Three ways to ensure you offer a culture fit for the future Australian workforce

For decades, it was the catchphrase that echoed around the boardrooms of the world, not just Australia: “Our employees are our most valuable asset.”

But in practice, it had its sceptics and employees began to question if it was profit first above everything else, as they didn’t have a voice that was being heard by their bosses.

Nowadays in the post-pandemic era, the employee-employer model has changed dramatically, making companies more accountable to ensure they deliver on three fronts — employee-first, transparency and centricity.

The key for businesses of today is to retain a razor-sharp focus on employee value proposition, continue to invest in making workplace and HR practices modern, more globalised, innovative and talent transformative.

Three ways to redefine your employer brand

1. Maintain flexible working conditions

   As we all know, over the past two years the pandemic has raged the planet and impacted the bottom-line of a great number of businesses. Many who had to transition to a work from home (WFH) model had no previous experience of working this way. Regardless, the wellbeing of our employees and the safety of our employees and their loved ones was every organisation’s highest priority during this time.

   Today, employees are looking to maintain the flexibility many experienced for the first time during COVID-19. They would like to continue to work whenever, wherever and of course, from home if possible.

   The challenge on a company’s employer brand is to create a stable workforce and while there is a significant talent gap in many industries — including my own — we are already starting to see a flattening of attrition levels and hopefully this will stabilise further in the not-too-distant future. But one very important aspect for our company is the retention of our people across the board — from junior employees to senior leadership.

2. Offer training and development opportunities

   To create our next generation of leaders, leadership development programs are key. To do this successfully, look at what’s required of your employees in terms of coaching, mentoring and upskilling, etc. to ensure their career development and future success.

   According to a recent study, 87% of millennials in the workplace believe training and development is important, however, nearly 59% of employees claim they don’t receive training opportunities and most of their skills were self-taught.

   This is a significant gap and can be the difference between keeping or losing a valuable employee. Talent acquisition, development, and retention underpin a business’s ability to retain employees and offer a culture that builds careers and the future of the Australian workforce.

3. Innovation is key

   We believe that every employee has the potential to come up with new products, services, and solutions and thanks to collaborative technologies — doing so has never been easier. The concept of employee innovation is not a new one, but being able to scale it seamlessly across a global company through employer brand in today’s dynamic and agile world definitely is a challenge.

   In this hyper-connected world, innovation can happen, literally, anywhere. A new employee might have noticed a way to improve the employee onboarding experience, a customer support associate could have an idea to reduce call time, and a human resources employee may have a suggestion on how to improve employee engagement. However, in many organisations, versatile employees with innovative ideas have no way to voice their ideas or find the necessary resources to execute their plans.

   Innovation is at the forefront of most tech companies. Encouraging innovation within the workplace is based on the fundamental belief of inverting the organisational pyramid and engaging, enabling, and empowering everyone at all levels within the organisation. Employees are challenged to think, look within and look into the future, to come up with solutions for operational and business challenges.