Today’s workforce want more than a good wage to remain loyal to their employers. It’s time businesses deliver on purpose and growth opportunities or lose your best workers, warns Neal Woolrich, Director of HR Advisory at Gartner.

Today’s headlines suggest that organisations are at war with their employees. Against a backdrop of economic woe and mass layoffs, talented workers continue to quit their jobs in droves.

Some blinkered managers will argue that employees are simply chasing higher wages, but post-pandemic workers want more from their employer, full-stop. Many have developed a new sense of self-awareness and worth and won’t easily forget if they were made to feel undervalued at work.

Short-term tactics such as salary increases and bonuses won’t solve these retention issues.

Organisations who want to truly engage with their employees must instead look at long-term strategies that will ensure staff feel both fulfilled and valued.

A personal approach is key

People are continuing to ask themselves questions such as:

• What makes me happy and whole?
• What truly satisfies me?
• Where have I given away too much of myself for little return?

The last three years were a catalyst to elevate personal purpose and values. Unfortunately, while 82 per cent of employees say it’s important for their organisation to see them as a person, not just an employee, only 45 per cent of employees believe their organisation actually sees them this way.

This translates into soul-searching over whether one feels valued in their work or whether they are merely creating outcomes and value to benefit others. Dissatisfaction with the answers increases employees’ intent to leave a job.

The impact of the pandemic continues

The events of the past three years, coupled with today’s economic and political volatility, has forced everyone to examine their choices about how they spend their time, energy and social capital.

Employees seek to gain more value from their jobs. Gartner calls this ‘The Human Deal’, which has five components:

• Deeper connections: Feeling understood through family and community connections, not just work relationships.
• Radical flexibility: Feeling autonomous in all aspects of work, not just when and where it gets done.
• Personal growth: Feeling valued through growth as a person, not just as a professional.
• Holistic wellbeing: Feeling cared for by ensuring holistic wellbeing offerings are used, not just available.
• Shared purpose: Feeling invested in the organisation by taking concrete action on purpose, not just through corporate statements.

It’s not just about the money

Let’s start with compensation. Employees are growing more sensitive to pay disparities. However, pay is far from the only motivator.

People want acknowledgement and growth opportunities and to feel valued, trusted and empowered. Frontline workers, in particular, desire to feel respected. Employees increasingly want to bring their authentic selves to work.

Bottom line: People seek purpose in their lives, including work. The more an employer limits those things that create this sense of purpose, the less likely employees will stay at their positions. The era of the employment contract, where a worker provided services purely in exchange for monetary compensation, is over. Now, employees expect deeper relationships, a strong sense of community and purpose-driven work.

Updating your Employee Value Proposition

Gartner research shows that a human-centric approach, which provides people with more control over their work and work environment, also makes them more productive. But it requires employers to rethink their approach. As with all fundamentally transformative strategies, this will take strategic commitment, leadership, culture development and thoughtfully applied technology.

Both leaders and employees must incorporate new norms and behaviours for enterprise culture that support the new reality.

For example, leaders and managers will need to focus on eliciting sustainable performance without compromising long-term health, through practices such as proactive rest — helping employees maintain their emotional resilience and performance, as opposed to taking recovery after both have plummeted. This may show up as mandated PTO (paid time off) before high-demand working periods, no-meeting Fridays, allotted wellness time and manager goals for team PTO.

This is an overall shift in performance management, which is moving beyond just measuring employees’ outcomes to reflect more context and empathy.

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https://www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au/how-quiet-hiring-benefits-both-organisations-and-employees/