In a worldwide skills shortage it's important to keep your staff happy. Contented workers tend not to move to greener pastures.
By Sarah Stokely
Hi-tech company Google has become famous, not only for its popular search engine, but as a coveted workplace of choice. It offers leading-edge technology for staff, combined with a relaxed company atmosphere and excellent benefits.
Google provides on-site meals (a perk that can also help keep staff working longer hours), fridges packed with healthy drinks and snacks, as well as in house massage and relaxation areas.
And its '20 per cent time' program is held up as one of its major drawcards. It allows computing engineers to devote 20 per cent of their work time to their own endeavours with the proviso that they may become useful Google projects. The program gives staff room to develop ideas and potentially grow them into new products, such as the highly successful '20 per cent time' project, Gmail.
'It's common knowledge that we have good benefits,' says Google Australia head of engineering Allan Noble. 'But the motivating benefit above and beyond all others is the work itself. You get to work on products that tens of thousands of people will be using. The other benefits are the icing on the cake.'
The challenge of retooling workplace practices to accommodate work / life balance and retain staff is not Australia-specific. The whole Asia-Pacific region is experiencing economic growth and the related pressure on staffing, says Sema Whittle, a senior associate at Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
One Malaysian firm that has won three government awards for its workplace practices and corporate social responsibility is telecommunications company DiGi. Renowned for its futuristic workplace, DiGi's head office at Berhad features a floating desk suspended from the ceiling.
'It captures the essence of our open office where we have open spaces, no permanent desks and no fixed lines,' says DiGi CEO Morten Lundal.
A deliberate move towards a flat organisational structure has brought positive changes to the company. 'There has been greater creativity, sharing of ideas and a much higher levels of motivation and productivity,' Lundal says. 'Our employees appreciate the respect and responsibility we're giving them.'
Work / life balance has become a hot issue for businesses and workers worldwide, and it's a pressure point because in a growing economy marked by record low unemployment, workers are in a strong position to pick and choose between jobs.
Staff turnover particularly of skilled knowledge workers has become a real headache for employers. They need to balance business needs against the desires of their workforce.
According to a survey released in November, 15 per cent of Australian working men are now employed part-time. Commissioned by HSBC, the survey shows that family commitments are changing the way both men and women engage in the workforce.
'This trend demonstrates a positive change that's a winwin situation for families and for business,' says HSBC Australia CEO Stuart Davis. 'On a personal level, we're starting to see fathers work flexible hours so they can spend more time at home, so their partners can invest more in their career and so their children can still have time with their parents.'
Mercer Human Resource Consulting's Whittle says employers are now seeking to insulate themselves from 'talent drain' by looking at ways they can ease staff turnover rates and make it easier to attract and retain talent.
Australia is experiencing a trend towards the corporate world adopting many of the flexible work practices that were previously found mainly in the public sector. 'We're seeing more and more that it's becoming a given that employees expect flexibility from their workplace particularly Gen Ys,' Whittle says.
The banking sector has been moving in this direction for quite some time. ANZ began its 'breakout' cultural transformation program in 2000. It has been adding flexible working policies and perks such as child care and part-time work in an attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors as an employer committed to work / life balance.
And it's not just mothers who are the targets of flexible work policies. St George Bank won the 2007 Australian Human Resources Institute Innovation Award for its Grandparental Leave policy aimed at encouraging older workers to stay in the workforce.
Some workplaces are accommodating families by supplementing the legally required 12 months of unpaid maternity leave by providing some paid leave, or offering part-time work to entice mothers back to the workforce.
HSBC's parental leave policy allows 52 weeks of leave, including 12 weeks' paid leave, to primary care givers, and one week's paid leave to secondary care givers.
The policy has helped HSBC attain an 80 per cent return rate after parental leave.
'We are aiming for 90 per cent,' says HSBC public affairs manager Kate Epworth. Staff are responding favourably to the flexible work policies. 'Our turnover is under finance industry averages and has decreased over the past 18 months since the diversity and flexible working policies were introduced. And absenteeism is at all time lows.'
Allowing staff to salary sacrifice their pay in order to take additional leave is another way employers are adding flexibility, says Whittle.
For example, some companies now allow employees to work four years at 80 per cent pay and then take a year off at the same rate. It's an attractive approach as it can accommodate the lifestyles of a range of employees and their study, family or travel plans.
But flexible working arrangements don't only make staff happy a business can also benefit. Epworth says: 'By increasing the number of employees working part time, we can increase the number of customer contact points in branches and our customer call centre at those times when there is greater customer demand for service.'
Company cultures differ so widely, it's obvious that the working arrangements suitable for one firm and its staff won't be appropriate for others.
When considering how to address staff turnover, it's important for management to understand their current work-place culture, as well as identifying key staff and why they are there. This can help to evaluate staff attrition rates and what the turnover drivers are. This in turn can help to devise appropriate policies for attracting and keeping the best staff.
Although employers often think staff happiness boils down to the amount in their pay packet, Whittle says that remuneration is typically not top of the employee wish list. Just 4 per cent of the 1518 respondents to a recent survey conducted by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers nominated salary as the most important factor when deciding where to work. Most graduates were attracted to the overall reputation of an organisation, followed by training and development opportunities on offer, and long-term career prospects.
Although maintaining a competitive rate of pay and benefits is important, Whittle says employers should be looking at career and development opportunities and work / life balance, particularly to appeal to Gen Y workers. 'These are things that might be harder for competitors to match,' she says. 'Any organisation can match pay.'
Based on Mercer's research employees intending to stay are more likely to:
feel that there are opportunities for continuous learning
feel proud to work for the organisation
have confidence they can achieve their long-term career goals
believe their performance is recognised when they do a good job
feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways to do things
And even when changing jobs, a higher salary usually isn't the main driver. 'A bad boss is the number one reason key people leave,' Whittle says.
Human capital practices aren't just about making employees happy. They must also support business strategy. 'What creates value in one firm may not create value in another,' Whittle says. 'A highly tenured, stable workforce may be critical to success at Cisco Systems, but may not add value at McDonald's or Starbucks.'
Even within a company, staff turnover rates may vary between divisions or departments, and the mechanisms for attracting staff can be different. For example, many client-facing businesses may need to have different policies and practices for keeping call centre staff as opposed to management or IT staff.
'There needs to be an acknowledgement that turnover may be higher in some sections of the business,' Whittle says.
'Within the call centre it may be accepted that if you can keep someone for two years that's a good outcome.'
Some employers are addressing the high turnover typical of call centres by offering part-time work to attract working parents, older workers or students. Providing different types of work within a business, or offering career progression into a leadership role are other ways to keep staff. Whittle concludes: 'The factor that ultimately separates most competitors is their human capital profile and their firm specific practices.'
Reference: February 2008: volume 78:01, p. 46 49
