pay
Not surprisingly, pay continues to be an important element of the job. Our research found that two-thirds of professionals (65.3%) think they’re underpaid—and many would leave their job because of this.
As an employer, it’s important to stay on top of what you’re offering to candidates and ensure that this is in line with industry trends. After all, if you aren’t offering candidates a similar salary to what your competitors are, you won’t stand as good a chance at securing the hire.
What’s more, ensure that you offer annual pay reviews and reward your employees financially when it’s deserved. It’s about not just attracting new people to your business but also retaining existing members of staff.
Career Development
According to our research, nearly half (44.7%) of professionals would change jobs to gain more experience, while 29.6% would do so in a bid to climb the career ladder.
It’s clear then that if you aren’t offering your employees the career development they’re striving for, you risk losing them to another employer.
As such, it’s important to ensure your employees are gaining the support they need to strengthen their skills and climb up the ranks in your company.
Don’t limit your career conversations to once a year—these should be ongoing between managers and their direct reports to ensure that both parties are happy with the progress that’s being made.
Nice Colleagues
Interestingly, our data found that 48.2% of professionals place having friendly colleagues as one of their top career priorities. This ties in nicely with your company culture and the importance of hiring people who are the right fit for your business.
After all, we spend more time with our colleagues than we do with our families and friends, so it’s important that your employees get along with one another and can work harmoniously.
If in doubt, you could invite your team to meet a potential employee before he or she joins to ensure that they get on well with one another.
Understand What Your Employees Want from the Workplace
Hopefully the above will give you some food for thought when it comes to understanding what your employees want from the workplace.
By understanding their key drivers, you’ll stand a better chance of retaining the most talented employees while also boosting your candidate attraction methods.
Augusta Henning is PR Manager for CV-Library and has been writing about career related topics for over six years. She has a passion for communication and enjoys creating all sorts of content for her employer.