Do the Boss a Favor and Cut Employees Loose
Do the boss a favor and cut employees loose
Just when you thought the job of an IT professional couldn’t get any more complicated, you find out that employee retention needs to be on your radar as well. It’s expensive to lose good people, not least because it’s costly to replace them. There’s recruitment, training, and the time it takes to build their corporate knowledge. That means it’s all hands on deck when it comes to finding ways to keep (the right) employees.
Two kinds of freedom drive loyalty
It turns out that 72 percent of your employees want to be enabled to work from anywhere, and 43 percent of them told Redshift Research in a survey that having that ability is a powerful driver of loyalty to their employer. Given that we’re long past the time when a notepad and pen were all you needed to work from anywhere, the ball is in IT’s court on this one.
The same seven out of ten employees want another kind of freedom: the freedom to try tools they think might make them more effective in their jobs. Only 19 percent of employees say the freedom to try new tools doesn’t affect their job satisfaction.
The boss wants it too
Employers are aware of the power of technology tools to attract and retain the best people, which is why 84 percent of them want to implement those tools, according to Redshift Research’s findings. They see flexibility as particularly important, with 64 percent believing it ”very important” to have the flexibility to work from anywhere.
This is coming from the top. The more senior the respondent, the more strongly they feel. Flexibility is either a “must have” or “very important” to 82 percent of senior management.
Most employers know they have a long way to go—72 percent say their company could do better to enable flexible work with technology.
Having it both ways
Of the 21 percent of employees who work exclusively from the corporate office, half say that’s because they like it that way. Most of the other half say their job makes it impossible to work remotely.
The 79 percent who do work remotely at least once a week say they’d consider moving on if that flexibility were taken away. Nearly two-thirds of people looking for work currently cite working remotely as a priority. Roughly a third of the people won’t even consider a job where remote working isn’t a possibility.
Of those presently working where remote working isn’t an option, 84 percent say they’d try working from elsewhere if it were offered as an option.
It’s unlikely that the trend is going to be reversed or that the best employees are going to change their minds and ask for less freedom and flexibility. It’s time for IT to climb on board before the boss starts asking why all the good people are going.
Worksighted Team
We are a team of over-enthusiastic people, ready to help our clients utilize technology to spur growth! We love technology and come to work every day eager to solve problems and find ways to impact our clients.
