There’s an awful lot in the news and on the Internet at the moment about Bad Employers and how they have let down staff, customers and the general public, but very little about what makes a Really Good Employer!
This prompted me to seek the opinions and suggestions from some CIPD colleagues on LinkedIn and a cross section of my small business clients in Shropshire, to see if it was possible to come up with our own shopping bag of skills and attributes.
This is what we came up with …
A Really Good Employer:
1. DIRECTS
They have ambition and direction for their business, plus a clear set of targets, goals and values that are understood by everyone – giving meaning and purpose to every job holder.
2. RESPECTS
They respect and care about their people, providing well-thought out benefits and fair remuneration, treating people as individuals and giving them autonomy.
3. DEVELOPS
They cultivate the full potential of their employees by investing in training and development opportunities, setting individual targets and goals, as well as providing constructive feedback on performance.
4. BALANCES
They recognise the importance of life inside and outside work by promoting honesty, openness and equity, providing a safe and healthy work environment and adopting flexible working practices wherever possible.
5. LISTENS
They actively listen to their people, seeking staff feedback and implementing good ideas and suggestions on a regular basis.
6. REWARDS
They recognise and reward success by using creative incentives and reward programmes and publicly congratulate their employees.
7. GIVES BACK
They recognise the importance of social responsibility and give something back to their community and support charitable endeavours.
These all help engender pride and commitment in what people do at work and ultimately it makes them want to give a little bit more, that illusive ‘discretionary effort’. That has to be a winning combination!
What would be in your Really Good Employer shopping bag?
For the traits of Perfect Employees (or Minions) have a look at our latest Video.