Businesses are engaging in vicious fights for top employees
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According to new reports, employers in major industries and sectors are viciously competing to get the best employees to sign up for roles in their businesses.
This shouldn’t be surprising as the majority of businesses know that employees are a significant element in determining whether a company is a success or not. The right employees can help build positive brand recognition and ensure that customers return for the repeat sale.
It is commonly assumed that employers hold all the power in the job market. However, if candidates have the right skills, experience and references then they can choose where they want to work from a list of countless companies.
This has left businesses with no choice but to constantly push to offer more rewards to top candidates who sign on the dotted line. Below, we will explore the benefits businesses should be offering as well as the alternative for companies who don’t want to join this battle ground.
Flexibility
One of the main fighting grounds for business owners these days is whether or not they can offer the levels of flexibility that employees demand. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of people were working from home out of necessity rather than desire. As the situation improved, it became clear that there was going to be an uphill battle getting people to return to the office. Indeed, the head of Barclays claimed that the days of the big offices were behind us. This might be true because businesses are now fighting to show that they can continue to provide the same level of flexibility to employees.
This is true for every sector. For instance, in the legal industry, firms such as Ellisons Solicitors are promoting high levels of flexibility as one of the main reasons for candidates to apply and potentially join the team. Why has this become such an important aspect of recruiting new team members?
Researchers suggest that working from home provides business employees with an improved work/life balance. This means that they can gain higher levels of job satisfaction and potentially reach higher levels of productivity. As such, it’s a win for businesses and team members. However, there are certain pitfalls that must be avoided here. For instance, you should think about security concerns. If team members are working from home, the data that they are using must remain secure. One of the best ways to guarantee this is the case could be by investing in a cloud server. A private cloud server is one of the best ways to protect data that is being accessed from remote locations.
Ultimately, businesses need to balance the risks with the benefits of gaining the best employees who only want to work from home.
Financial benefits
There are also financial benefits that employees and business owners both need to focus on too. Employees are more concerned than ever about the future and whether they are going to have the financial support that they need to have a fantastic quality of life in their twilight years. They expect companies to help by providing options such as pension schemes which guarantee that their pension grows dramatically over time. Some businesses also gain the upper hand by offering shares to employees. As well as providing financial benefits, this also helps them feel more connected to a company that they are working for.
Of course, on the most basic level, employees do demand the right level of pay. It is essential that you are seen to be offering a fair standard of pay for various positions in your company. If there are problems here, then it’s always going to lead to negative reviews from current team members. This is going to lead to a struggle to get more people to sign up to work for the business. You also need to make sure that pay and pay rises are keeping up with levels of inflation which right now are growing out of control.
The right work environment
Another basic benefit employees expect is ensuring that they are working in the right environment when they do need to come into the office. There are lots of ways that business owners can improve their work environment and make it more attractive or enticing. For instance, you might want to consider investing in ergonomic furniture. As well as keeping employees comfortable, this can help reduce serious health issues such as RSI that are plaguing the workplace right now and causing serious PI claims.
The modern alternative
The alternative for businesses who don’t wish to enter the fray is the gig economy. The gig economy is made up of freelancers and outsourcing agents. It is growing at a rapid rate and it’s not difficult to understand why. By hiring freelancers, businesses no longer need to worry about providing extra incentives to ensure that the top employees want to join their teams. Instead, they can focus on offering the right level of pay and avoid all the other complexities.
Of course, business owners do need to be aware of the issues that come with utilising freelancers. For instance, freelancers have no sense of loyalty to the clients they are working for. They will also usually be paid a fixed amount. As such, they also have no incentive to go the extra mile or put additional levels of work in. The risk with freelancers is that they will do the bare minimum to get paid. That’s why it is essential for businesses to carefully select members of a freelance team and quickly replace anyone who is not matching the right quality standards.
It’s clear that businesses do have a lot of options when striving to persuade candidates to join their teams. This is nothing but good news for employees although it is undoubtedly driving up costs for small businesses. As such, it’s likely that more companies will depend on freelance workforces in the future. In doing so, they can access the same level of expertise while significantly limiting the overall costs.
