As an employer, it is imperative that alongside your business goals and aims, attracting and retaining staff is high up on your priority list, and in order to successfully do that, you must begin to take into account workplace trends and process advancements with the employee in mind.
Here at MDA Training, we understand how embracing new workplace trends could transform your business, and failure to do so could see you risk being left behind! See our top 5 2017 workplace trends you, as an employer should take notice of below:
Focus on improving workplace experiences for all employees
This covers everything from finding more innovative ways to engage and train your staff (read one of our many blogs on these topics here), through to simply keeping your employees ‘in the loop’.
In 2024, one of the largest factors of job satisfaction is set to be the physical experiences of each employee in the workplace, right from the initial recruitment process.
Employee retention and engagement are amongst some of the top concerns for HR professionals in recent years, and one of the most effective ways to eradicate this issue is through investing more in workplace training.
Workplace training is a fantastic way to help improve employee engagement and experiences but the key here is to listen to the needs of each individual. For example, if your top talent feels undervalued, they will start to look elsewhere.
When you compare the cost of implicating further training within your teams to the cost of replacing important members (on average up to 3x each individual's salary), it really is a no-brainer.
Continual reviews as opposed to annual reviews
Regular reviews, such as monthly 1-2-1 sessions are a proven tactic in improving both employee satisfaction and productivity within a person's role.
These less formal and more frequent discussions allow issues to be raised and addressed in a timely manner, and by taking time out to ‘check in’ with your staff, you can help to increase the employee's sense of value to the business - something which is of particular importance to the Millennial generation.
Millennials and Generation Z in the workplace
As 2016 marked the first year that Generation Z were able to enter the full-time workplace, and the fact that by 2025, Millennials alone will make up 75% of the average workforce - it is paramount that these demographic groups are a key focus when considering any changes to your organisation's workplace environment.
Unlike their generational predecessors, Gen Z’s and Millennials have a much higher desire for continual training and development with ambitious goals for career development, this to them is non-negotiable, and as such - employers must plan ahead or risk losing their future leaders to more appealing offers from competitors.
Experiential training via augmented and virtual reality
Experiential training is a key trend for 2017, with the acknowledgement that traditional and more corporate methods have become ineffective and disengaging. Augmented and virtual reality help to improve engagement with training and also helps to represent a company that wants to keep up with technological advancements. This type of training is particularly useful when training Millennials and Generation Z, due to their ‘digital native’ status.
More casual working environments
Encouraging a more casual working environment is said to be a key factor when selecting a company to work for, with 27% favouring a casual dress code or no dress code at all. This doesn’t mean encouraging tracksuit bottoms and pyjamas but does mean stepping away from the traditional jacket and tie favoured within the corporate industries in the past. The key is to allow employees to feel comfortable, but also ready to work - particularly during the warmer summer months.