Your Business Risks in an Economic Downturn
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Without a thorough evaluation of its business model, any manufacturer can be severely threatened by an economic downturn. While devising creative solutions to keep your business running despite unfavorable economic conditions, keep in mind that changes to your business can result in changes to your liability exposure.
Facing Your Supply Chain
It’s no secret that the financial security of your business hinges on that of your partners, vendors and suppliers and that in tough times, everyone is looking for a way to cut costs.
Never rely on the insurance coverage of your business partners to protect your assets or protect against third-party liability claims. In the event of financial insolvency, a business’s upstream partner organizations could eventually be held liable for claims filed against it. However, healthy, well-insured partner organizations are no substitute for comprehensive liability coverage for your business.
Ultimately, in order to protect your company it may be a smart long-term investment to expand your coverage limits. While many businesses may opt to cut costs by lowering their coverage, dropping coverage could result in paying out of pocket for an expensive claim caused by suppliers’ shortcomings. If you are involved in outsourcing or are considering this option to mitigate costs, first talk to RISQ Consulting about covering the associated risks.
Verify Contracts
In a turbulent economic climate, it is more important than ever to have thorough, seamless contracts. They should clearly outline the obligation of each party and discuss dispute resolution policies so that if something goes wrong, you avoid a messy and expensive disagreement.
It is never a good business decision to sign a contract hastily, but especially in difficult economic times be sure to look into all the risks and legal ramifications. Small companies who partner with larger companies are often strong-armed into making decisions with which they are not completely comfortable.
When you experiment with new products or services, you will inevitably face a learning curve, which puts you at a larger risk of facing product liability claims.
Making Changes
In many cases, change is the best way of reacting to an economic crisis. It allows you to explore and exploit new customer bases and offer additional products or services. While expanding in either of these ways can revolutionize your business and keep you afloat in tough times, it could also expose you to additional liability.
When you experiment with new products or services, you will inevitably face a learning curve, which puts you at a larger risk of facing product liability claims. You may want to consider purchasing additional lines of coverage to protect yourself, as your surplus lines insurance policy may only cover claims arising from one particular product.
By the same token, shifting or expanding your client base may put you at risk of unexpected class action lawsuits. The same product or service may evoke disparate reactions in different sectors of the market. This is another instance in which it is important to be covered for potential liabilities resulting from a change in your business. Contact RISQ Consulting today to be sure your plan for escaping an economic downturn unscathed does not backfire.
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Hiring Trends Are Pushing Employers to Focus on the Employee Experience
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Employers have been forced to navigate and respond to several challenges over the last few years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a tight labor market, rising health care costs, inflation and a potential recession. These challenges have pushed many organizations and their employees to their limits. According to a recent survey from management consulting firm McKinsey, more than half of business leaders say their organizations are not prepared for future economic and geopolitical challenges.
Workforce changes are now impacting employers in 2023. Organizations are posting fewer job openings, extending fewer offers and prioritizing best-quality hires. As a result, employers are shifting from prioritizing growth to focusing on hiring key talent. However, many organizations have failed to find effective ways to support employees’ long-term health, well-being and growth, potentially undermining their efforts to attract and retain top talent. This article explores how current hiring trends are forcing employers to redefine the employee experience in order to improve hiring outcomes and attraction and retention.
Current Hiring Trends
A recent study from enterprise management cloud company Workday found a 10% decline in open roles in the first quarter of 2023 and a 4% decline in job offers compared to the same time last year, even though the number of applicants has remained relatively the same. This is the first time since 2020 that requisition growth has declined. This trend is especially pronounced among tech and media organizations, where job seekers are expected to compete with approximately 27 candidates for each opening. This number marks a 248% increase from the first quarter of 2022.
These statistics likely indicate the end of the growth era as employers shift their attention to efficiency over growth. Economic and market factors are pushing organizations to increasingly prioritize hiring the right candidates for each new position and internal productivity, leading to fewer open positions and job offers. As a result, ensuring a positive employee experience is becoming more important to help employers improve employee engagement, productivity and retention.
Strategies to Improve Employee Experience
As employers shift from growth to efficiency, a positive employee experience is essential to improve hiring outcomes, attraction and retention efforts and productivity. Understanding the current workplace dynamics and employee experience, including any challenges and opportunities, can help employers establish strategies to improve employee experience.
Focusing on Employee Engagement
The following are aspects employers can emphasize as they focus on employee engagement:
- Employee health and well-being—As employers increasingly prioritize efficiency over growth, employees will likely feel pressure to be more productive. This can increase the risk of employee burnout, especially since many employees are already under significant pressure to perform. Therefore, employers will need to find ways to improve employee efficiency without increasing burnout risk. Supporting workers’ health and well-being can help reduce this risk.
- Hybrid work—While the majority of employees feel productive in a hybrid environment, many employers find that hybrid or remote work makes it difficult to trust that employees are remaining productive outside of the office. Employers are more likely to improve the employee experience by focusing on outcomes rather than hours worked. Defining clear goals and objectives, as well as ways to effectively measure them, can enable employers to better prioritize employee work and cultivate an environment of trust, even in hybrid or remote environments. This can help reduce the risk of employee burnout and foster employee autonomy.
- Growth and recognition—With a heightened emphasis on existing employees rather than new hires for growth and innovation, employees must provide talented workers and high performers with recognition and ample growth opportunities. Providing internal mobility opportunities can boost employee engagement and retention. It can also increase workforce productivity and efficiency by ensuring employees are in the right positions for their skill sets. Employers can further ensure this by mapping skills and capabilities across their organizations.
- Organizational strategy—As internal and external pressures shift, creating clear strategic goals can help employees prioritize their work in accordance with high-value initiatives. This can allow employees to stay focused and improve engagement by utilizing their skills and providing a sense of purpose.
Leveraging Technology
As employers increasingly focus on employee experience to further organizational growth and innovation, leveraging new technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), can help create additional growth opportunities. Incorporating AI and ML technologies can help organizations run more efficiently by automating and streamlining manual, error-prone tasks, allowing employees to attend to high-value work. Employers that offer technology and other tools to support their workforce can help improve the employee experience by increasing job satisfaction. This can also help organizations to grow efficiently and economically. However, employers should familiarize themselves with the functionality and limitations of AI and ML technologies. Being aware of the limitations can allow organizations to evaluate and determine how best to use these technologies.
Employer Takeaway
As organizations adjust to the end of growth-based hiring, prioritizing workplace efficiency and employee experience is essential. Employers can do this by supporting employee health, well-being and productivity and leveraging technology. By considering employee needs, employers can focus on areas of improvement and increase workforce engagement.
For more workplace resources, contact RISQ Consulting today.
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How Employers Fail to Upskill and Retain Key Talent
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
The current labor market presents challenges for employers looking to attract and retain talented employees. Despite recent highly publicized layoffs, especially in the tech sector, the unemployment rate has remained relatively low. This makes replacing talent challenging. Losing talent is also expensive, making retention critical for the success of every employer. This article highlights essential ways employers fail to upskill and retain talent and provides guidance for how they can improve retention efforts.
The Consequences of Failing to Retain Talent
High rates of employee turnover can damage morale, decrease productivity and harm customer relationships. It can also result in skills shortages. According to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, most (87%) employers currently have skills gaps or expect to have them within the next few years. Replacing talented workers can be time-consuming and expensive, which can negatively impact an employer’s bottom line.
How Employers Fail to Upskill and Retain Talent
Unfortunately, retention remains a struggle for many organizations. A recent study by LinkedIn found that 61% of American employees were considering leaving their jobs in 2023. This number was even higher among younger generations of workers, with 72% of Generation Z workers and 66% of Millennials considering leaving their jobs in 2023. Employers can reduce employee turnover and boost job loyalty and satisfaction by understanding and addressing common factors that drive employees to quit. Common reasons employees leave their jobs include the following:
- Lack of employee engagement—Employers often fall into the trap of believing that paying their employees well is the only factor that impacts an employee’s decision to stay at their current organization. While financial compensation is important, research shows that engagement also plays a crucial role in retention. According to analytics and advisory company Gallup, employees who are engaged and have enhanced well-being are 59% less likely to look for a job at a different organization within the next 12 months. Despite the importance of engagement, Gallup found that just one-third of employees are engaged at their jobs, causing decreased job satisfaction, performance and retention.
- Absence of growth and learning opportunities—Upskilling and reskilling employees can increase employee engagement and decrease skills gaps. It’s also crucial for retaining employees, especially younger generations of workers who often prioritize career development over higher-paying positions. Growth opportunities are similarly important. In fact, the lack of growth opportunities is one of the biggest reasons employees leave their jobs. According to the online recruitment site Zippia, 76% of employees are looking for opportunities to expand their careers, and 45% would stay at their organizations longer if their employer invested in their learning and development. Despite this, over half (59%) of surveyed employees reported no formal workplace training.
- Lack of managerial support—According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement across business units. Managers significantly impact employee engagement, retention, job satisfaction and productivity. When managers prioritize productivity over people or lack vital interpersonal skills, such as communication and authenticity, they can contribute to high turnover rates.
- Poor company culture—A 2022 survey by the employment website FlexJobs found that toxic company culture was the number one reason people quit their jobs. These impressions are often made as early as onboarding, where a negative experience can set the tone for an employee’s overall experience at an organization. Lack of a healthy work-life balance was also high on the list of reasons employees quit, identified by 49% of surveyed workers. When employees feel overworked and underappreciated, they’re more likely to look for jobs outside of their organization; this is especially true of employees in mentally unhealthy workplaces or toxic environments.
Strategies for Upskilling and Retaining Talent
Employees want to work for organizations that prioritize them as people and invest in their development. Employers should consider the following strategies for upskilling and retaining talent:
- Focus on skills-based hiring and hiring the right employee the first time.
- Create a positive, efficient onboarding process.
- Hire managers with strong interpersonal skills (e.g., connection, honesty, respect and communication).
- Recognize employees for their accomplishments.
- Encourage employee participation in important business decisions.
- Ask for employee feedback (e.g., surveys, in-person meetings).
- Create career ladders for transparency about career progression.
- Provide dedicated time for employee upskilling (e.g., block out time on employees’ calendars or provide optional training during lunch breaks).
- Encourage mentorship relationships.
- Offer customized training programs and tools.
- Prioritize internal mobility over outside hires.
- Treat employees as people (e.g., promote flexibility, autonomy and work-life balance).
- Provide generous benefits and paid time off.
- Focus on creating a positive company culture that promotes mental health and employee well-being.
Conclusion
Employers who address common reasons employees quit their jobs may experience reduced rates of turnover. This can reduce hiring costs, boost employee morale and provide a competitive advantage over similar organizations that fail to retain talented workers successfully.
Contact us today for more workplace resources.
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The 4 Es (no, 5 Es) to Organizational Success
By Andrew Kupperman, Employer Services and Workforce Technology Consultant
If you’ve watched an organizational effectiveness related webinar in the last 5 or 6 years, you’ve undoubtedly come across one of the terms I wanted to talk about in this blog post. But the one thing that’s likely lacking in whatever webinar you watched, is how these terms relate to each other to provide a bigger picture in how you can truly lead an effective organization. My goal in this blog post is to better define these terms and help you understand how they relate and flow between one another.
Engagement
The first term, which has become a nauseating buzz word in business, is engagement. Even before the struggles of the pandemic organizations across the globe have been trying to wrap their arms around how to engage their workforce, because they’ve been told relentlessly by business support vendors, if your employees are not engaged, they will leave. There has been a myriad of solutions presented to “engage” the workforce – gamification, innovative technology, new benefits, etc.
But one thing most organizations fail to think on and realize as part of this process is what engagement really means to an organization. Engagement is something that is subjective, and defined by the organization, not employees. Most organizations liken engagement to the sense that an employee is keyed into the work they’re doing, and maybe even going above and beyond the duties and tasks laid out in their job description. I’ve also seen some organizations define an engaged employee as one who kind of acts like a robot, but I also know most organizations don’t intend it to be characterized that way.
Experience
Moving on to the next E, one of the reasons why organizations might struggle with engagement is because they fail to understand the experience they create for their workforce, which can shape how engaged (remember, as defined by the organization) an employee may end up being. Often organizations think providing a new platform or benefit is the way to shape a better experience, but experience is so much more than the tools and benefits you provide your workforce. Experience also includes (but not exclusive to) things like culture, leadership, relationship with a direct supervisor, interaction with other team members, and training. Everything someone encounters during (or even outside) the hours of work can shape an employee’s experience. Even something like texting an employee after hours plays into their experience. Not knowing the experiences employees have while working for an organization puts the organization at a disadvantage in understanding what an ideal engaged employee looks and feels like.
Expectations
This brings me to the next E, expectations. Most organizations want their employees to have a good experience while they are working for them. Good employee experiences lead to good client experiences, which leads to organizational growth and positive branding. Setting clear and visible expectations is the critical link between engagement and experience. In doing so, you are providing a roadmap for the employee to understand what their experience is going to look like, as well as how expect an employee to engage in the work that is being done at the organization.
Clear expectations also help when something goes wrong, which despite all efforts to set clear expectations, will happen from time to time. Expectations can let the employee know if something goes wrong or wasn’t supposed to happen, that there is way for the employee or the organization to recognize what went wrong (policies and procedures 😊), and how the employee and organization are going to engage in correcting it. This creates trust between an employee and the organization and will hopefully lead to mitigating the employee falling out of engagement, or even worse, making the decision to leave the organization.
Empowerment
So far we’ve learned that setting clear expectations can lead to better experiences, which results in more engaged workforce. This type of environment can foster the next E, empowerment. Truly engaged employees who are trusted and reciprocate that trust are imbued with a sense of empowerment to do better. Through clear expectations and good experiences, psychological safety is created within an organization where employees aren’t afraid to speak up when they see something that can be done a different and better way. Who wouldn’t want to work for an organization where you are empowered to make the work you and your coworkers are engaged with continuously better? An entire workforce of truly empowered workers sounds like a team of superheroes for an organization.
Employees
To the tile of this blog’s point, I’ve talked about the 4 Es, but really there are 5. The last E is employees. Remember, employees are not just engaged robots. The experiences you provide them impacts their entire lives. They are there to help the organization, so setting clear expectations will let them know how they can do that. And lastly, everyone should have a sense of empowerment in whatever they do, to make it a little bit better. This will truly create an effective organization.
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Developing and Conducting Employee Surveys
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Developing and conducting employee surveys can help employers understand vital aspects of their organizations, such as worker satisfaction and company culture, as well as learn more about the employees who work there. It’s important to take note of how employees view their organizations because it can provide information on how to make the workplace more enjoyable, thus strengthening retention rates, improving morale and increasing productivity.
Routinely conducting employee surveys can help provide organizations with up-to-date feedback from their workers. These surveys can be conducted anonymously to encourage employees to communicate their experiences and opinions without fear of repercussion. This article provides more information on the benefits of employee surveys, outlines different types of such surveys and offers best practices for developing them.
Benefits of Employee Surveys
Employee surveys can provide employers with valuable workforce feedback they may not be able to receive otherwise. Organizations can experience several benefits from developing and conducting these surveys, including the following:
- Greater employee honesty—One of the top benefits of employee surveys is that they can empower workers to voice their opinions openly and honestly. While this is possible through one-on-one discussions and small groups, employees are more likely to share their true opinions when they can do so anonymously, especially if what they’re sharing reflects negatively on their organizations or the overall workforce experience.
- More big-picture thinking—When left unprompted, employees can get lost in day-to-day tasks without thinking of the larger picture, including how their daily activities contribute to organizational success. Employee surveys ask open-ended questions that can spark workers to speak about themselves in relation to the missions and goals of their organizations. This can add value because employees can then see how they contribute to large-scale company initiatives.
- Increased employee retention—Employee surveys can help improve worker retention because they can point out issues before they become larger problems for entire teams or companies as a whole. These surveys can help signal early warning signs for employers that their employees are dissatisfied or are considering leaving their roles.
- Expanded resolution capabilities—Employee surveys can be the next step in resolving issues within certain teams or organizational departments. They can help employers receive feedback about what issues employees may have with their organizations. These surveys are especially useful when employers are considering where they are and what they want to accomplish going forward.
No employee survey is perfect. For example, some employees may not participate, which can skew survey data. Employee surveys also have downfalls such as not being able to survey everyone, not providing clear results and not being capable of causing immediate change. It’s crucial for organizations to take these factors into account when looking at post-survey data pools and drawing conclusions.
Types of Employee Surveys
There are several different types of employee surveys, which can be adapted to best meet an organization’s unique needs. Key survey types include:
- Annual review surveys—These surveys are conducted to evaluate employees’ performance levels.
- Company culture surveys—Such surveys are conducted to measure how companies’ behaviors match their intended values.
- Employee engagement surveys—These surveys are conducted to measure whether employees feel valued, including by those in leadership roles.
- Employee satisfaction surveys—Such surveys are conducted to measure how employees feel in terms of job satisfaction characteristics, such as compensation, benefits and other work-related issues.
No one survey is alike; therefore, it’s best for employers to determine to the specific reasons they’re conducting employee surveys and for whom before selecting a survey type. Once an organization knows the type of employee survey it wants to conduct, it’s time to develop the survey.
Developing Employee Surveys
There are a number of things for organizations to keep in mind when developing employee surveys, including the following:
- Questions—The most essential part of an employee survey is the questions being asked. A survey should be composed of a core set of questions that can be compared over time (if it’s a survey conducted on a cyclical basis). In addition, questions should help create actionable feedback. Other questions within a survey can be based off timely topics or events. It can also be beneficial to leave room for open-ended feedback or remarks at the end of a survey to provide room for employees to voice additional concerns, opinions or feedback.
- Format—An employee survey’s format is important because it can skew workers’ responses; therefore, employers must carefully consider the right format for their surveys. This can be multiple choice, open-ended or a mix of both types of questions depending on the data being collected.
- Timing—It’s imperative for organizations to know when to conduct employee surveys. Something for employers to consider in terms of timing is the workplace events occurring in their organizations at the time. For example, employers may not want to survey employees about job satisfaction during the busiest part of the year when stress levels are at their highest.
- Length—Organizations can determine an appropriate length for their employee surveys based on how often these surveys occur. For example, annual review surveys should probably be longer, as workers are only sharing their feedback once a year. On the other hand, surveys sent out more frequently (e.g., quarterly employee engagement surveys) should be shorter.
Once an organization creates an employee survey, it’s ready to be conducted. When conducting a survey, an employer should clearly communicate the survey’s purpose to employees, encourage participation, emphasize anonymity and share results with the workforce after the data has been sorted. Regardless of the type of survey being conducted, it’s critical for an employer to implement improvements after conducting a survey. Making adjustments for the next survey can ensure the survey is pulling the most valuable information from surveyed employees, making this feedback increasingly useful.
Summary
Overall, developing and conducting employee surveys can provide feedback for employers to gain important insights and help implement workplace improvements. By using these surveys, employers can create spaces for employees to voice their opinions, which can help them feel more satisfied and engaged at work. In turn, this can aid employers in their attraction and retention efforts. For more information on employee surveys, contact RISQ Consulting.
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Half the Day, Double the Fun
By Alison Nelson, Account Manager
Everyone loves summer, but Alaskans REALLY love summer. And who can blame us? After a grueling winter the sunshine is a welcome reprieve to us all. However, employers in Alaska face a unique challenge every year when the snow melts – how to keep employees inside and working.
RISQ Consulting is no exception to this, and, after years of employees bombarding the leadership team with requests to close early whenever it was remotely sunny, a solution was formed. Every Friday, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, RISQ closes at noon. This allows employees to enjoy more of the all-too-short Alaskan summer and the accompanying sunshine!
Not only does this perk boost morale, but it also increases productivity due to something known as Parkinson’s Law.
Parkinson’s Law: ‘Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion’
According to this article “Parkinson’s Law was introduced in 1955 by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of a tongue-in-cheek essay in the Economist and was based on his experiences with the very slow workings of the British Civil Service.
The main idea described by the law is that, if being given a week to complete a task then, psychologically, the task will expand to fill the time.”
In other words, when the workweek is shortened by half a day, we compensate by increasing productivity. Closing early on Fridays also makes sense from a strategic perspective. According to this article by Forbes, Fridays are the least productive day with employees only completing 16.7% of their tasks.
Aside from being a good strategic move, half-day Fridays give employees something to look forward to. The team here at RISQ Consulting is already counting down to half-day Fridays and the excitement is practically palpable. Closing early is a significant benefit and is great for employee retention.
Would you consider implementing this at your business?
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Attraction and Retention Tips for Small Businesses
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Businesses of all sizes are currently facing attraction and retention challenges. Successful efforts to win over employees can require an investment of time and carry high costs. Unfortunately, small businesses often don’t have an excess of resources to invest in attraction and retention efforts in today’s worker-friendly labor market.
In what’s been labeled as the “great resignation,” an increasing number of employees are leaving jobs not only for better compensation and benefits but also to prioritize desires such as flexible work arrangements or career development opportunities. Losing an employee is particularly costly for small businesses, impacting both attraction and retention. Along with costs associated with recruiting, hiring and training a replacement, the employee that left was likely a key contributor in the smaller environment, potentially leading to a significant impact on the operations and culture of a workplace.
Amid these labor obstacles, smaller employers should focus on what’s feasible. Often, small employers have the agility to respond to the employment market with new strategies. This article highlights some attraction and retention tips for small businesses.
Select the Right Benefits
According to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, small firms are less likely to offer health insurance versus businesses with more employees. Health insurance is valued highly by workers who often don’t have access to this coverage, which often includes part-time employees, those in the service sector—and workers employed by small businesses. Thus, for small businesses, even simply offering packages that include health care can offer a competitive edge against those that don’t.
Health insurance is just one component to consider as part of a benefits package, and small businesses should tailor their offerings to meet the specific demands of current and prospective employees. One way to start this process is by surveying employees on what types of benefits would interest them the most and then using that data to inform benefits decisions. The best benefits to offer will vary in each small business depending on the needs of the workforce—but they can be leveraged to attract and attain the right employees.
Revamp Recruiting, Hiring and Onboarding Practices
Small businesses often have limited resources when it comes to recruiting, hiring and onboarding, so it’s important to be as efficient as possible. These restraints may include insufficient financial resources to put into these practices—but also a lack of time. Often, it’s an owner, manager or lone HR professional who also takes on recruiting duties. However, a thorough review of the current status of these practices may uncover ways to create improvements.
Leveraging technology is one way to improve these practices. The good news for smaller employers is that many tools available today are relatively feasible to set up—even for a team of one— and often cost-effective.
Employers can consider using tools such as an applicant tracking system that collects and stores candidate resumes and helps automate common recruiting and onboarding tasks. To further ease the onboarding process, employers could consider leveraging cloud-based and digital tools designed to help manage the process for completing Form I-9 or direct deposit, which can be tedious for both the new hire and the employer.
By improving these processes, employers can reduce costs, and recruiting efforts can focus on finding new employees rather than dealing with tedious tasks. Every employer will be at a different place in terms of their existing processes and their current operational challenges, but a best practice to get started is to focus on what the current pain points are and how they can be improved.
Expand Recruiting Reaches
If an employer isn’t receiving the number of quality job candidates they desire, it’s worth strategizing to grow this pool. A good starting point for small businesses looking to grow their recruiting reach is to expand their online presence. This may include creating and maintaining multiple online profiles, posting content regularly and educating prospective workers about job opportunities. If limited by time, it’s OK to focus on managing one or two key profiles. It’s best to pick a platform where potential employees may likely be and focus on developing an active presence—even if it just means putting in a few minutes per day.
Employers can also focus on managing how potential candidates view their employer brand—or reputation as an employer. While small businesses may not have as developed an employer brand as their larger competitors, they may have more agility to establish—or revamp—their branding. An example of this could be to focus on highlighting the core values and impact of their organization. Surveys find that a majority of employees are more likely to work for an organization with values that align with their own.
These illustrate a few ways small employers today are expanding their reach into the employment market. Ideally, the right strategies can lead to more passive recruiting leads and improved efforts to attract employees.
Focus on Developing Employees
Attraction and retention challenges aren’t always about bringing enough employees through the doors—today, many small businesses face skills gaps. In fact, a survey in 2020 from GetApp found that one in five small businesses cited a lack of employee skills as the single biggest challenge they faced in response to COVID-19. For example, an employer’s workforce might lack the skills to use technology effectively. These gaps could also exist with soft skills, such as communication abilities or emotional intelligence. While a solution to this may be to recruit for specific skills to close these gaps, existing employees are often overlooked. While recruiting for talent with desirable skills may require significant resources, small businesses should also consider how they can bridge these gaps in-house.
Small businesses generally won’t need to develop skills for large groups, so it’s a good idea to focus on individualized learning. Some ideas or opportunities include providing career pathing plans, creating mentorship programs, offering microlearning workshops to focus on a specific skill, or paying for employees to attain certifications or further their education outside of the workplace.
Learning and development efforts can not only help employers address skills gaps; they can help employers retain existing employees and even attract new ones. Surveys find that employees are more likely to stay with an employer if they feel the organization is investing in their careers. Putting a plan to action can not only help win over employees but help prepare an employer for its future talent needs.
Offer a Flexible Work Environment
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees have been afforded the opportunity to work remotely or have flexibility with their schedules. Surveys overwhelmingly indicate that many employees prefer to retain flexible work options. These offerings include work-from-home arrangements, hybrid work schedules (working part of the week in the office and part of it remotely) or flexible work schedules. If a business has primarily administrative employees, remote or hybrid work could continue to be an option even as COVID-19-related precautions loosen. For small businesses, offering these types of arrangements can help maintain a competitive edge over competitors that don’t offer such flexibility.
However, not all organizations allow for remote or hybrid work. If a small business is in the service industry, for example, remote work may not be an option. Yet, even working with employees to create flexible scheduling options can go a long way. The feasibility of a small business being able to offer these types of flexible arrangements will vary, but these offerings remain a priority for many workers today.
Create a Strong Workplace Culture
While topics such as compensation and benefits matter for attracting and retaining employees, so does the culture of a workplace. Even if they have limited resources, small employers should focus on fostering a desirable workplace. A healthy company culture can help retain employees—and, in turn, create an environment that is attractive to prospective job seekers. In fact, company culture is important enough that it often drives employment decisions.
As such, many small businesses are focusing on creating a strong workplace culture. Leaders are pursuing initiatives such as training managers on how to identify employee burnout, designate fair workloads and support the needs of their individual team members. In addition, many small businesses are developing programs to help create an inclusive work environment.
These types of efforts can help foster a healthy workplace culture. Each small business will be at a different place concerning the current and desired state of their work environment—and leaders can consider what types of efforts can help bridge this gap.
Employer Takeaway
Like most organizations, small businesses face a set of challenges with attracting and retaining the employees they need. Fortunately, smaller businesses have the ability to stay agile and should consider what strategies they can leverage to compete in today’s labor market.
Contact us today to learn more about attraction and retention or for additional resources on any of the topics discussed in this article.
- Published in Blog
RISQ Company Book Club “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream”
By Ashley Snodgrass, Employee Benefits Analyst
The RISQ Consulting Team has been proud to sponsor a company book club for the last few years. Our book club has led to many insightful discussions about client experience, productivity, effective meeting structure, team dynamics, leadership and more. Some of these ideas have even led to tangible and beneficial changes in our organization.
Most recently, our team read The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream by Amy Webb. Amy Webb is a noted Futurist and founder of the Future Today Institute. Webb works to help companies and individuals understand how to interpret signals as information that can be used in planning for the future. According to the Future Today Institute (FTI) website, FTI works with companies to prepare leaders for “deep uncertainty and complex futures”. Amy Webb wrote The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream to bring futurist thinking to a wider audience.
In this book, Webb illustrates a multi-step process in which the reader can test patterns in societal behavior to determine which are more likely to turn into trends or stick long-term, as well as offer insight on how to think like a futurist. Webb also includes helpful graphics and supplemental resources to allow the reader to implement this process in their own organization.
The purpose of reading this book as a team was to encourage discussions about innovation. After reading, members of the book club met and discussed how varying technologies will impact our industry. We also discussed how we can leverage the NEW to benefit our clients and their employees. This resulted in RISQ creating a more robust and tech-forward employee communications package, which has become a high value service to our clients.
You may not be able to adopt all of the great ideas stored between the pages of a book club book, but when you share the experience of reading you are guaranteed to have at least one great outcome; it builds better comradery. And building better comradery is one positive trend that I know will stick around long-term.
As a reminder, if you want to start a book club in your own organization, I recommend checking out this post – for more tips to a successful start. Happy Reading!
- Published in Blog
10 Themes from HR Tech’s Virtual Spring Conference
By Andrew Kupperman, Employer Services and Workforce Technology Consultant
These days everyone seems to have an overabundance of time on their hands, so I’m sure you spent that free time attending HR Executive Magazine’s HR Tech Virtual conference last week. But just in case you found something more interesting to do (which is unlikely), I wanted to share the 10 themes that were presented as organizational imperatives. These are the 10 areas that an organization should dedicate some love and attention to in order to keep doing what they do best for the foreseeable future.
If you haven’t heard of the HR Technology conferences before, they bring together organizational and business thought leaders from all corners of the earth, who talk about the struggles businesses are faced with now, and in the future, and what’s happening within workforce technology to help solve these problems. Check out the link below to the article, 10 Themes From HR Tech Virtual to Help You Prepare for the Coming Decade.
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