Tip of the Week: How to Attract and Keep Quality Employees with Workplace Flexibility

With each new generation comes a new group of workers, and attracting good, quality help can be difficult. Even if you can find good help, it can be a challenge to keep. A study at Cornell University has proven that workplace flexibility can greatly improve the odds of finding good employees - and keeping them around.

When we say workplace flexibility, it’s not about who’s the best at limbo or who has weird finger joints. It’s more about giving your employees the opportunity to work however and whenever they want, and giving them the technology they need to accomplish these goals. In order to acquire new key players who fit the important roles for your company’s future, a flexible workplace is necessary.

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44 percent of HR/labor management sectors that were interviewed as part of this study claim that attracting the right people is the most difficult part of the hiring process, followed up by 17 percent of companies feeling that offering competitive employee benefits was the most difficult thing to do, and 16 percent claimed that training was the most difficult part of the hiring process. Other statistics include:

• 50 percent of business owners plan to hire new staff within the next year.
• This statistic has increased by 8 percent since 2012.
• 23 percent of business owners are guilty of using video conferencing software for interviews, meaning they don’t even physically get to meet who they are interviewing.

How Do You Attract Good Workers?
According to the study, it’s a matter of choice. If an employee likes the choices that they are given regarding the status of the workplace, they are more likely to stick around for a longer period of time. 64 percent of small business owners report that an overall increase in their business’s mobility and flexibility, along with the option to work remotely, improved their hiring processes and increased their ability to retain employees.

Additionally, it has been proven that workers who have the choice of when and where to work are 12 percent more satisfied with their job and workflow. In fact, these statistics prove that there is more going on here than meets the eye:

• 40 percent of employees found that they had more innovative ideas and practices than those without choice.
• 76 percent of employees found that they had a better work performance when given a choice of how and when they work.
• Furthermore, the study discovered that businesses that grant their team a choice in how they work grow up to four times faster and cut their turnover rate by two-thirds.

What Can You Do?
Some companies can’t afford to let their workers all work remotely, but there are a variety of things that can be done to portray this sense of choice to your prospective workers. If there are multiple places to work in the office (i.e. quiet places for focusing, conference rooms for collaboration), employees were found to be 22 percent more effective at focusing on specific tasks, and 17 percent more effective for collaboration.

You could also supply your employees with the tools they need to work remotely and stay connected to your business, anytime and anywhere. These services and products include, but are not limited to, smartphones, laptops, cloud-based services, tablets, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

By making your business more flexible with remote technology solutions, you’ll be able to attract the best new talent out there, and usher in an age of productivity and innovation that your business could have only dreamed of. For more best practices for the workplace, contact Ferrum Technology Services at (847) 697-3282.