Guest Post by Blaire Palmer
If you’re experiencing challenges with retention and skills shortages, you’re certainly not alone. And when it comes to maintaining employee engagement, culture matters.
On Thursday 26th January we had the pleasure of hosting a dinner at The Ned in London with HR Leaders from across the public sector. During this fantastic evening we discussed leadership, company culture and adapting to change through a challenging moment in the recruitment landscape.
We were also delighted to be joined by our guest speaker, Blaire Palmer, who is an expert in organisational culture and the future of leadership. The following article on becoming a better place to work is the final in a series of posts by Blaire about how you can be the champion of values and change in your organisation!
Over the last 20 years, we’ve gained a greater understanding of culture and its importance, but we don’t seem to have moved the dial when it comes to people feeling that their organisational culture is engaging or that they are valued and appreciated for what they do.
If we are trying to address retention issues, for instance, culture becomes a huge topic. People say that lack of appreciation is the number one reason they leave a job. Only 30% of people say they actually feel engaged at work. 87% of organisations say that culture and engagement are their number one challenge.
We can get distracted by ‘presenting issues’ – today’s emergency or a role that just needs filling or a saving we just need to find to balance the books – and not realise that many of these presenting issues are distilled down to one, two or three core causes. And, while some of the causes may be out of our sphere of influence, culture lies at the core of many of these challenges and is within our sphere of influence.
Developing a better place to work
A better place to work means people will speak up about issues of concern.
A better place to work means that people will feel empowered to step up and solve problems they’ve seen. The best leaders don’t necessarily inspire followership but more leadership. You want a place where people offer to take the lead regardless of their seniority.
A better place to work means your best people will find that sense of meaning and purpose we all look for from our job. They will be able to see that their decision to do this work in this sector with this organisation, driven by a desire to make a difference, has a real impact. 54% of people say they would be willing to take a pay cut to work in an organisation that shared their values. They won’t seek a higher paying more soul-destroying job somewhere else if their needs are being met with you.
And job seekers who check out what people are saying on Glassdoor and Twitter and amongst their friends will be delighted to discover that you mean what you say and that they aren’t simply leaping from the frying pan into the fire.
To keep up with changing expectations of work while, at the same time, dealing with a very challenging national context, is a tough job. It requires you to be on top of your game. But, by embracing the challenges I’ve thrown down for you, not only will you make a difference to the people who work in your organisation and the people they serve, but you’ll craft a job for yourself that YOU’LL never want to leave either.
Want to make your organisation a better place to work?
Blaire’s series on leadership has highlighted that culture matters. If you’re ready to create a better place to work, get in touch to see how we can help with your recruitment and retention challenges!
