Citation
(2014), "News round-up", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 22 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-03-2014-0036
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
News round-up
Article Type: News round-up From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 22, Issue 2
Return on investment is HRs top priority
Demonstrating a return on their investment is the no. 1 priority for HR specialists, according to a study by Imperial College Business School among HR directors and managers of large UK businesses.
The research found that more than a third (35 percent) consider return-on-investment validation for their decisions to be their biggest concern. This was followed closely by the need to implement new systems, such as IT and flexible benefits (30 per cent), with 28 per cent saying they would be looking to save money on employee health-care support costs.
"Business confidence may be returning but HR people remain under pressure to demonstrate the value of the HR function," said Mike Blake, director at PMI Health Group, which commissioned the survey.
"Employee-health programs are often considered as nice to have rather than a strategic imperative but a healthy workforce can contribute to a healthy bottom line. With appropriate evaluation frameworks in place, the returns can be measured to reassure chief executives and chief finance officers," he said.
Only 15 percent of survey participants regarded managing absence as a top priority, although 49 percent admitted managing absence effectively posed a problem for their companies.
"Managing sickness absence should be a key driver behind any health-care program," Mike Blake continued. "The business cost can be considerable – from paying salaries or sick pay, to replacement staffing costs, not to mention its impact on customer satisfaction and workforce morale. This cost can be calculated if robust processes for measuring absence are in place."
A recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development study found that sickness absence costs an average of £600 per employee.
Strong employer brand helps to attract and keep best employees
Having a strong employer brand is crucial for attracting and retaining talent, especially as the market picks up and employees become shrewder with their career decisions, delegates heard at a recent resourcing think-tank.
The event, facilitated by Oasis HR, was told that companies must decide and publicize what makes them a great place to work. They should also highlight what is expected from employees and what the company will provide in return. This will contribute to engagement and productivity levels among staff.
A frustration echoed by many of the people attending the event was the disconnection between corporate marketing and recruitment marketing. They called for greater involvement of marketing specialists in drawing up recruitment advertisements and for the employer brand to mirror the corporate brand.
The message of what makes the company such a special place to work should be reinforced in marketing materials and during interviews.
Firms can do much to impress candidates by creating an exclusive pre-interview portal for candidates to read biographies on their interviewers, view video content, read testimonials from current employees and brush up on their interview techniques.
The interview rooms should reflect the brand, culture and the reasons the company is such a great place to work. The interview structure should be different and engaging. In particular, candidates should not be asked the same questions at each stage of the recruitment process.
For one job role there are often hundreds of applicants. Going back to all with a personal e-mail or telephone call is impractical. However, firms should prepare generic content on improving a CV or getting oneself head-hunted. Including such article links in rejection e-mails softens the "no" and provides valuable advice.
The think-tank offered the following advice on using social media:
set out the objectives;
introduce social-media channels during corporate inductions;
create policies so employees know where they stand regarding posting content online;
find out where conversations are taking place online and then join them to tap into talent pools;
understand what the target audience wants to read, watch and listen to – then create content that encompasses those interests;
monitor what is working well and what is not; and
measure whether objectives are being met.
Ending things on a good note and communicating that the door will be left open will enhance the employer brand. Simple tools like alumni or associate groups can be effective for communicating with and engaging ex-employees.
Such initiatives will help to ensure that ex-employees continue to speak positively about the business, refer their peers to join it and potentially come back themselves one day, should the opportunity be there.
Managers trust employees to work flexibly
More than 60 percent of senior executives at small and medium-size companies say they trust their employees to remain productive when working away from the office. Around 30 percent more agree that enabling staff to work flexibly can play an important part in improving their work-life balance, making them less likely to miss important deadlines.
A quarter of the executives report being under more pressure to introduce or increase mobile, flexible working practices than they were five years ago, predominantly because of employee demand (28 percent) and the need to reduce travel costs (17 percent).
While some executives were less trusting when it comes to allowing employees to work outside of the office, 21 percent still concede that having a flexible-working policy makes sense for business continuity.
"As well as meeting demand to improve individuals work-life balance, the growing acceptance of flexible working among senior teams shows that managers are now realizing the commercial advantages it offers," said Andrew Millard, senior director of marketing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the SaaS division at Citrix, which commissioned the YouGov research.
"In the bring-your-own-device era, employees using virtual technologies can work just as effectively away from the office as they would in it – in most cases contributing to lower travel and office costs for the business," he concluded.
Flexible working helps to combat employee absence
The number of employers making changes to working patterns to try to reduce long-term absence has increased by 20 percent in the last year, according to the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development.
With absence levels on the rise again – to an average of 7.6 days per employee – employers are attaching growing importance to changing working patterns and environments in order to manage long-term absence levels.
In the latest survey by the CIPD and Simplyhealth 85 percent of employers reported that they had adjusted working patterns compared to 65 percent last year. Small changes to working hours, such as 10-6 instead of 9-5, can help employees better to balance their responsibilities in and outside work.
Two-thirds of working time lost to absence is accounted for by absences of up to seven days. A fifth is attributed to absences of four weeks or more. Absence levels are highest in the public sector, at 8.7 days per employee per year, and lowest in the manufacturing and production sector, at 6 days per employee per year. Absence levels tend to increase with organization size, regardless of sector.
Just under half of absence in the public sector is short term, compared with over three-quarters in the private sector. Smaller organizations attribute a higher proportion of their absence to short-term leave compared with larger organizations.
The benefit of changes to working patterns has been recognized by many employers, with more than 70 percent of organizations reporting a positive impact on employee motivation and employee engagement. A further 46 percent also stated they were using flexible-working options to support employees with mental-health problems.
A quarter of organizations say that "pulling a sickie" is still a common cause of short-term absence, which is an increase on last years figure of 17 percent.
Dr Jill Miller, CIPD research adviser and co-author of the report, said that increased flexible-working opportunities helped employers to attract and retain talented people. Flexible working also helps employees to achieve a better work-life balance generally, making them healthier, more productive and less likely to take time off sick.
"Changing demographics, including more people with caring responsibilities and the abolition of the default retirement age, mean more people are looking to work untraditional hours. Offering more flexible working opportunities also helps to respond to the needs of the UKs aging workforce, in which older employees will increasingly need and want to work in different ways and with different hours as they move towards retirement."
Survey highlights the top challenges facing HR
Leadership development, employee engagement and attracting the best talent are the main challenges facing HR globally and in the UK.
The figures, from market-research firm ORC International, have been released from the companys global HR Reflections survey, which received more than 1,000 responses across 20 different sectors and 27 countries.
Almost 60 percent cite innovation as critical to remaining competitive but many have neither the time nor budget to dedicate to it. Many blame organizational culture for innovation not being given the focus it needs. In the UK many respondents say innovation is not being rewarded and bureaucracy hinders it.
More than 70 percent of respondents believe there is a skills gap in their organization – mostly among managers and top leadership. More organizations are reporting difficulties filling vacancies than a year ago.
Companies seem particularly challenged by engaging 18 to 30-year-olds. Most respondents believe these people take a short-term approach to career growth, learning all they can from their employer and then moving on.
Discouraging home-working is like holding back the tide
Moves by Yahoo and Hewlett Packard to discourage employees from working from home are "like holding back the tide".
Kevin Young, general manager at Skillsoft, a provider of on-line learning and e-learning, commented: "The explosion of on-line, social and mobile technologies has resulted in a 24/7 worldwide workplace. As a result many employees now consider flexible working a basic employee right."
"It is not only staff who expect it; customers enjoy it and organizations want it, as they see efficiencies soar. Not only does it help to foster a friendly working environment and drive a more positive attitude from staff but it also increases employee productivity and retention."
"As technology continues to develop and working hours continue to move beyond the realms of 9-5, flexible-working options are only going to increase. Therefore organizations need to ensure that the criteria for measuring employee success change in tandem. It should not be about how much time we spend at our desks and where, but about the quality of work that is produced, whether this be at home, in the office or on the train."
He conceded that many organizations may have concerns about the sustainability of such an approach, but believes that these can be eliminated if managed correctly.
"The biggest worry for any businesses is that if staff no longer walk into an office and see the logo of the company they represent they soon forget they are part of a much bigger picture and have corporate responsibilities," he said. "Therefore to make any flexible-working policy succeed, organizations need to realize that communication is key."
Regular telephone meetings could be used to maintain the "visibility" of employee actions on a daily basis, while e-learning and electronic resources could provide a useful method to ensure that staff have easy access to the latest training and resources, regardless of their location, he concluded.