The latest advice to boost retention is one that might not have been on HR departments’ radar. It is one that would however get your IT and Facility Management excited. A Gartner study (Predictions 2017) has shown that employees offered to create their own workplace (CYOW) would boost retention rates with a staggering 10%. There is a simple explanation: “Employees are more engaged if they have autonomy in how, when and where they get their work done” (Gartner, 2016).
So what does it involve? Well first and foremost, at its most simple application it would mean introducing flexible working patterns. This could include a mind shift towards output evaluation rather than demanding workforce to be present at certain times of the day (what they do, not when they do it). Flexible working will often help to retain talented individuals to give their best performance whilst also juggling other demands or interests. It suits people at different life stages or with different life/work motivations. We shouldn’t underestimate the need given that we are in an era where most businesses will host from generation z to baby boomers in their workforce. Flexible working has been a successful contributor to achieving a diverse workforce, an important factor in boosting innovation and overall business performance.
Agile working goes however beyond this measure of flexible working patterns. It includes also more and more creatively thinking through the physical working environment. Hipster style environments, first promoted by the likes of Google, Apple and Facebook and widely adopted by most start-ups and technology companies, are rightly becoming more considered by more conventional businesses too. They might not go as far as introducing slides, sleeping pods, hot Yoga or jam session rooms, though sterile open plan offices are gradually making room for a variety of new set ups. These include hot desking, meeting pods, and living room style seating and eating areas. This doesn’t need to break the bank if the likes of National Citizenship Service Trust can do it. Some companies have adopted design thinking more radically and set out a challenge for staff to design their own workplace, allocating a budget so they can act as interior designers and go furniture and paint shopping. “Employees react well when user experience design practices common in B2C are employed to institutionalize an employee-centric priority and point of view., 2016 ” Effra consult is a huge advocate of adopting human centre design to boost engagement and business performance. CYOW is a prime example of employee centricity at its best.
Physical working environments are incredibly important, as they are symbolic for the culture and the values of an organisation. Many offices at Dentsu Aegis, a global media and advertising company, have been redesigned to reflect their values and collaborative, high networked operating model, which is a key strategic differentiator and has allowed them to outperform the market competition in recent years by a factor greater than 2. Millennials and Gen Z make up a considerable portion of the workforce and are in particular sensitive for culture alignment between what the company stands for, says and ends up doing. Working environments are a powerful symbol to back up your vision and values and make them experienced, tangible , real in everyday work life.
Finally, agile working also involves thinking through the digital working environment.
“Personal technologies have assumed unprecedented levels of importance in people’s lives. No longer is technology the magic that appears on their desk in the office; it’s now carried by nearly everybody wherever they go.” Gartner, 2016. For many it is seen as a nuisance if their employer provides them with a set of additional devices to use. Companies with a technology allowance policy give employees the opportunity to bring their own devices and allocate an allowance instead of equipping them with a mobile and laptop or pc. This is yet another example where employing user experience design practices, common in B2C, help to institutionalize an employee-centric priority and point of view, which is one of the core tenets of the digital workplace. This might still be more challenging to make happen in very strict regulated environments such as financial services, though there is an increasing availability of software, which should be known to the IT department, that focuses on avoiding compliance issues becoming the blocker to agile working practices.
In summary, providing employees to create their own workplace in terms of:
working hours
physical
and digital
work environment, are not to be underestimate factors in creating your appeal to these talented individuals you like to attract and keep in your organisation. They are a symbol of your culture and, paid attention to, will boost your retention and business performance. This is an excellent opportunity for a cross functional HR, IT, Facilities working team to show their direct impact on the bottom line.
Bibliography/ References:
Predicts 2017: Boosting Business Results Through Personal Choice in the Digital workplace 2016 14 November 2016 ID: G00298881 – gartner
Analyst(s): Paul Miller, Nikos Drakos, Carol Rozwell, Matthew W. Cain, Jeffrey Mann, Jim Murphy, Mike Gotta, Adam Preset, Gavin Tay
© 2019 Effra Consult LTD