How companies successfully master the challenges of the new world of work
Attracting and retaining qualified employees over the long term is a major challenge for any company as the skills shortage hits home. The key to success is to create a corporate culture that recognizes employees’ needs and offers them a positive “work experience.” Technology provides the right foundation and opens up tremendous opportunities for companies.
The shortage of skilled workers has long been a problem for employers. They are under enormous pressure to find qualified personnel and to retain them in the long term. The pandemic has only exacerbated the situation over the past two years. Covid-19 and the associated telecommuting have changed conditions and the way we look at the way we want to work.
For many, the traditional workplace is simply outdated. Work should now be able to take place anywhere. With more home offices and new work models, other values such as flexibility are coming to the fore.
Alarming numbers
Employees’ needs have changed and companies need to act because the situation is really dire. This is evidenced by astonishing and almost shocking facts from the recent study “Resign, Resigned or Re-signed?“. This study was commissioned by UKG from Morning Consult and conducted in six countries. The goal was to better understand workers’ reasons for quitting since the start of the pandemic and to learn HR managers’ associated perceptions.
According to the survey, nearly half of workers (46%) have already regretted their resignation – which occurred during the pandemic. One in five who resigned even said they had not actively looked for a new job.
Remarkably, less than half of all job changers received a pay raise at their new job. One in five respondents even had to take a pay cut to get a new job. What’s wrong here?
The big rethink
The survey shows a big disconnect in how managers and employees perceive a layoff. Many HR managers don’t seem to recognize the real reasons for a termination. And they believe they are working hard to keep their employees from leaving. Employees, on the other hand, believe that companies overstate the effort they put into it.
If many employees didn’t want to leave for money, what are companies doing wrong? There are several criteria that make workers want to switch: Lack of appreciation for their work, feeling they don’t belong, dissatisfaction with management or a poor corporate culture were factors mentioned by the participants.
A rethink must take place, “The Great Rethink.” The concept of work-life balance falls too short. It is not just about separating life and work but also about the life that workers lead.
Special times require special solutions
But what specifically should companies do to retain qualified employees instead of painstakingly searching for new ones?
The answer is to find new ways to keep employee satisfaction at a good level right from the start. After all, that’s the aim of retaining them for the long term. The key to success is to create a culture that offers employees a positive “work experience.”
To do this, employers must personalize the employee experience, taking the time and effort to understand individuals and consider their needs, goals and (development) opportunities. In this way, they make people feel valued.
And they can do this with the right technology. UKG’s solutions and services and philosophy of delivering “life-work technology” helps managers achieve these goals.
The AI-powered solutions help anticipate and meet the needs of their employees in terms of preferred job roles and working hours.
Excellent performance
UKG’s HR and workforce management solutions not only help more than 70,000 companies worldwide, across all industries. But they have also been recognized as market-leading HCM solutions by global technology research and advisory firm, Gartner, Inc.-. The company even achieved a score of 4.1 out of a possible 5 in the Gartner Peer Review.
ISG, another independent market research and advisory firm, has also confirmed UKG’s position as a market leader for Human Resources solutions (https://isg-one.com/articles/ukg-advances-its-life-work-tech-vision-key-highlights-from-ukg-connections-conference-2021): “UKG stands out among its peers in its ability to bring deep insights and tried and proven practices, enabled by a single modern technology platform.”
Conclusion
The new way of working in its various manifestations is here to stay. On the corporate side, there is an urgent need for action to prevent valuable employees from leaving and to attract and retain new talent. A modern corporate culture is a prerequisite for this, as is the right technology that provides the framework for it or makes it possible in the first place.
Appropriate tools help employers to take into account and leverage specific employee needs and skills. This enables them to offer employees more flexibility in their work and makes them more attractive.
Also, companies can focus more on day-to-day business and their own core competencies. And they are able to increase their own competitiveness and successfully hold their own in the market in the future.
Find out how UKG’s Life-Work Technology can help you successfully master the challenges surrounding the new world of work. And download the white paper here.
Source cover image: Adobe Stock / Andrey Popov
