Embrace The Changing Tides Of HR And The Employee Relationship Economy Era
What’s fueling the workplace changes?
Posted on 05-23-2018, Read Time: Min
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More than 63 million people changed or separated from their jobs in 2017. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this marks the highest annual turnover in nearly two decades. Even as employees enter and exit organizations at a high rate, employer-employee relationships have evolved. These relationships are no longer finite; they often start with recruiting, but no longer end when an employee leaves the company. Nowadays, the employer-employee relationship transcends the norms and boundaries of the period of employment, often moving far beyond outplacement and job transition. The modern employer-employee relationship is built for the long haul and upon the foundations of trust and transparency.
No longer is the end of a stint with a company under a specific title or role the end of the employer-employee relationship, or end of a career. Employees view their jobs as opportunities to pursue their passions, experience professional growth, expand their networks, and gain new experiences. At the same time, employers are beginning to see departing employees as future brand ambassadors, or even customers, hiring references, or boomerang employees. The emerging Employee Relationship Economy is built upon these relationships and sustained through individual organizations’ ability to maintain relationships with employees from the first contact and past separation with the company.
To fully understand what employers need to do to attract and retain employees in today’s business climate, it’s important to understand what’s fueling these workplace changes in the first place. To boil it down, we’re facing a paradigm shift toward the Employee Relationship Economy because the very concept of work—how it’s done, where, by whom, for how long, and who’s in charge—is changing dramatically. If you look beneath the surface, there are three factors driving this change: technology, the changing workforce, and globalization.
Millennials already assume their work will require the use and knowledge of quickly evolving technologies. Nearly 93% of GenZ-ers, the newest generation of employees entering the workforce, are so technologically savvy they believe it’s causing a gap with other generations. Baby Boomers who may be classified as less tech-savvy are updating their skills and gaining the knowledge they need to remain in the workforce.
The evolution of technology ultimately ensures efficient access to information about available jobs for potential and current employees. However, easy access to job opportunities can be a double-edged sword for organizations. On one hand, if employees aren’t getting the growth and learning opportunities they’re looking for at your company, they can easily search and land another job. For organizations hoping to retain valuable talent, redistribution of workers based on their skills and recognized areas for growth is key.
On the other hand, parts of the employee journey, such as outplacement and job transition services, are made much stronger by technological advances. Using a blend of high tech and high touch, outplacement services have become more personalized, transparent, innovative, and globalized than ever before. How employers handle voluntary and involuntary exits can make or break the future relationship with an employee. Organizations that dedicate time, energy, and resources into ensuring employees transition to the next part of their career smoothly proactively set the tone for the future of the relationship. As an added bonus, when exiting employees undergo less turbulence in the career transition process, they’re likeier to refer your business to their network, talk about your brand positively, and even return someday as a client, partner, or boomerang employee.
Philosophical shifts in human capital management are starting to include innovative approaches to fill unique talent needs. It’s becoming increasingly commonplace for organizations to loosen their requirements around job qualifications and look for key skills instead. Creative solutions like providing training for workers or partnering with an organization in a completely different industry to share talent for mutually beneficial projects will become the norm. At the same time, the rise of flexible work arrangements continues to prevail as workers demand work-life balance and permission to work wherever, whenever they want.
Employees now view the end of one job as an opportunity to pursue their passions, experience professional growth, or to expand their networks and experiences. For employers to invest in this beginning to beginning employee journey, they must think about every step of the process from recruiting to outplacement. Employers should assume departing employees are future brand ambassadors, customers, hiring references, or even boomerang employees. It’s easy to see why maintaining a positive employee experience is critical to branding efforts.Organizations hoping to stay competitive will have to rethink how they conduct reductions in force and layoffs, ensuring that the way employees leave their companies, and the support they choose to provide, mirrors the company’s stated values and allows for positive alumni sentiment and an open door to future partnerships.
HR’s role is more vital than ever; the best business strategies and products are meaningless without talented employee to build, maintain, and sell them. When considering the infinite employee journey, it’s important to give employees the right mix of purpose, challenge, growth, and satisfaction they need to stick around long term -- despite the access they may have to other job opportunities.
All of this is happening now, not ten years down the road. By 2020, as told by the RiseSmart guide to the Employee Relationship Economy, what we classify as creative employment will become the standard in hiring processes. The best and most sought-after talent will be able to cherry-pick their assignments with companies. They will choose to work for you only if and when you have established a reputation as a great place to work and have proven the value of your mission.
When we rethink what success looks like for HR, we begin to realize it hinges on building an engaging employee experience. It’s the relationships with your employees—past, future, and present—that will serve as the building blocks for your brand for years to come.
No longer is the end of a stint with a company under a specific title or role the end of the employer-employee relationship, or end of a career. Employees view their jobs as opportunities to pursue their passions, experience professional growth, expand their networks, and gain new experiences. At the same time, employers are beginning to see departing employees as future brand ambassadors, or even customers, hiring references, or boomerang employees. The emerging Employee Relationship Economy is built upon these relationships and sustained through individual organizations’ ability to maintain relationships with employees from the first contact and past separation with the company.
To fully understand what employers need to do to attract and retain employees in today’s business climate, it’s important to understand what’s fueling these workplace changes in the first place. To boil it down, we’re facing a paradigm shift toward the Employee Relationship Economy because the very concept of work—how it’s done, where, by whom, for how long, and who’s in charge—is changing dramatically. If you look beneath the surface, there are three factors driving this change: technology, the changing workforce, and globalization.
Technology: The Double-Edged Sword
In today’s business climate, technology transcends the employee experience. Prospective employees leverage tools like LinkedIn and search engines to find out more information about your employer brand and job opportunities. Recruiters, hiring managers, and employees on the hiring panels use technology to get to know the prospective employee and determine if they’re a fit based on skills and personality.Millennials already assume their work will require the use and knowledge of quickly evolving technologies. Nearly 93% of GenZ-ers, the newest generation of employees entering the workforce, are so technologically savvy they believe it’s causing a gap with other generations. Baby Boomers who may be classified as less tech-savvy are updating their skills and gaining the knowledge they need to remain in the workforce.
The evolution of technology ultimately ensures efficient access to information about available jobs for potential and current employees. However, easy access to job opportunities can be a double-edged sword for organizations. On one hand, if employees aren’t getting the growth and learning opportunities they’re looking for at your company, they can easily search and land another job. For organizations hoping to retain valuable talent, redistribution of workers based on their skills and recognized areas for growth is key.
On the other hand, parts of the employee journey, such as outplacement and job transition services, are made much stronger by technological advances. Using a blend of high tech and high touch, outplacement services have become more personalized, transparent, innovative, and globalized than ever before. How employers handle voluntary and involuntary exits can make or break the future relationship with an employee. Organizations that dedicate time, energy, and resources into ensuring employees transition to the next part of their career smoothly proactively set the tone for the future of the relationship. As an added bonus, when exiting employees undergo less turbulence in the career transition process, they’re likeier to refer your business to their network, talk about your brand positively, and even return someday as a client, partner, or boomerang employee.
The Future Work Mindset
Worker preferences are continuing to evolve, altering the norms for where, when, and how work gets done. Organizations have embraced the importance of giving technology access to the always-on, mobile workforce—but there are some newer trends to keep on your radar.Philosophical shifts in human capital management are starting to include innovative approaches to fill unique talent needs. It’s becoming increasingly commonplace for organizations to loosen their requirements around job qualifications and look for key skills instead. Creative solutions like providing training for workers or partnering with an organization in a completely different industry to share talent for mutually beneficial projects will become the norm. At the same time, the rise of flexible work arrangements continues to prevail as workers demand work-life balance and permission to work wherever, whenever they want.
Employees now view the end of one job as an opportunity to pursue their passions, experience professional growth, or to expand their networks and experiences. For employers to invest in this beginning to beginning employee journey, they must think about every step of the process from recruiting to outplacement. Employers should assume departing employees are future brand ambassadors, customers, hiring references, or even boomerang employees. It’s easy to see why maintaining a positive employee experience is critical to branding efforts.Organizations hoping to stay competitive will have to rethink how they conduct reductions in force and layoffs, ensuring that the way employees leave their companies, and the support they choose to provide, mirrors the company’s stated values and allows for positive alumni sentiment and an open door to future partnerships.
It’s a Small World
Specialized technology facilitates global networking and makes the job market much smaller. There might be a dream job opportunity for an employee in London, for example, and prior to a couple of years back, it’d be tough to connect the dots.HR’s role is more vital than ever; the best business strategies and products are meaningless without talented employee to build, maintain, and sell them. When considering the infinite employee journey, it’s important to give employees the right mix of purpose, challenge, growth, and satisfaction they need to stick around long term -- despite the access they may have to other job opportunities.
All of this is happening now, not ten years down the road. By 2020, as told by the RiseSmart guide to the Employee Relationship Economy, what we classify as creative employment will become the standard in hiring processes. The best and most sought-after talent will be able to cherry-pick their assignments with companies. They will choose to work for you only if and when you have established a reputation as a great place to work and have proven the value of your mission.
When we rethink what success looks like for HR, we begin to realize it hinges on building an engaging employee experience. It’s the relationships with your employees—past, future, and present—that will serve as the building blocks for your brand for years to come.
Author Bio
| Emily Elder is Senior practice development manager at RiseSmart. She uses her more than 15 years of expertise in the human capital business environment to help drive the evolution of RiseSmart’s career development practice areas, direct innovative solutions, and develop new programs to expand career management practice across the organization. Emily’s experience as a small business owner and consultant to Fortune 500 businesses has positioned her as a subject matter expert and gives her the unique ability to understand business issues from multiple perspectives. Connect Emily Elder Visit www.risesmart.com Follow @RiseSmart |
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