by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 23, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement
One of the foremost wanted employee benefits today is flexible work schedules and the environment. Aside from compensation, a flexible work setup is among the top thing a candidate would look, while searching for a job in today’s market, and this comes as no surprise. Technological advances have long been paving the way and it is a boon to an employee to achieve everything at a remote with cloud-based tools, real-time collaboration platforms, team messaging applications, and advanced video conferencing.
COVID-19 has brought restoration focus in flexible working as we all struggle to adapt to the present situation. However, the COVID-19 crisis isn’t the first or last major obstruction we are likely to face within the future and businesses should try to adapt.
While the advantages of the individual are strongly noticeable, the impacts on the employers aren’t always so clear. Vital brush back arguments often inculpate remote working allocation to cause authentic results, inconsistency from an immoderate amount of rescheduling, slower outputs, stifled teamwork thanks to less physical presence, and sacrifices to company culture. However, many companies that embrace flexible working environments especially software companies, in particular, are finding that the positives way outweigh the negatives.
Here is what many organizations are arguing that they are gaining from it:
Increased employee retention
Arguably the most important driver for companies to provide flexible working options is that the impact on employee retention rates. A report from the New York Times published that “flexible scheduling and work-from-home opportunities play a significant role in an employee’s decision to accept the offer or not, and Thrive Global quotes, according to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, “89 percent of companies report better retention just by offering flexible work options.” Particularly in an industry like software development where experienced developers are a very important part, flexibility has become an essential part of the employment offer.
Increased productivity
Providing employees the liberty to form their hours has led to a rise in productivity for several companies. When it happens to agile development, it’s not a prerequisite for everybody to be performing on the same thing at the same time. Employees can figure out when to work based on what most accurately fits them – some people are morning people while others are night owls. Some companies have expressed that employees who be flexible to regulate their schedules produce higher quality work more regularly.
More engaged team members
If staffs are happier in their work environment, then they seem to be more engaged. Sara Sutton Fell, founding father of Flex jobs, said, “Employees who feel entitled to design their work and personal lives according to their needs are more satisfied. When asked whether they’d rather have a flexible work environment or a pay raise, employees overwhelming to opt for flexible work”(source).
Access to a wider pool of talent during a broader geographic area
Companies that support the offering of flexible work and utilize the tools to their advantage have fewer reasons to control their recruiting geographically. This will provide enormous benefits on the whole because it opens the door to more talented individuals and may become a robust culture that draws other great people. Provided flexibility, it also grants companies the chance to work with talented individuals who can’t support traditional 9-5 roles due to disabilities, family responsibilities, or alternative reasons.
Making remote work, work
Considering everything, it’s a key that flexible working isn’t only offered as an employment perk but that it also works well for both parties. Being an individual you should realize and go the extra mile to fulfill the responsibility and add value, and therefore the company will revise its processes to handle a more dynamic environment. Everyone should have an understanding of what kind of jobs or tasks should make as a remote work a better option, and therefore the company must take the required measures to make sure that communication, company culture, and responsibilities are upheld. Going forward, all signs purpose to flexibility changing into a fair larger mainstay within the workplace.
There was an increase in the trend towards remote working even before COVID-19, created inevitable state of reality. For organizations that had been contemplating remote work activities, this present crisis can serve as a crucial testing land. There might be doing cut and try as leaders struggle to establish new relationships with their workers through virtual or remote applications. However, if they keep an open mind, and communicate effectively, it might be the dawn of a brave new age.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement
We are in the amidst of a pandemic, and the effect of the Covid-19 is increasingly being felt across the world. It is uncommon time of change and uncertainty. As more and more people are getting infected, employees are experiencing high levels of anxiety around the potential impact of the virus. The fear of falling sick and the anxiety concerning the social and economic impact of corona is inevitable. Some amount of stress is considered good for us, it helps us boost our responses and also allows to perform under pressure.
Anxiety acts just like a contagious virus. It transfers from one human to other. However, chronic and prolonged stress produces negative effect on our mind, body and soul. Workplace anxiety is even worse as it affects the productivity of the team. Along with circulating basic notices on what precautions to take and how to stop the spread of germs and viruses in the workplace or even at home, employers can follow below tips to combat employee fears and reduce symptoms of coronavirus anxiety.
Provide Information
Not having enough information about things is the main source of anxiety. Knowledge is key factor to resolve this, use information from WHO (World Health Organization) and other authorities to spread awareness about Covid-19 among employees. Detailed explanation on how it spreads, what it effects, who is most at risk and who is not, what are precautionary steps, methods to break the transmission chain etc. Also, someone who has recovered and has been released from isolation is not carrier of the virus and does not pose a risk of infection to other people, which will mollify fears of being around such people.
Communicate Frequently
Interacting periodically with employees to give updates lets them know that their employer is up to date and putting efforts to stay on top of things. Lack of communication can make some employees suspicious and feel that the employer is trying to hide things or just ignoring the situation. Let employees know what plans you have made, any new committees being formed, new budget allotted and any other significant actions.
Remind Employees about Company’s Health Benefits
Employer needs to make sure company’s health protocols are clear and accessible to all employees. Many companies offer assistance programs, this could be providing counseling over call to help understand the situation and reduce anxiety pertaining virus. Tele-health programs also help to clear doubts regrading normal flu, cold or fever by communicating with doctor over phone instead of going to their office.
Remote Working
Remote working is the best way to social distancing and putting unnecessary travel on hold. This is even more essential if known cases are positive in your company. Successful remote working requires proper planning. Supporting employees in setting up a working environment at home and providing all other basic amenities needed for work is one of the important steps. Also remember people working remote are prone to face psychological hazards related to loneliness and isolation. For well being of employees and resilience ensure connectivity. This could be achieved by weekly or daily calls. Online activities to socialize can be conducted to ensure employees well-being and involvement of everyone.
Reassurance and Additional Support
Irrespective of all these efforts some employees might still experience symptoms of distress and anxiety as the Coronavirus reaches its peak. This could be due to per-existing or other emotional struggles. To deal with this guide them towards additional emotional support, confidential interaction with counselors or mental health experts. Also organizing expert company talk on general coping mechanisms for anxiety will help those employees who are do not open up to managers or employers about their anxiety.
Nobody will feel better if their concerns are ignored. Let employees know that their concerns are normal and you as employer wants to hear them. Listen to them openly and do not react immediately to prove them wrong. Usage of reassuring language can help relive their stress
Conclusion
The series of incidence and experiences resulting in fear and anxiety pertaining to such significant challenge is understandable. Loss of lives, sudden changes to way of life, work and social distancing might result in stress and anxiety. It is important to realize the seriousness of situation but instead of panicking about the situation and spreading the same employees just need to be mindful and remember that fear is unhelpful. Others can support emotionally and in many other ways but it’s the individual who needs to look for its well being and stay calm in the middle of this global crisis. Spreading more and more awareness and standing together to fight this pandemic is the only way to overcome this positively.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement
With the spread of the coronavirus, it has affected everything to any extent, from travel to the even the availability of masks and hand sanitizer. Fan out of COVID-19 has shaken the whole world and has become a growing concern for all. To cope up with the present situation many companies are working remotely until the virus can be slowed.
Many people wish to work from the comfort of their own home. Whether you do it by choice or by necessity, working from home has its own benefits, like foregoing commute to save time in favor of few extra minutes of sleep, family time or even exercise. But working remotely also has its own challenges.
It is like a double-edged sword; you have to self-motivate yourself and get going to make as much out of your time as you would in your actual office. Staying productive at home requires constant extra efforts to be focused on actual working.
Weather its household chores or a quick binge of your favorite Netflix show which is more appealing than your to-do list or even the people around who aren’t working, you will find distractions in every corner at home. Also, for some people isolation or sudden cut to socializing at work makes them downer or feel emotionally low thus reducing their productivity.
So before discussing more in detail sit up straight, pull up your work pants and fill your stomach with healthy breakfast. Here are few tips to make yourself productive and accountable while staying focused and mentally healthy.
Find Yourself a Comfortable and Dedicated Work Spot
A comfortable workspace is the key. Find yourself a dedicated spot in the house (definitely not your bed or the couch in the living room) which is distraction free and gives you office vibes like something more structured that you can associate your job to and leave the place when you’re off the clock.
The daily drill of getting ready and going to office preps your brain for the day. Working remotely cuts off the drill part from your schedule, so to help your mind get work ready create few triggers, following the same routine works before leaving for office like making your coffee or breakfast, reading newspaper, exercising etc.
Also, to keep your brain in the working mode, avoid working on anything non work-related during office hours. Don’t do laundry and finish work presentation at the same time.
Prepare a To-Do List
A day planned properly can help keep yourself organized, increase motivation resulting in enhanced productivity. Prepare a to-do thinking about both short-term and long-term goals allocating specific time limits to all the tasks. Write or type the list instead of preparing it in your mind.
You shouldn’t waste your time and energy constantly recalling ad remembering the next task. Tick off the tasks as soon as you finish them, this lets you know that you making progress.
Break down bigger tasks into smaller ones, smaller tasks feel more doable instead of a giant one. And crossing smaller tasks one by one off your list gives you the pleasure and satisfaction of achieving something and being productive also boosts you up with positive energy.
Stay Connected with Your Team
Not everyone is used to working remotely on a regular basis for longer period of time. This might make you feel socially disconnected and lonely effecting your mental and emotional well-being. Try and find innovative methods to stay connected with your colleagues. Video conferencing is one such way help bridge the gap and talking face to face can build collaboration.
Technology has made our lives easy in many ways and so why not utilize it during this pandemic period. A recent survey tells that many professionals have shifted from telephonic conversations or meetings to video conferencing to increase virtual human touch feel.
Remember to ring every now and then to stay connected and it doesn’t have to be work related always. Sometimes hosting a fun meeting or a virtual coffee or pizza date discussing everything except work can help lighten up everyone’s mood.
Prioritize Your Health
Invest time in your health and wellness as it is crucial and important to happiness and a certain way to steer clear of cabin fever. Be clear and specific about your work timings, decide when your work timings begin and ends. Make some time to stretch in between and take breaks to refresh ad recharge.
Be kind to yourself and understand it takes time to adjust to the new work environment. Don’t over work, switch off completely after working hours to avoid unnecessary straining or burnout. Reach out for healthy juices, water and nuts and ditch regular drinking of soda, cold drinks and chips.
Communicate Effectively
Speaking face to face gives you better understanding of emotions while communicating. Remote conversing is difficult due to removal of a lot of extra information like emotions and visuals. Electronic communications can be misinterpreted easily. So be mindful about the words you choose and your tone while drafting emails or having conversation on instant messaging apps.
Put efforts to make yourself extra clear and concise. If not clear about anything ask questions to understand better before your reply. You can always opt for screen-sharing to get people on the same page and make them understand during meeting calls.
There are tools available to help you communicate effectively like Zoom, Slack can used for videoconferencing and chatting, Confluence for internal wiki, Google Suite for sharing spreadsheets, simple docs etc.
Conclusion
Working remotely is the need of the hour during coronavirus outbreak, it the only way to social distancing and breaking the infection chain. Working from home gives you the opportunity and liberty to develop healthier habits and make extra time for family while continue being productive during work hours.
Keep a check on your energy, don’t strain yourself or take things too hard on yourself. Limit your working only during the work hours. After work leave your cell and laptop outside your bedroom to get peaceful sleep and recharge yourself for the next day.
Managers should also understand that everyone needs different time span to adapt to the new work environment, communicate every now and then give as much information as possible to ease the burden caused by the disruption and help employees struggling with the change.
Don’t force people to add another level of stress. Hope all the above discussed tips help you navigate better in the new remote working environment.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 1, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement, Talent Acquisition
Hiring the right talent can be game changing for company. It will either make or break your business. Employee recruitment is all about stress management, as your hires will constantly be judged. Hiring highly talented people that match the expected skillset, expertise and personal qualities that align with your company’s goals and values is definitely not an easy task. And job growth and low unemployment across industries have boosted the competition for qualified candidates.
These five Tactics could help an organization entice, identify and secure ideal candidates with the right skills and best culture fit.
Be the Brand Personified
In today’s recruitment market brand is everything. A positive brand image can help a company compel top talent. It’s one of your most valuable assets and one of the main pulling powers that will entice top candidates. You need to think about this in the hiring process. Many candidates would consider leaving their current job if they received an offer from a different company with an excellent reputation.
You need to live up to the candidate’s expectations when working to entice talent. An organization’s brand is its representation to the public,be clear on who you are, consistent with regards to the brand message, and most importantly, be personally representative of the brand values.
Re-Evaluate Job Descriptions
It is essentially important to create unique job descriptions for each open role that reflects all the qualities you seek for in a candidate. Do not rely on standardized job descriptions that could be out-of-date or obsolete. Be clear about what you’re looking for from the very beginning. Include all your values and beliefs in the position description so every candidate has a clear idea of what you value as a company.
Few tips to consider:
- Make titles as specific as possible
- Write a captivating summary
- Include the core responsibilities
- Keep descriptions succinct
Attend events in addition to job fairs
Job fairs are often industry-based. While job fairs are helpful for finding industry specific candidates,non-recruitment events also provide excellent chances to meet highly motivated and inspiring industry professionals who are always eager to explore, network and advance in their field. To find such group events that are well-attended by professionals’ search forums like Meet up, Facebook, LinkedIn can be utilized. You can interact with qualified people and get them interested in your open position. You can also ask for referrals in other cases.
Get Social with the Candidates
Asking personal questions while interviewing candidates might seem right to few recruiters. But personal questions can often result in awkward and uncomfortable situations. To analyze a candidate better it is always better to spend time on candidate’s social media handles. This will definitely help while screening their answers during interview. Also, spending some time with candidates outside the office will get you a better understanding of how they act in social situations. You’ll be amazed to discover minute things about a candidate by researching their social presence. This can be a great strategy to implement.
Hire Potential Future Leaders
It’s not an easy task to figure out leadership qualities while interviewing candidates. But creating a flexible work staff is the way to creating a strong foundation for your company. Promoting people within organization is a quality of successful company. So, skip any random candidate and look for strong motivation for leadership. These are the ones which you need to get on board first.
Hiring a wrong person does more harm rather than an empty position. Recruitment has its own risks and pressure. But compromising is not the right way to cope up. Smart people working in a company results in outstanding business and to hire exceptional talent your recruitment strategy should be flawless and progressive. Utilizing above discussed tactics would definitely result in improved hiring rates both in terms of time and money, employee retention and workforce working at maximum speed, thus boosting organization’s bottom line.
by Raghu Nandhan | Sep 19, 2019 | Blog, Employee Engagement, Industry Trends
Considering millennial’s as the largest generation in the workforce, it’s necessary to find ways to nail the corporate culture since today’s corporate teams are mostly made up of millennial’s.
The millenary wants a strong culture where a company’s values and visions are clearly demonstrated and the work environment is fun.
But to keep these youngest workers from moving on before they fulfil their professional potential, here are following ways to entice the newest, biggest generation of workers to stick with your organization for the rewarding challenges it offers.
Make them engage in purposeful work that hit a larger goal:
Engaging in meaningful work is the foremost priority of millennials. JD is what entices the workforce so it’s important to take a hard look at the job description; process-oriented work is most likely to gain attention for a long time. Money isn’t the only thing driving force rather the work has to be meaningful. It is imperative for organizations to make sure to tie their job into the big picture and help the company fulfill its goals.
Offer transparent & performance-based pay:
These Millennial’s, like other generations are money-motivated, They expect to be fairly compensated, and they grew up with much more access to salary information – on the Internet and through their peers — than earlier generations had.
To retain these Millennial’s, companies need to move away from seniority-based, work-with-the-middle-of-pack approach, and individualize compensation,
and if you want Millennials to stay with your company, never stop offering them, performance based pay and opportunities to add more value and receive greater compensation in return.
Set a pace for rewards.
Millennia’s need to feel that they’re progressing in their field of work; they expect re-enforcement and spot bonuses. They expect to progress through titles and quickly to begin accommodating these preferences with blowing payroll.
Considering bonus strategy — Instead of giving a 3 percent annual raise — Provide a 1 percent increase every four months.
Proving the right Benefits and flexibility in job:
Office culture that promotes work-life balance (the norm these days) as the young generation respond positively to work flexibility. Due to the gig economy, the conventional 9-5 work is no longer the norm. It also encourages creativity and innovation.
To sum up, have an open door policy (sounds cliché but hardly practiced) which gives employees a sense of inclusiveness. Also, companies need to look beyond the ‘millennial’ reputation as job hoppers and focus more on their potential.
Providing guidance and creating opportunities for career development:
Millennial’s prefer bosses or managers who can coach them, guide them and at the same time give them trust and freedom to work on their own manner. And this requires clear disciplined communication, a mix of educational and motivational steps and apt mentor ship. Their skills set system allowing employees to get certified and attain a pay hike accordingly.
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by Raghu Nandhan | Sep 11, 2019 | Blog, Employee Engagement, Talent Acquisition
There are always certain vacancies in every organization for which employers are not sure whether to hire a permanent employee or not. This dilemma can be resolved by Temp-to-hire services.
The growing trend for employers in recent years has been to use staffing services to fill their open position through a temp-to-permanent or temp-to-hire strategy. The benefit to the employer is the opportunity to test-drive the relationship between the candidate and his job role before making the full-time commitment to him.
Temp-to-hire position is something where the job candidate is typically paid on an hourly rate for specified contract duration. Following that contract duration, the employer of the company or the end client that has hired the candidate has the option to convert him/her as a permanent employee.
In most of the cases, there are 3, 6, 9 or maybe 12 months temp-to-hires, 3-6 months being the most common contract duration.
With the help of Temp to hire services, it’s easier for the clients to test and judge the capability of the candidate. By doing this, the clients can get the right match to the position, by observing and testing the needful skills and qualities of the candidate.
Here are few advantages of temp-to-hire services in the perception of the job-seeker:
Generate Income
Whether you are between successes or embarking on different ventures such as looking at starting a Business, having a contract can sometimes generate immediate income for you in a short term.
Try Before Buy
Buy taking on temp to hire opportunity, you can work for an organization and see if you enjoy the work culture, the team, the work before you actually look at potentially working for this employer on a full-time basis.
Foot in the Door
This role may end up going permanent. So it’s a great way to get your foot in the door with an organization.
Keep Experience
You keep your experience relevant and current by taking on a contract opportunity.
Add experience
You can increase your experience and knowledge base in a particular area. This will be especially true to new comers in a country or to people who are looking to make a complete carrier change.
May Pay more
Typically with contracting, the employers pay a bit more. The reason for this is because they are compensating for lack of extra benefits that contract employees are eligible for.
Grow Network
This is the opportunity to network and meet new people. You never know who you might end up meeting who could be the lead to your dream job.
Easier to Find Job
It’s usually easier to find a job when you are already working. For many recruiters, the Holy Grail is the passive job seeker. So if you are working on a contract, most likely you are going to be targeted more by the recruiters.
Less Competition
Because contracting tends to be a less desirable option than working permanent full- time role, there is less competition in the market place for people who are looking for contract opportunities and with less competition, better your odds are for getting the interview and even getting the job.
There is no way that an employer can truly vet a job seeker effectively in any interview scenario, but temp- to-hire strategy gives you days and weeks to watch someone in action and truly see their skills and most importantly their work ethic.
Firms that adopt a temp-to-hire approach benefit from observing job candidates firsthand — and by hiring people who have gained a familiarity with your firm and its corporate culture. This approach to staffing provides a hands-on, realistic way of choosing a new employee with a lower risk of a hiring mistake.
Hence this is an effective way to get back potential candidates to work and save themselves from making expensive mistakes.
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