slowed so much since 2008 that GDP in advanced economies
should be five per cent higher today, which represents a big op-portunity
for companies to get ahead of the competition by
assessing the productivity in their own working environments.
The issue is extensive. “Why your workforce isn’t working” found
that only 37 per cent of respondents think they’re highly pro-ductive
in their role, with respondents admitting that they are
productive for less than 30 hours per week – that’s only 3.75
days out of a five-day workweek.
WHAT EMPLOYEES VALUE
What employees really need is to be heard. The research also
found that for 64 per cent of Canadian workers, feeling valued
and recognized is the most important part of their day-to-day
work experience. Unfortunately, 43 per cent of workers have
never been asked by their employer about their workplace
experiences and only 10 per cent are asked on a regular basis
what can be done to improve their experiences in order to
improve productivity.
The issue around finding out what your employees really want
is long debated. We hear endless stories about HR trying to get
employee feedback through tools such as annual engagement sur-veys,
but this alone isn’t enough and is far from effective. Only 24
per cent of respondents see annual employee satisfaction surveys
as very important to their experience at work. In fact, 19 per cent
actually see employee satisfaction surveys as a distraction, and put
off completing them, making them another contributing factor to
decreasing productivity in the workplace.
Developing and managing workforce experiences has the power
to drastically improve recruitment, staff retention and produc-tivity,
but it’s clear that many companies are stuck in outdated
management practices.
HOW COMPANIES CAN ADDRESS THE PROBLEM
Companies need to realize that personalization and listening is key
to improving workforce experiences. Almost half of the Canadian
respondents feel that the HR team could increase the value it pro-vides
to employees by improving communications and feedback
between employees and organization leadership. By regularly talk-ing
to employees, they would find out that almost half would like
the HR team to focus on ways to improve health and wellness in
the workplace.
Examples like these show where companies can use modern HR
and people technology to gather immediate feedback around key
events in an employee’s journey. Then, for those businesses will-ing
to take feedback from their employees and embrace new ideas,
new technology can provide businesses with the means and flex-ibility
to design, implement and measure workforce experiences
that make a tangible difference to employee acquisition, retention
and productivity. The more employers can make each day a more
engaging experience, the better overall effect it will have on the
business and people themselves.
Attracting and retaining talent is not a new challenge given the
global skills crisis, but there are unfortunately few signs of com-panies
solving the issue. The apparent disconnect between the
employee and employer in what constitutes a valued and produc-tive
workforce experience is alarming. Organizations must seize
the opportunity to make it a priority to know what motivates and
drives their people, and work with them to create positive work-place
experiences, where people are happy and doing their best
work – improving productivity and a company’s bottom line in
the meantime. n
Paul Burrin is an expert in how the intersection of technology, HR and
marketing is changing work trends. He is vice president of Sage People.
talent management
FOR 64 PER CENT
OF CANADIAN
WORKERS, FEELING
VALUED AND
RECOGNIZED IS THE
MOST IMPORTANT
PART OF THEIR
DAY-TO-DAY WORK
EXPERIENCE.
Rawpixel.com
36 ❚ DECEMBER 2017 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL
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