“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Peter Drucker
Many organizations are being forced to reimagine the workforce at a rapid pace. Digital transformations, the pandemic, cultural shifts, and a new generation of workers demand companies show up for them in ways they haven’t before.
If you’re wondering how to attract top talent to activate progress and impact growth, there are a few considerations when it comes to your leadership, strategy, culture, and benefits for your workers that will make an immediate impact.
Organizational Empathy
Empathy is shown to be one of the most important leadership traits, according to recent research. How leaders show it and are actively intentional about it is key.
Intentional efforts
How you show empathy as an organization starts before a person begins the interview process. Invest in your brand and communicate it actively to all talent. Continue that communication throughout the interview process. Make sure you set specific parameters for touching base to keep prospective talent engaged and interested so they feel engaged throughout their time with your organization.
Because non-employees are often left off company-wide communications, perform pulse checks to validate contractors’ experience and ensure they feel included and connected.
Promote inclusivity. ”Inclusion impacts the bottom line, not only through policy and in practice, but culture, too,” Johnny C. Taylor, Jr, CEO and President of SHRM, told Forbes. “Reexamine antiquated paradigms and develop policies that support your unique company culture.”
Remember your workforce mix
In most organizations, the non-employee population is as big as the employee one. Often, this means their expectations of how, when, and where they work may be different, and leaders need to account for that. Second, your workers are made up of moms, dads, and caregivers, which means flexibility and empathy are required to ensure your workforce is happy and healthy.
According to a recent WerkLabs report, the most desirable prospective workplaces for moms create adaptable and equitable workplaces and offer comprehensive mental health and wellbeing programs, regardless of whether they are engaged as a full-time or contract worker.
Life outside of work is more critical than ever
The pandemic taught us that the elusive work/life balance is more important than ever before. Families need the gift of time, and the less time spent commuting and running from one activity to another means more time spent together. This means empowering families by providing flexibility that is meaningful to their situation. It’s not just about flexibility and empathy— personalization matters, and individualized plans, while they may seem overwhelming, may help you attract (and, more importantly, keep) highly-skilled talent.
Managerial Consideration
Managers are conduits of their culture. The organizational empathy we talked about earlier must be delivered, in large part, by the individual hiring managers (and supported by senior leaders). To do this, managers must be aware of their role in providing this support.
Contractor work/life needs
Remember, most people who actively seek contract work do so because of the flexibility (this is especially critical for working moms). Having the ability to tend to life outside of work is crucial to their happiness and overall success.
Co-creation of schedules & workload
Flexibility isn’t just remote work. It encompasses choosing where you work, deciding on your work hours, and feeling supported by your manager to get work done. As a manager, being able to have open, honest discussions about what flexibility means to each of your team members can have a big impact on retention and output.
Clarification of performance assessment
In that same Werklabs report, 94% of professionals surveyed said having a company culture that is focused on growth and development is an important consideration factor for them. While it’s harder to give performance feedback to non-employees, there is room for managers to work with suppliers to give direct feedback so people who work for you know how they are doing and how they can improve. In fact, 71% of contingent workers surveyed said career development efforts foment feelings of support in project-based roles.
Flexibility
The ability to work remotely or from a location of their choice is the number one motivating factor driving professionals to contingent work, according to the survey.
Reduced rigidity, increased adaptability
In other words, the most successful organizations are agile and able to reimagine work outside of the traditional 9-5, Monday through Friday office routine.
According to the report, 71% of respondents were drawn to project-based work because it offers greater opportunities to work remotely or work from a place of their own choosing. This has been backed up by hundreds of other surveys. A PWC report showed that almost a quarter of employees are considering or planning to “move more than 50 miles away from a core office location. That’s on top of the 12% who have already made such a move since the start of the pandemic.”
Greater Autonomy
Employees value paid time off and not just to vacation or sit at home. People are using this time to upskill, reskill, take continuing education classes, and volunteer, all of which benefit their current and future employers. Let people have time to decide what they need, both personally and professionally, and you’ll have a much happier, more productive workforce.
Project Alignment and Variety
A flow-to-work model isn't new, but it’s become vital post-pandemic. McKinsey research during the pandemic showed that “responsive organizations outperformed their less agile peers by pivoting teams to solve new problems as they arose.” This means, for both employees and non-employees, pivoting people into roles where they may be successful (regardless of their resume skill set) can quickly solve business problems. It also provides the variety people are looking to feel continuously challenged in their work.
Partnering with The Mom Project means you gain access to the most qualified, diverse talent available. As leaders in the market with a network of over 650,000 pre-vetted, experienced, and engaged women ready to make a difference (63% actively looking for contract roles), we can purposefully connect you with an ecosystem of highly-skilled moms ready to make an impact. In fact, our highly skilled moms are three times more likely to use TMP than other recruiters.
So, what are you waiting for? Reach out to us at info@themomproject.com or click here to learn more about how we can help solve some of the critical business challenges above.
