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Creating a company that staff love to work for
There are plenty of rewards for companies that set themselves apart as employers of choice. Consider how prioritising staff happiness can be the key to success.
There are some important lessons SMEs can learn from becoming an employer of choice. Creating a reputation as a desirable workplace can improve productivity and staff retention, attract higher-calibre candidates during recruitment and even have flow-on effects such as improved brand recognition and customer engagement.
What Makes a Company Desirable to Work For?
If you take a look at the best companies in the world to work for, there are several traits that crop up time and again:
- Work-life balance for employees: This relates to a company's flexibility in terms of hours and place of work, amount of annual leave, entitlements and so forth.
- Incentives: Salary is no longer everything. Incentive-based rewards, staff and partner discounts, and health and fitness programmes are all ways to boost a company's desirability.
- Equal opportunities: Equal-opportunity employers, with staff from diverse gender, social and cultural backgrounds, tend to be viewed much more favourably within the workforce.
- Management structure: The integrity, approachability and visibility of senior managers says a lot about whether a company is a good place to work.
- Corporate social responsibility: The most attractive employers tend to be very generous with their money, time and resources when it comes to charitable causes and community events.
SMEs at the Forefront of Company Culture
There are plenty of SMEs that have already taken on board the lessons of positive company culture and tailored them to suit their own operations and workforces.
Some examples were highlighted in Australia recently by the UK's BBC, where bespoke perks and policies for staff have been devised in a bid to boost their productivity and sales performance.
"It's about results and trust, not location or hours," says Filtered Media co-founder Heather Jones.
Among the firm's policies are flexibility in the hours and place of work, an additional day of annual leave for each employee for their birthday and two "Yolo Days", whereby an employee can take a paid day's absence whenever and for whatever purpose they choose.
Similarly, the BBC examined In Marketing We Trust, where founder Frederic Chanut encourages his employees to balance their work and life commitments, noting that just three of his 10 employees work out of his Sydney office. Mr Chanut also hired employees based abroad, in Mexico and Vietnam, allowing him to tap into a much broader skills base than may have been possible in a rigid office-based environment.
While it is generally large international corporations that receive commendation for their employee-friendly policies, SMEs and startups around the world are successfully tapping into work culture as a means of improving their own operations. Given it's a win-win for everyone involved, the trend is likely to grow.
For more information on how you can transform your company's culture, visit the Ministry of Manpower's dedicated website on Work-Life Harmony and check out other articles from myBusiness, such as How to retain employees for the long run.
What do you think makes a company desirable to work for? Post your comment below.