Six Figures Blog

I read many Human Resource and Recruitment publications online and offline. Occasionally, I find something of interest (generally it’s online in overseas newsletters, blogs, forums, etc); however, more often than not it is the same content that I have read over 10+  years, just written differently.

In a recent HR publication ( I cannot remember which one), there was an article about how to keep employees more loyal and engaged at work.  There were about five things – as I recall – and the article went to great lengths to say that salary was not really a key, which I question. Of course salary is important. As much as employers may like to deny it, as it may be seen as politically incorrect, in private they know it is what determines the calibre of employees they can attract and retain. Now it’s not the only driver; but it is one of the key ones.

The article went on to discuss all sorts of other fluffy ideas about what employees want and how to keep then engaged. Training, which is important, was another key topic covered (although this depends on the training given). Training is a broad topic – unless it is relevant and of a high standard, training can fall short of employee expectations in which case it adds little value to either party.

What the article did not go into was training beyond their current job. At the senior levels, our job seeker research has continually shown that one of the greatest career frustrations employees have is that there is very little opportunity to move into a different role or profession, be that with a current or new employer. We are all typecast so to speak. While most job seekers at the professional and senior levels want the opportunity to be challenged and to take on new roles, most employers want to hire someone who has done the same job before many times over. They want to replace whoever left with another person just like them. Hardly the way to inject any innovation or life into an organisation one would think, yet it does seem to be the norm!

The article failed to also cover the fact that employees want great leadership, they want to work for someone and an organisation where they feel inspired. It seems to me that too many organisations want to deal with the simple stuff i.e. roll out more training and give a few more benefits rather than address the real issues of what makes people thrive in a workplace and what leads to increased loyalty.  It is my belief that we all want a good salary (to be paid fairly for the work we do); to feel challenged and engaged; and have some assistance with career management at work to expand our skill set beyond the same thing. Finally, we want to work with good people and inspiring leaders.

So I put the question to you – is all the other stuff just window dressing and making something fairly obvious and basic far more complicated? What is it that you want from the organisation where you work?