Employees Spill The Beans On What They Really Want From Their Employers

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |What employees want|Employees Spill The Beans On What They Really Want From Their EmployersIf you think employees just want a paycheck at the end of the month, you’re sadly mistaken. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), they need a lot more than that.

In the past, business culture was very different. Companies pretty much told their employees what to do, and they got on with it, without really asking any serious questions. But with falling unemployment and changing expectations, that’s all gone out the window. Now firms have to give their employees many reasons to stay. Otherwise, they’ll look for opportunities elsewhere.

You can listen to consultants all day long, telling you what you should do to reduce employee turnover. But the easiest way to encourage people to stay is to ask them yourself.

When you do, here’s what they say:

Opportunities For Progression

Money today is great. But employees also want the promise of more money in the future. Often, this idea is more compelling than receiving a bonus in the here and now. People want to feel like their lives are going somewhere. They don’t want to get stuck on an eternal treadmill, doing the same things every day, without end. They need a sense that they’re progressing. They want recognition in their communities.

If you want to keep employees, therefore, you should create an explicit schedule for their careers. Make it clear what you expect from them and then make opportunities available once they gain sufficient experience and expertise.

Recognition For Their Work

Some people work for money and nothing else. But a lot of people feel like they’re part of a large social enterprise and expect recognition from their superiors. For them, work isn’t just a means of making money or achieving goals. It’s also about getting some much-needed affirmation.

If you’re a natural boss, you may struggle to see the importance of this. They already get paid, so why do they also need parenting? It seems weird. Sometimes, though, you have to ignore your instinct and spend a bit of time telling your employees you appreciate them. It’s the equivalent of the teacher giving the student a gold star.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |What employees want|Employees Spill The Beans On What They Really Want From Their EmployersShow Them You Appreciate Them

Paychecks are great. But ultimately, they lose their appeal. Sometimes, they can become a source of resentment. Employees often come to believe that you’re giving them too little for the work they do.

Corporate gifts for employees, however, can sweeten the deal somewhat. With these, you can show your appreciation without having to go through the rigmarole of a salary renegotiation. For workers, it feels like Christmas.

Offer Flexible Hours

If there’s one thing that workers want more than anything, it is freedom over how they use their time. Not everyone wants to be in the office on weekdays. Some people find it more convenient to come in on the weekend and get their work done then.

Create a system that allows people to work flexibly, where possible. You could allocate a certain number of flexi-hours per week if you need colleagues to be in the office together at certain times.

Will You Take These Services up on Their Offers?

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In order to stay ahead of the competition your business must utilise the best options offered to it. In this day and age, there are a whole host of companies and services at your disposal to make use of in order to make sure you’re getting the best assistance and the best value for money. Maybe it’s time you took a look at some of the services below and how they can help your business succeed, better their area and field, and how they too can better your wallet.

Virtual receptionists are an example of just how much technology has killed, or begun to kill, the professions of old. VRs take it upon themselves to simply answer calls, but do so in a manner that could make the need for a receptionist a thing of the past. They mean a call is never missed; they retain the ‘unique-ness’ of your business by answering and responding in a way that you tell them to; they are open 24/7 which can mean you are perceived as being ‘open’ 24/4 by any ringing customers; and they are cheap — some offering their services for a mere quarter of what you’d pay a receptionist per month. Also, advances in cleaning and hygiene services have improved two-fold. Also, with janitorial services offering an effective clean and hygiene levels that blow a quick vac and polish out of the water, the need for an in-house janitor or cleaning team may be over. But are there cons to utilising such services?

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A big one is that they could take a job off of someone who has done it for years and proved themself to be extremely loyal. It could be tough for you to get rid of a trusted employee in order to replace them with a service, but it’s your business, and you must do what’s best for it. if a service offers much more, for the same or even less of the price, then it’s a no brainer.

Something else that joins the whole host of things that have been killed by technology is the need for cold, hard cash. Merchant Services, a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments in a multiple of technology driven ways, means that trips to the bank for coins and notes may soon become a redundant exercise. With the pace of change in the U.S. payment market showing that over the past five years the credit card has proved itself to be the generally preferred method of payment, merchant services are ones that must be optimised if a business owner wishes to retain custom. This means you should have a card reader and atm machine on site at all times so that you are able to take a customer’s payment when they don’t have notes or spare shrapnel on their person.

So, there you have it. A few modern day services that are on offer to you, the business of owners of today. It’s now up to you whether you take them up on their offers.

Can We Make Remote Work Work Long-Term?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Remote Work|Can We Make Remote Work Work Long-Term?Lots of people who are newly working at home would like to keep it that way. In fact, a worldwide survey of 500 employees conducted by OTRS Group revealed that the vast majority of those surveyed (80 percent) enjoy working from home, even though 68 percent said working from home was new to them.

Companies are interested too. Leaders are seeing an uptick in productivity. And, in some parts of the world, new laws are even being proposed that could establish home office options as an employee right.

If this work style continues, what do leaders need to focus on to ensure long-term success? Tools and culture.

Remote IT Solutions

One tricky thing is that employees in their own home do not have onsite IT support. So if technical problems occur, a loss of productivity can quickly result without a remote help desk option.

The following will offer employees the best possible remote help desk solution:

  1. Analyze employee needs. How quickly do they need support? When can they help themselves?
  2. Define support processes and procedures. Design these in accordance with ITIL®.
  3. Evaluate help desk solutions. Find a cloud-based solution that includes notifications, multiple channels, SLAs, a self-service portal and an API for integrating with other systems.
  4. Consider security. Help desk security functions and processes should always play a major role in the selection of your system.
  5. Customize the selected solution. Now, take time to align your new system with user requirements and the previously defined processes.
  6. Provide training. When ready, have extensive communication and training for the help desk team and end users.

The ideal help desk should not only ensure that problems are solved quickly, but should also support employees in the home office so that they can efficiently use their time.

Remote Teamwork Solutions

With general technical problems handled, tools must also be implemented to support teams in communicating, planning and moving tasks between one another. The lack of this type of tool is a key concern expressed by those who have recently shifted to the home office environment.

In fact, in the referenced study, of those who had been struggling to work from home:

  • 15 percent were challenged by not knowing what their teammates were working on,
  • 14 percent had a hard time measuring team results, and
  • 13 percent had difficulty keeping track of their own tasks.

For nearly half the people, facilitating work is difficult when people aren’t routinely chatting about it in an office setting. Remote work software can be used to help add structure to communication and tasks in order to avoid these difficulties. Remote work solutions should bring together all information that teams need to get their jobs done, such as tasks, calendars, contact information, business process automation and reporting.

By using one tool to centrally manage all of these, both employees and leaders have an up-to-date, clear understanding of what the current work is, how to get it done, and when issues are creeping up.

Corporate Culture Supports Remote Employees

However, tools can’t solve all of the problems. While there are many advantages to working from home, those making the change may long for the benefits of working in a traditional office. Respondents shared that they missed seeing their colleagues and that they feel “stuck” in one place for too long.

In order for the positives of working remotely to last long-term, management teams need to think about how to counteract these losses by:

  • Encouraging conversation about change. Change is hard, so provide outlets for employees to discuss this and share what has been working well.
  • Hosting virtual offsites. Plan time for employees to come together and talk about key topics, much like you would do in a traditional offsite. Be sure to have an agenda, include breaks, keep sessions to 90 minutes and have options for socializing.
  • Creating a virtual coffee break. Give people a chance to chat about non-work topics or play games together. What could bring people together for a reason other than talking about tasks?
  • Deploying a chat tool. Offer a tool that lets people ask quick questions, share fun information or talk about personal topics. It helps promote that “around the water cooler” feeling. There are plenty of programs like Microsoft Teams that are perfect for this. It’s also a good idea to get PBX integration for Microsoft Team for more means of communication.
  • Hosting a non-work contest. For instance, give people a reason to break free of their homes by holding a fitness contest. Or, try a virtual company-wide 5k. Contests give people an outlet for being engaged socially with colleagues.
  • Defining and following processes. Processes help people know what is expected when, and reduces worry about doing the right thing. Plus, they keep work flowing smoothly when time zones make it hard for everyone to be online at the same time.

While the Corona crisis has been a challenge for businesses and employees alike, it has also opened the door to expanding remote work opportunities. The study shows significant benefits to working from home, from saving commute time to spending more time with loved ones. But to maintain the current situation, leaders should be investing in tools and creating shifts in their corporate culture to keep productivity and employee satisfaction high long-term.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Sabine RiedelSabine Riedel is a member of the Management Board of OTRS AG. With her expertise in the areas of corporate development and leadership communication, she is responsible for the development and expansion of international HR strategy and the conception and implementation of measures to implement the company-wide corporate culture.

Where to make your first steps into property investment

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Where to make your first steps into property investmentWhether it’s something you’re considering as a new career path or a way of making your savings grow further, property investment can be advantageous. With so many options, it can often be hard to decide where exactly to invest your money in first. Here’s a look at the different types of properties you could invest in, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

General Real Estate

Most homes on the market are already lived in, and therefore ready to be sold on again as soon as possible. If you choose a house that is already decorated to a good standard, there’s very little you could do to increase its value. The obvious way to make money is to rent the property. To put it simply, the monthly price you’re renting the property, minus the cost of the mortgage repayments and any other expenses, is a nice profit in your pocket every month. This process isn’t without risk, though, and you’ll need to secure proper insurance if you go down this road.

Unless you are going to rent your property, it can be hard to make a profit on a general real estate property. You’d have to hold on to the property for several years and wait for an increase in the property’s value to even make the smallest of profits. Sometimes you can secure a good deal on a property if they want a quick sale, but you’ll have to work just as quickly to secure any extra money to close the deal. Hard money lenders such as Sachem Lending can offer you additional cash flow within days. They make their decisions based on the value of the property, so they won’t have to spend a long time reviewing your personal income and outgoings in detail. This means you could have the money in a matter of days, putting you in the strongest position to secure a deal.

Fix and Flip

This kind of property can offer a much higher return in a small amount of time, but it also involves the most amount of effort. The critical thing to realize when purchasing a property that needs a lot of work is just how much work it needs doing to it. Paying for someone to inspect the property might seem like an unnecessary extra expense. Still, it can be the most important investment you’ll make if they spot something which needs significant work and reduces the potential value of the property. If you’re buying a property that just needs a lick of paint and maybe a new kitchen or bathroom, you could have it back on the market in weeks with a much bigger price tag.

New Constructions

While starting a build from scratch might seem like the best way to be sure of investing in valuable property, several things could go wrong. Whether it’s how much property tax will be, how popular the area will be, the quality of the work completed, or even the taste of the potential market, there are a lot of uncertainties with this kind of property. The good news is this kind of property is often the most readily available so you could negotiate a good deal.

Learn How to Be More Creative in Any Field and in Life

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Be More Creative|Learn How to Be More Creative in Any Field and in LifeJust as IQ is an indication of your share of intelligence and EQ connotes your share of empathy, it is also possible to have a share of creativity, or CQ. A creativity quotient is not fixed. It is dynamic and increases as you practice building it and exercising it. What’s more, CQ isn’t reserved for artists. Anyone in any field – farming, law, plumbing, architecture, perfumery, real estate, medicine, education, and technology, to name a few – can learn to be more creative and apply creativity to be more successful in their work.

Exactly how do you raise your creativity level – especially if you don’t think of yourself as particularly creative? Specifically, your share of creativity can increase as you expand your capacity for inquiry, become more willing to improvise, and hone your intuition. Moreover, creativity can be scaled: both individuals and organizations can have a creativity quotient.

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself and pose to your team to build a culture of creativity and your own CQ.

1. Do you have a hobby outside of your daily job?

If you practice a craft or hobby diligently outside of your paid work, then you are regularly putting yourself into a beginners’ mindset. This is crucial because it primes you to get good at embracing being clumsy, learning from mistakes, and asking the naive questions. Inevitably, the beginners’ mindset that hobbies cultivate transfers into your work environment. You will get better at questioning the status quo, one of the first steps towards innovating.

2. Do you play regularly?

I mean really play, have fun, and do activities that bring you joy. Joy is distinct from happiness. While happiness is something we expect to sustain long term, joy is episodic and all about your perspective. A corollary to being more playful is developing a sense of humor. A sense of humor signals your capacity for abstract thinking – instead of only focusing on what is literally in front of you. Note that having a sense of humor will also be developed from question No. 1 above: having a hobby. How could you not chuckle at your clumsy attempts while tinkering away at a hobby?

3. Do you deliberately do things outside of your comfort zone?

At least twice a year, visit a place outside of your comfort zone or go to a conference that is totally outside of your sector, where you will be sure to learn something new. This helps you to practice lateral thinking. You can also practice getting outside of your comfort zone on a daily basis. For example, if you do not consider yourself an artistically visual type, begin to doodle. Set the timer for 5 minutes, and doodle away. It is one of the best ways to make the mind more limber.

4. Do you experiment with technology?

Sometimes we forget that at the end of the day, technology is a tool. It is there to help amplify what is uniquely human about us and free us up to do more creative work. In addition to the usual suspects of workshare platforms like Slack, Basecamp, and Zoom, also try experimenting with augmented reality tools, and visualization tools such as Canva, Mural or Ziteboard. Rather than fear artificial intelligence, welcome it. AI has the potential to up the ante on what makes us uniquely human.

5. Do you incentivize collaboration?

Even superheroes don’t go it alone, so why should you? It’s one thing to say you value collaboration, but until you incentivize it by linking collaboration to compensation or time, chances are your employees won’t put collaboration into practice. One of the best outcomes of collaboration is the necessary thought diversity that results. You quickly learn to invite in and lean on people from different departments and backgrounds. Remember: the more diverse the inputs, the more innovative the output.

If you answered YES to at least 3 of these questions, you’re doing a good job. Make it your goal over the next 12 months to be able to tick off YES to all 5 questions and share your techniques with others. Better yet, start with just one of these suggestions today!

As you move forward, keep in mind: increasing your creativity quotient is about building on what has come before you. And that requires, well, building. Building can be messy. While you may start with a plan, plans shift, agendas change, and assumptions are challenged. It requires taking leaps – from prioritizing deep specialization to valuing broad experience and from deferring only to what’s rational to embracing ambiguity.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Natalie Nixon, PhDNatalie Nixon, PhD is a creativity strategist, global keynote speaker, and the president of Figure 8 Thinking, LLC. She helps leaders apply creativity and foresight to achieve transformative business results and amplify value. Natalie is the author of The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work (Berrett-Koehler; June 2020), a regular contributor to INC., and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Learn more at figure8thinking.com and follow her @natwnixon.