The constant and evolving organisational landscape often sees organisations face a plethora of challenges to keep up, maintain relevance and competitive advantage. With Australia’s population ageing and facing retirement, a number of conflicts present themselves to the workplace including:
Australian businesses are facing the task of retaining talent, maintaining knowledge, and key skills and subsequently performance and workplace productivity in a tight labour market and
Age discrimination (unfortunately) is still evident, in particular during recruitment drives, with mature candidates often being overlooked for their younger counterparts.
It is an organisations best interest to ensure its leaders play a key role in retaining knowledge and skills from more mature employees, whilst recognising the benefits of hiring mature employees.
Some initiatives to do this include:
For further information on what your organisation could do to retain mature workers and reduce stereotypes, please contact Eva and her team via Email: eva@nurturehrconsulting.com.au or Phone: 02 43 125 120.
This year’s Melbourne Cup winner, “Almandin”, ridden by Jockey, Kerrin McEvoy was flawless in his race to the finish. His determination and dedication to be successful and do his utmost to be first over the line was apparent, right up until the very end when “Almandin” and fellow runner “Heartbreak City”, were neck and neck.
Kerrin McEvoy who 16 years’ prior was Melbourne Cup winner on a horse named “Brew”, has maintained his passion, drive and effervescence for the sport, so what keeps an individual motivated to keep striving for success?
For many organisations, employees much like the Kerrin McEvoy’s out there, they are relentless in their efforts, drive and devotion to continued success. In our ever-increasing changeable climate, organisations need to ensure that those employees are adequately rewarded and recognised so they are retained within the organisation and to ensure their motivation and engagement is preserved and retained.
An organisation with enthusiastic and engaged employees can be the difference between a successful organisation and a genuine industry leader. So how can organisations entice and motivate employees to go the extra mile. Some actions may include:
Saying a simple thank you or well done
Providing mentoring opportunities
Asking employees what motivates them and rewarding them based on their responses
Introduce a peer nomination scheme, where employees are encouraged to nominate their peers for recognition
An employee recognition award – recognising an outstanding employee accomplishment
A personal letter of thanks to the employee or team member from a senior manager for a significant contribution
Celebrate achievements
Formal reward and recognition programme
For further information on how to sustain success within your workforce, please contact Eva and her team via emailing eva@nurturehrconsulting.com.au
Although we are all varyingly dissimilar and similar to one another, how is it that some people are better employees than others?
Typically, a great employee is someone considered to be: • Productive • Honest • Self-motivated • Reliable • Ethical • Communicative • Committed • Passionate • Task focused • Dedicated
Many of these predictors appear to be personality traits, interestingly research has found a correlational relationship between vocational choice and personality traits (Garcia-Sedeño, Navarro & Menacho, 2009; Nordvik, 1996). Therefore, if in the same fields we all have similar personalities, why are others ahead?
A recent analysis by Uusiautti and Maatta (2015, pp. 34-38) found the best predictive qualities of a great employee, is their appreciation for challenges, exceptional interpersonal skills, autonomous working skills, the belief that work is rewarding accompanied with a positive attitude towards work. Many people possess some of these skills individually, but when all are acting in conjunction with one another, success is apparent. These attitudes have also been linked to high productivity, long term success and a greater sense of wellbeing (Sherman, Randall & Kauanui, 2015).
Furthermore, Uusiautti and Maatta (2015, pp. 141) determined that an equally fundamental factor of great employees are positive work experiences; from the work itself and the employee’s experiences at work. Successful workers need successful work environments to flourish in conjunction with the individual personality traits. A supportive work environment is central to an employee’s ability to achieve.
For further information on this, please contact Eva and her team at Nurture HR Consulting via phone 43 125 120 or email: eva@nurturehrconsulting.com.au
I am often asked what is the best way to reward employees? Reward and recognition is something that means different things to each of us, based on our own values and stages in life. Due to this, there is never a simple answer, rather I recommend you consider the following in determining the best way to reward your employees:
What does the individual value most e.g. financial or non financial reward or in turn public recognition versus a simple thank you?
The following examples, demonstrate different types of reward based on our values and stages of life for example:
* Employee A is currently undertaking further education, hence they may place more value on time off to enable them to study * Employee B may value financial reward, as they have recently purchased their first home * Employee C may value flexibility in the way they can work, due to family or caring commitments * Employee D places value on being recognised by other team members for the great work they’ve accomplished * Employee E does not like a fuss, however likes to be acknowledged by their manager when they have completed their work to a superior standard
Once you understand what your employees value, you are better equipped to determine the best way to reward your employees on a case by case basis.
For more information on reward and recognition please contact eva@nurturehrconsulting.com.au
