[oc_spacer height=”15″]Does this sound odd? Not at all. Here’s how employers gain and retain highly qualified staff through digital workspaces – even though they are seen less often at the office. Ball baths, slides, hangout lounges, company cars, massage vouchers… the list of incentives, which employers hope will attract the best employees, is long. And while, of course, every employee is pleased about a bit of attention by the employer, not every company has to dig so deep into the bag of tricks and pockets, such as Google and Co., to increase its own appeal. The difficulty that most employers face is the skills shortage, for example in the IT sector, or the futile search for the big innovators. In the age of Industry 4.0, repetitive tasks can be digitalised, while flexible problem-solving and creativity become increasingly important. It is therefore vital to attract the brightest brains and retain them long-term in the business. A simple and highly effective tool to achieve this are digital workspaces. They meet a number of employee desires, cost little and increase both staff satisfaction as well as their productivity.
From Customer First to Employee First
Many experts, among them Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, agree that within the company, the employee has to come first, ahead of the customer – Employee First. The philosophy is that happy employees ensure that customers are also satisfied. The reason for this is that happy employees are more motivated when they are engaged with their company and interested in its success. They also work more effectively than their dissatisfied colleagues. If employees of a business are happy in their job, then fluctuations as well as absences decrease demonstrably, while the employer’s brand improves, market share increases and higher profits are generated.
Enable real Work Life Balance
So what makes people happy in their job? Apart from factors such as level of responsibility, financial reward and further development, the buzzword Work Life Balance crops up in every discussion around staff satisfaction. There are few job advertisements of renowned law firms or large management consultancies that do not feature this phrase. However, balancing work and leisure time means a lot more than not working over the maximum 48 hours per week.
Even though it is generally well-known that being present in the office does not necessarily mean more productivity, this logic is still silently ignored in most companies in favour of conventional working time structures. The employer cannot prescribe what work life balance means in each case, only the employee can decide. While some employees struggle to get on with work at home and are only really productive in the office, others have the best ideas in their spare time. Not everybody can do nine-to-five and some do not feel satisfied after a day in the office, but worn out. Therefore, the trend moves away from rigid working time patterns to Work Life Integration, i.e. a merging of work and leisure time. Jogging in the park, reading the newspaper or a lively discussion with friends – creatives draw their resources from positive experiences. Ringing phones and loud conversations in an open plan office or staring for hours at a screen, however, mostly lead to a lack of inspiration and therefore, not only creates dissatisfaction but also results in inadequate work outcome. Digital workspaces enable employees to merge work and leisure time. It allows the creative heads to retain their ideas wherever they may be, as all they need for their work is a web-enabled device.
Allow Space for Creativity
Aside from the very individual preferences of employees, scientists have discovered overarching trends with regard to the work environment. A study of the University College London has shown that creative ideas and insights take place in particular in places where employees can relax. What inhibits creativity, in contrast, is lack of privacy for people to concentrate, the study proved. Again, it’s the employees themselves, who know best how to implement these findings. For some, their favourite café is a place for relaxation, others relax best when at home in silence on their sofa. The employer also benefits from respecting these preferences, as employees who feel well also work much more productively.
“Digital is the new normal” – use the opportunities of digital workspaces for employee retention with oneclick™
“Digital is the new normal” the Belgian author author Peter Hinssen proclaims in his book with the same name, his insight has even been taken up by Commissioners of the European Union. Digitalisation influences many areas of life, one of them is working. Digital workspaces can be used independent of location, time and device. This increases both productivity and staff satisfaction. Each employee can decide freely, when and where they work and therefore gain valuable freedom with their lifestyle choices. Increased flexibility, higher productivity, absolute security, sustained staff retention and low costs: the oneclick™ platform is a universally deployable complete solution for the provision of applications and data. Workspaces in the browser allow working from anywhere, at any time and with any device, enabling attractive working times and balancing leisure time and work in an ideal way. Each employee has different interests, his or her own life rhythm and, of course, unique living circumstances. In view of these differences, some companies try to acquire staff with a broad range of offers. However, these efforts often only contribute in part to staff retention. Indeed, everybody leads a unique life and preferences diverge, but the desire for freedom and to organise their daily life according to individual requirements is what everybody has in common.
Sources:
- https://newworkblog.de/2015/08/11/new-work-das-ist-der-arbeitsplatz-der-zukunft/
- https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2014-2019/oettinger/blog/digital-new-normal_en
- https://www.unternehmer.de/management-people-skills/160719-faktoren-mitarbeitermotivation
- https://www.unternehmer.de/wp-content/magazine/2017/07_worklifebalance_2017.pdf
- http://www.stepstone.de/b2b/stellenanbieter/jobboerse-stepstone/upload/studie_gluck_am_arbeitsplatz.pdf
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlmoore/2012/05/14/employees-first-customers-second-why-it-really-works-in-the-market/#bbcf8f312c4e
