Hot New Employee Attraction

What is it that employees really want in 2008?  Yes they want money and benefits, but what do they want that would make them chose one employer over another?  The answer is simple.  Employees want flexibility on their job that will allow them to balance work and family.  Truly, is to the advantage of EVERY business owner seeking employees to creatively think about how they can build flexibility into their human resource package. 

Globally, the need for an accommodating work schedule is becoming the notably more important feature that employees are seeking.  Just 20 -30 years ago, this was not a high priority because of the higher number of stay-at-home moms.  But in today’s families, both parents work, there are more single parents, more people caring for elderly parents, and the like.  The need for flexibility in the work week is paramount.  Many employers, however, often fail to realize how much THEIR BUSINESS benefit from creating a flexible work program.

Let’s face it.  Even if your business has a great product or service, it is your employees that you depend on to make your business successful.  If you have found good employees, you want to keep them. When people are in fixed, rigid environments, employees tend to feel stressed, unhappy, resentful, and often quit.  Being flexible with work hours, however, can change employee attitudes dramatically.  A flexible environment makes employees WANT to work for you.  This pays off for the company in many ways. 

When employees feel less stress between in deciding between going to work or taking care of the needs of their family, it is good for everyone involved.  Reduced stress means less depression, and its related illnesses (heart problems, substance abuse, mental illnesses, etc.).  Depression and the chronic illness that spring from depression result in a whopping $51 billion charge to businesses annually.¹ 

Employees that are happy frequently stay with their employer longer and are much more loyal.  This means, you get to keep your employees who are well trained, have accumulated knowledge, and have compiled experience in your business.  It also means that those employees will want to be more fruitful in their work, getting work done more accurately, more creatively and more successfully. Employees become more dependable, energetic, and want to be part of the team.

Another way that flexibility often pays off for businesses is the fact that employees share their job contentment with each other, your customers, their friends and family.  This compliment gets passed back to the company as ‘good reputation’.  Companies with good reputations have more customers and business. In time, the number of people who are interested in being employed at the business increase, giving you an advantage in obtaining skilled personnel. 

A great added benefit is the decrease in absenteeism, tardiness or missed hours.  Part of this is due to having the flexibility to arrange their schedule in a way that they are able to accomplish other things that are very important to them, such as parent teacher conferences, doctor appointment, and caring for life situations. 

Promoting a balance between work and family will increase the likelihood that your employees who have accumulated knowledge will stay with your company longer.  Therefore, your business will not have to spend as much money on advertising to replace employees, the hiring process, and training employees.  Dan Bobinski, M.Ed., CPBA of the Leadership Development, Inc. reports that the employee’s annual salary is usually how much an employer can expect to pay out in order to replace the employee.  So, obviously, any good employee you can retain, the more money you will save, the more experience you will retain.  For a better estimate of how much it may cost you to replace specific employees, the Australian government has an online calculator that help can you determine how much it would cost your business to replace your employee(s). 

What flexibility in the work place boils down to is the business saves money --lots of money.  Allowing flexibility keeps your employees from being as anxious to find different ways to make extra money.    So, the more ways your business can find opportunities to allow its workers to a balance in their family life while working, the more you will find that your business will be balanced too.

1.     http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9055/index1.html