Employees want:
• To help the company develop more business.
“I always use my full potential, even now during this crisis I am busy”…”All is fine”…”Staffwell has given me a lot of opportunity to grow and I am very happy with this, I have all I need”…”Nothing”…” Nothing needed”…”The company gives me new responsibilities and Angela often gives me new work when the accounting rules change”…”All is used now”…”We respect the staff a lot, there is no discrimination, I feel very comfortable at Staffwell, I am happy and will do anything to help”…”The chance you gave me to come back to the company is doing that”…”Now I am stimulated and it is important that people like my work and I am now working from 95 to 99%. The PR Director title was important for me and so was the salary increase, as it made me feel needed and appreciated”…
A lot of staff and management answered they were content with what they had and where they were right now. This showed me that, overall, we were doing pretty well in terms of employee motivation, and there was a fairly high satisfaction rate among the group.
Employees want:
• To be where they are already are, sometimes, and to have what they already possess.
“I am able to help with anything”
I thought this was a great answer as it illustrates an attitude that I appreciate in employees. I noted this person’s availability to assist with anything, and that I may use them, where appropriate.
Employees want:
• To help the company in any way they can, or as needed.
“I would like to try up-grading my LinkedIn account in order to post vacancies”…
I think this is a reasonable idea. I am willing to try anything, within reason, that might help us increase business. LinkedIn is a very useful business tool for networking as one can see the career history of those within your contact base, and it is fairly easy to connect with people that you may otherwise not meet or become acquainted with.
We would pay for up-grading this person’s LinkedIn account to see what the potential benefits are. If they are positive, then we will consider up-grading more of the accounts for our front office team.
Employees want:
• To try new avenues that may help enhance company results.
“I would like to try networking events, but to go with someone else for the first time, the only thing that I know in theory is personal networking, I’ve never done professional networking but I think I could do it”…”I would like to participate in finance conferences, to understand the business and sector better”…
These comments are from two Consultants that are interested in advancing themselves, for which I can only have respect.
Professional networking, at business club events or at conferences, is a vital part of our business success and it does take practice in order to attain a certain comfort level. Most everyone we meet at such events may become a client or candidate; now, or at some point in the future. Accordingly, I decided that I needed to look into this for the first Consultant commenting above, as well as for others.
The second Consultant quoted recruits mainly finance professionals, such as Chief Financial Officers, Finance Directors and Chief Accountants. It would likely be beneficial to her, and others in her sector, to attend a finance conference or meeting to better understand the sector – and also to meet potential candidates, or clients, they might not otherwise have known about.
Employees want:
• To try new avenues to help increase their results for the company; and
• To push themselves out of their comfort zone, on occasion.
“I would also like additional education in HR”…
Unfortunately, for this particular person, this is something we are unwilling to offer. She is not currently in an HR position within our company and has never performed in an HR Management role. Furthermore, the cost of the program is not a minor issue to us, especially during this period of economic weakness.
In this situation, should this person really want an HR education leading to an HR Management role, I believe that she should attend night courses at her own expense. She may get much more satisfaction in having done it all through her own efforts.
Having said all that, I may consider mobilizing our own HR Manager to give some general HR training to the team, including to this person, to promote better understanding of the role that many of our clients have in their companies.
Employees want:
• Things that sometimes have nothing to do with their role;
• To enhance their education; and
• What they are unable to get, sometimes, or with their current employer.
“More positions”…”Take part in new projects or trainings or to work in other sectors, wider work”…”I am pro-active, I suggested to Nadya that I work with clients and I do now, I am open to anything the company gives me, plus I also act as the help desk guy for the office”…”I like very difficult recruitment assignments, or to work in Marketing”…”I would like to be given help with recruitment tasks, to get used to it”…
When the work-load is too light and people are under-utilized in their jobs, additional work and loading people up can, I feel, only benefit the employees and the company. I acknowledged this in the comments and requests above.
The very last comment above came from one of our receptionists. I further asked her whether she had ever been given any tasks from other departments to work on while she performs her reception duties. She replied that she does not get any requests for work or any offers to contribute, where appropriate and needed.
I was quite surprised to hear this. I then asked if she knew what her direct reporting line was and the manager to whom she is subject to – to which she replied that she did not.
I immediately sorted out both issues. I assigned her a direct report and instructed the recruitment team to give her some of their administrative work to do, to aid them – but also to help develop her.
As organized as you may think your company is, I believe that you always need to walk around and check to see if it really is that way. An even more effective method, I feel, is to have one-on-ones with your staff, as I have obviously done in this case.
Employees want:
• More work, if not over-burdened, and to be busy;
• Challenging work and to try different roles; and
• To be developed for growth positions.
“Working closely with Directors and Management team in all offices as we grow”…
This person would like to work more closely with our Directors’ team and management, which could mean that one day he will also strive to be a member of one of those teams – or, perhaps, he may simply enjoy their company.
Regardless, I made a note to have Directors and management engage this person more and, out of curiosity, I also made a note to observe this person’s career progression over the next few years.
Employees want:
• Closer relations and access to more senior members of the company; and
• To be a part of the geographical growth of the company.