At the July HR Breakfast Club, Lisa Keeling, Principal Consultant of legal recruiting firm Beaumont&Beaumont, offered intriguing insights into what workers really want from their employers – so that they may be attracted, motivated and retained.
To attract staff, Ms Keeling explained that you must not only understand your own company’s offerings, but that of your competitors. For example, offering flexible working arrangements in a post-COVID world is no longer a “bonus”, but an expectation. Knowing what the market expects is key to attracting the best of the best.
On the flip side, HR practitioners must also understand why staff are leavingtheir organisation. Staff leave jobs because of poor relationships with managers, lack of career prospects, and the feeling of being overworked and undervalued. This makes it crucial for HR managers to understand how to combat these issues to avoid turnover in the first place.
Once you have your staff, keeping them motivated is a continuous task. Staff need to feel valued and appreciated at work and simply offering monetary bonuses is not enough anymore. Research shows that employees are motivated when they are given autonomy over their work and an opportunity to master it, and an overall sense of purpose in what they are doing.
Finally, retaining employees is a more complex issue of workplace culture that can take years to build. The Breakfast Club discussed ideas of how practitioners have implemented cultural change in their own workplaces, and shared tips what to do when you are faced with engrained cultural problems.
To discuss your workplace needs or staffing issues, the Employment Law and Investigations Team are available to help.
To register for future HR Breakfast Club forums, visit our monthly forum page and register to attend.
For further information, please contact our Employment Law & Investigations team at BAL Lawyers.