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Attracting talent with workplace experience: 7 stages of employee lifecycle

Posted on April 29, 2022July 11, 2022 by naveen

Leading organizations realize that a strong employee experience focusing on collaboration, skill development, and productivity delivers a great customer experience. Employees are the key to business success, especially with regard to innovation and growth. Naturally, the workplace experience (WX) must be conducive to the overarching objectives, holistically combining technology, culture, and operations to drive sustainable value. In a 2020 survey, 79% of participants responded that a sense of belonging in the workplace was important for their organizations’ success. Interestingly, 93% also believed that a sense of belonging drives organizational performance.

So, a focus on bettering the WX is vital as it will ultimately improve engagement, boost productivity and benefit the customer experience. In fact, organizations focusing on employee experience outperform S&P’s 500 by 122%. On the other side of the same coin, WX for employees impacts all stages of the employee life cycle. This includes all the interactions with the organization starting from pre-recruitment to post-exit. As such, an engaging and enriching experience is key to influencing decisions, be it when applying for roles or choosing to stay when faced with an attractive offer.

It goes without saying that good WX not only attracts but also retains the best talent, while simultaneously improving business performance. To better understand how, read on.

How employee experience helps attract and retain talent

Data has found that a highly engaged workforce leads to 21% more profits. For one-third of the employees across the globe, it is the purpose and mission of their company that makes their job feel important. By improving employee experience, businesses have witnessed a 29% improvement in quality while reducing absenteeism by 51%. Naturally, engaged employees are easier to retain.

Further, millennial and gen-z employees actively seek out companies with the right culture. This aspect, along with the growth and training opportunities, is primarily highlighted through the employee experience initiatives in place. As such, for companies looking to attract the best talent, employee experience should be a priority.

The 7 stages of the employee lifecycle

Employees experience 7 critical lifecycle stages with any organization. Designing each stage and applying best practices throughout the process helps attract and retain the best talent, improve employee performance, and get ahead in competitive markets.

Here are the 7 stages of the employee lifecycle:

Attraction

A company’s value proposition plays a crucial role in highlighting positive WX and attracting top talent. Here, companies should showcase brand value through their values and vision. This aids decision making and those that stand out here will attract talent. Maintaining social media presence and monitoring your online reputation go a long way in attracting the best talent. For employees, it is the image of the company and the idea that ‘this is the best place to work at’ that is attractive.

Recruitment

What makes the hiring process meaningful is an optimized and intuitive experience. Companies must be clear about the criteria and processes, and should provide the necessary information to succeed. Similarly, a timely response is also key, irrespective of the decision. According to a Talent500 Talent Intelligence survey, 90% of professionals feel that 2-3 interview rounds should be enough for recruiters to make a decision.

Onboarding

The onboarding process is a crucial step for any entity. New recruits must be able to adjust to company culture and environment. Making the job description, company values, visions, and expectations clear in the induction phase helps build long-term engagement. Further, during onboarding, new employees learn about the necessary aspects required to function effectively. Naturally, companies should strive to ensure this part of the orientation is well optimized.

Engagement

Vanilla onboarding processes that let employees figure it out on their own is a recipe for disaster. Companies should keep open lines of communication and seek feedback actively to make better WX. Gaining and acting on feedback should be a continuous process to maintain good relationships and retain employees.

Development

Employees will actively participate in an organization’s progress if they see a future for themselves. An employee will consider switching jobs when growth stagnates or is limited. When discussing WX, this means developing personalized and flexible development paths for employees to foster long-term engagement.

Separation

Employee separation is a key part of the lifecycle and the overall WX strategy. Organizations can learn a lot from departing employees through exit interviews. Whether it is a faulty policy, a broken process, or a simple oversight, this communication is crucial to organizational development. Based on the insights shared, companies can prioritize what needs immediate remedial action.

Alumni

Maintaining communications or keeping in touch with ex-employees is good for business. Ex-employees do not always cut ties with their former organizations. Some may return in case of new job opportunities or may even become customers or vendors. This alumni-building process is part of the employee lifecycle and can benefit from standardized processes.

How to build an effective workplace experience strategy

By improving employee experience, companies create the optimal WX. Here are a few ways that have proven effective at building a robust WX strategy.

Communicate the company’s goals and vision

Employees align and perform better when they understand the strategic directions of their company and value its goals. Make the organizational vision clear across the board. This should be evident for the new candidates right from the start because being aware of the vision and objectives will help candidates and employees understand their role in achieving the objectives. This creates a positive, lasting experience.

Embrace diversity in the workplace

A company that has people from across different cultures and backgrounds attracts the best employees and has a lower turnover rate. The diverse nature of the team should be part of the employee branding to attract talent from diverse backgrounds. In fact, almost 67% of candidates consider diversity and inclusion in a company before considering the organization. Around 50% of employees feel their organizations should increase workplace diversity. Interestingly, diverse companies earn 2.3X higher cash flow per worker.

Reward workers

Recognizing the efforts of employees and rewarding them for their achievements can help build desired work behaviors and promote organizational values. Build an employee reward and recognition program that appreciates employees’ performance, and personal and career milestones. Include training management staff to implement good workplace experience strategies. The focus should be on converting each employee into an ambassador of the company and making them part of your recruitment process through referrals.

Form a collaborative workplace culture

Organizational success is a team effort where siloed success means little. In a workplace, there ought to be effective interactions and collaborations within and between teams. A company that enables such an environment makes its employees feel more comfortable, happy and valued. A competitive environment in a workplace can often lead to lower performance and a lack of collaboration. This could, in turn, reflect on the review boards and impact your employer brand.

Concentrate on employee wellbeing

The employees’ physical and mental well-being is important in reducing absenteeism and boosting productivity. Providing emotional support and helping them address the issues can showcase organizational values and imbibe trust. Isolation and feeling unvalued can affect an employee’s performance and work experience. Although a hike in pay and perks acts as motivators, special programs designed to increase and better communication are also greatly appreciated.

How outsourcing talent management helps improve WX

Outsourcing of global talent acquisition is the new norm for industry leaders worldwide. Fast-growing startups and Fortune 500 companies like H&M, Airbnb, Morgan Stanley, Uber, Careem, Walmart, Rakuten, Twitter, and Pepsico trust global talent management companies like Talent500 to manage and scale their global teams. In fact, almost 78% of companies around the world have positive opinions about their outsourcing partners. Outsourcing the recruitment and management of global talent helps provide an exceptional experience, be it during the attracting, hiring, or onboarding stages during the employee life cycle.

In the world of remote work and hybrid work environments, being able to hire global talent effectively is the need of the hour. Here, outsourcing hiring and talent management is the smart choice, especially if you partner with Talent500. Companies from more than 50 countries are leveraging the Talent500 platform, which offers a suite of services designed to optimize WX at every stage of the process. Schedule a consultation today to manage your global talent efficiently and achieve 60% higher recruiter productivity!

Measuring Recruitment Effectiveness – 6 KPIs to focus on

Posted on April 26, 2022April 29, 2022 by naveen

A multitude of factors such as experience and skill need to be evaluated in order to hire the right talent. The effort required to retain acquired talent is often equivalent or greater than the effort required to hire. Global and remote hiring add additional challenges due to diverse factors such as local perceptions or standards regarding work culture, compensation, working hours, etc.

Companies may face several hurdles when trying to attract top-level talent in foreign countries. Businesses located in international tech hubs may need to reach out to audiences both at home and internationally. International candidates may also have different priorities from those located domestically. By following a more holistic approach to hiring, a global company can gain insights into job markets in geographically distant locations. Research, analytics, and effective recruitment strategies, supported by the right set of tech tools and hiring managers with relevant cultural knowledge, are key for a robust talent acquisition strategy.

Currently, many organizations use KPIs to measure and improve recruitment effectiveness. Using various metrics, organizations can track and manage recruitment as a streamlined business process. Though, due to the increased complexity of the metrics involved, successfully tracking KPIs for globally distributed teams can be a daunting task without the right amount of pre-planning. As such, the most important thing is to identify the KPIs that are important to the business – but what are the metrics that should be examined within the context of remote recruitment?

Download the article ‘Measuring Recruitment Effectiveness – 6 KPIs to focus on to learn about the KPIs to focus on when hiring and managing globally distributed teams.

How soft skills transitioned to become the new power skills

Posted on April 6, 2022 by naveen

The modalities of work drastically changed over the last few years as companies were no longer relying on legacy approaches. Many began leveraging the full force of technology and it wasn’t long before they started digitalizing core practices at scale. This led to remote work becoming mainstream, both due to circumstance and popular demand. As of 2022, 30% of employees work remotely and most would choose to do so going forward. But as AI and automation were readily integrated into the operational model, companies had to rethink their hiring strategies. Modern workforces couldn’t function solely on technical prowess, which is when companies started paying more attention to a candidate’s soft skills.

In a digital environment, collaboration, communication, analysis, decision-making, and others are key attributes. This is especially important when managing distributed teams as it dictated accountability and efficiency. In fact, almost 89% of recruiters have stated that the lack of such skills is the reason many candidates are not hirable. This makes sense considering that softs skills add career durability, a trait that is required in ever-evolving ecosystems. Naturally, these skills were soon viewed as power skills, and companies look for them in candidates to hire appropriately.

Here are some insights on the transition, factors responsible for the shift, and trends to watch for.

Revised demands of skills to align with automation

As automation takes hold in companies, many jobs will get absorbed and won’t require the human element. But, as advanced as the technology is, there are a few tasks that simply can’t be replaced or handled by AI & automation. For instance, emotional intelligence, people management, and creativity are core traits required to manage employees, innovate, and communicate. These are also classified as higher cognitive skills and will likely not get replaced by automation.

The same can’t be said for basic cognitive skills, which includes basic numeracy and literacy, as automation is already absorbing most of these responsibilities. As such, employers have shifted their focus and see higher cognitive skills as mission critical. These guide leaders, managers, communicators, and innovators in the workforce.

Rising demand for emotional intelligence

Work culture is constantly evolving and a major shift was observed during the pandemic. Here, emotional intelligence stood out as an important soft skill through which individuals were able to navigate the new challenges that arose. It enabled individuals to develop crucial skills such as:

Conflict resolution
Collaboration
Leadership
Negotiation

These were gaining importance as work cultures are very different in the modern world. Organizations shifting to remote models were, and are, struggling to manage the evolving emotional needs of their own workforce.

Additionally, emotional intelligence helps empower employees to attain professional and personal goals, contributing more effectively to organizational growth. Some of the most valuable skills currently are:

Team player
Problem-solving and decision making
Open or free communication
Planning, organizing and prioritizing
Obtaining and processing information

These skill sets help employees look at problems in a creative manner, and gives them the ability to address their own problems. This also helps employees adjust easily to new situations while maintaining productivity.

Soft skills in focus across major industrial sectors

The focus on soft skills varies across major industrial sectors and many companies are changing their policies to adapt to the new norm. Automation is a common factor leading the transition, and the need for basic cognitive skills within these sectors is decreasing. This was a common trend noticed in the banking, energy, retail, and manufacturing sectors. Across these key sectors, these are the soft skills likely to stay in focus for the decade.

Healthcare: Adaptability, entrepreneurship, and analysis
Energy & Mining: Creative thinking, communication, and emotional intelligence
Banking & Insurance: Social skills, communication, and emotional intelligence
Retail: Management, empathy, interpersonal skills, and information processing
Manufacturing: Analysis, collaboration, negotiation, leadership, and adaptability

As automation and AI improves and continues to widen their reach, this list of skills is sure to grow and include more complex skills. Advanced communication, information processing, creativity and a general mastery over IT infrastructure are early estimates.

Considering the shift, companies are now adopting new strategies to build effective workforces. While several strategies can work, an efficient route is to pick from a trusted talent sourcing channel. You can enjoy this benefit when you partner with Talent500. Trusted by global leaders to build, manage, and scale remote teams, we help optimize the hiring endeavor at every step.

With over 200,000 pre-vetted professionals, you can establish a global presence, bolster remote teams and even leverage the EOR model to expand to new markets. To know more and hire effectively, schedule a consultation.

Hiring for diversity: 3 best practices to follow

Posted on April 6, 2022 by naveen

Hiring for diversity was once just a practice meant to appease compliance norms, but that isn’t the case anymore. In most organization today, there is simply no room for discrimination, and hiring strategies focus on the value on offer. In fact, data states that organizations that hire without any kind of bias have greater employee satisfaction numbers. Additionally, diverse companies are 33% more likely to outperform their competition and their teams are 2x better at making decisions.

The sheer fact that diverse companies outperform their competitors speaks to the validity of it as a hiring strategy. That aside, it is simply the right thing to do. Moreover, diversification leads to trade facilitation and a chance to explore new market opportunities. Beyond revenue, it also provides increased social cohesion, a welcome benefit that has a major say in public perception. Naturally, every company looking to exist and thrive in a modern landscape must have policies that promote diversity.

Here, setting realistic goals is important and they must align with long term objectives, as is standard for any business practice. Inclusive environments are thriving and the business case for diversity & inclusion (D&I) is stronger than ever, as per reports. If nothing else, it helps steer clear of the steep penalties that accompany a lack of such policies. So, how do companies go about hiring for diversity? Read on for an overview of a few proven strategies.

Diversify against a single demographic workforce

Literature review on D&I provides compelling evidence that diversity unlocks latent innovation, a key driver of market growth. Moreover, the millennial employee is a huge advocate for diversity in the workplace. Data shows that these individuals actively seek out employers with a history of equality among the genders. Women millennials are particularly invested in this regard, looking to see a change in the hiring policies.

Diversifying against a single demographic workforce also promotes goodwill in the market. It creates awareness and has the potential to generate a more diverse clientele. An efficient way to put this into action is to do a thorough audit of the job ad. Scan the language and look for tones that could either alienate or focus on any given demographic. Very often it is the simplest issue of communication that could be the cause of such disparity.

Get rid of unconscious bias with artificial intelligence (AI)

Bias is ubiquitous and universal; it is difficult to avoid. At certain times the blame for discrimination in hiring is placed on unconscious bias, which everyone is susceptible to. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds great promise for eliminating this bias in the hiring process due to two primary reasons:

It remains objective while assessing an entire pipeline of candidates, often faster than humans.
It combines data points using the algorithms to predict the best candidates all the while processing information at a massive scale.

Different software that leverages AI can also eliminate bias in a job advertisement by conducting sentiment analysis. This identifies exclusionary language, while also suggesting alternatives better suited to a more diverse talent pool.

Use blind hiring tools to assess for value

Studies show that a majority (85%-97%) of professionals rely on the mental synthesis of intuition while processing applicants. This simple act of assessment has the potential to develop a bias. Blind hiring solves this issue, as there are no identifiable characteristics shared during the process. Naturally, for a diverse hiring protocol, this approach was widely adopted and rightfully so. Among its main advantages is that it can eliminate gender discrimination from the process of hiring.

This is particularly important as data points out that one in five women are discriminated against during recruitment. When compared to their male counterparts, only 5% reported similar issues. Additionally, blind hiring solutions can eliminate performance assessment errors that may arise when factoring in past experience. This is a common issue that can be a roadblock to establishing diversity.

In general, diverse teams are more efficient and better equipped for the modern world. Organizations must adapt to the new landscape and technology-backed solutions are the way forward. The employee retention improvements alone make it worth the effort, and with Talent500, the hiring process is a lot more efficient.

Our services help companies prioritize their hiring agendas and extract maximum value. Leverage the best talent across a range of developer communities to achieve your D&I goals while attracting the best in the talent pool. To know more, schedule a consultation and explore solutions that can help you build and scale global workforces that deliver.

The war for talent: How to attract and retain talent in 2022

Posted on April 5, 2022 by naveen

Irrespective of industry, leaders across the globe are discussing one thing: talent. Ever since the pandemic hit, there has been a shift in employee behavior. People are actively looking for remote work opportunities. The widening gap between the demand and supply of the right talent at the right time is causing companies to lose out on competitive advantage and revenues.

It is a fact that rising attrition and talent shortage are shared challenges for organizations globally, but can it be an opportunity to create a resilient global workforce?

In this article, we explore some options that can help you win the war on talent by hiring and retaining a global workforce.

Strengthen your employer brand

A strategic recruitment campaign is going to get you the best of the talent. For that to succeed you need to build a strong employer value proposition (EVP). And to retain your current employees you will have to have a solid employer brand. People are a lot more focused now on jobs that align with their values. How candidates view your company and its values play a pivotal role in the hunt for talent.

Why do you think startups and even companies like Google and Facebook promote their employer brand as a “cool” millennial culture? It is to attract talent by offering them comforts and perks that resonate with them.

Or so they thought. The pulse of talent in the present scenario is quite different.

According to an article by the Harvard Business Review, employees today are looking for opportunities that allow them to do meaningful work in a unique setting. This approach has proven to be a better success for companies in their efforts to retain talent in the long run. Work on promoting what makes your company stand out as an employer. The job market is very noisy, you need to be heard to reach the right talent.

Building a strong employer brand is the top priority for global leaders today. As talent is chased by hundreds of recruiters, this is one of the best strategies to stand out.

Decentralize your workforce

In an era where work location doesn’t matter, but productivity and collaboration do, it is wise to decentralize the workforce and tap into the global talent pool. The distributed workforce is going to be the future of work as Bill Gates famously quoted that 30% of the office space will diminish as more than 50% of employees will work from home, going forward.

As an employer, you must focus on creating a decentralized workforce that can make you a lucrative employer if you want to attract new talent. According to a survey, 52% of employees who are willing to relocate because of work, want their employers to handle the logistic. Furthermore, 92% of the respondents said they will want financial incentives like a pay rise, housing allowance, or reimbursement of moving expenses for relocation. All of this leads to added costs for companies.

Allowing recruits to work remotely, on the other hand, is a solution that is saving employers from a lot of logistic and relocation costs and challenges. A decentralized workforce is a revolutionizing turning point. It enables companies to hire globally, providing access to the best professionals.

However, while building a decentralized workforce will save a lot on relocation, office space, and maintenance, you will have to create a digital workforce which will require investment in digital infrastructure.

Implement global supply chains

To get the best of global talent you need to implement fundamental principles of supply-chain management. By setting up global supply chains for hiring talent, you will continually meet your requirement without prolonged delays and can stave off the competition. As there is a persistent misalignment between employers’ requirements and the talent available, when you have multiple channels to hire people from, you have the best talent available for the job, when you need it.

As the distributed workplace environment is becoming the norm, there is a need for sophisticated and expertly managed global supply chains for talent acquisition. You want to set your company on a path where your teams can endure talent shortages without affecting productivity or revenue.

Enable continuous learning

Sometimes employees stop learning once the onboarding process is complete. When technology is changing at such a rapid pace, it is important that employees continually develop their skills and knowledge to future-proof their jobs.

When you make it possible for employees to keep learning at their jobs, you don’t just make it easy to retain the best existing employees, you also become more attractive to prospective employees. Continuously learning not only keeps employees competent and helps them to quickly adapt to any change but also helps them advance in their careers. It is an effective way to keep employees engaged and excited about their roles.

Create agile working environments

People want flexibility and autonomy in their jobs. By creating an adaptive and flexible workplace environment, and providing employees with the right tools for the right job, you give them the autonomy to make decisions on how they need to do their job.

Unilever defines agile working as “an approach to getting work done with maximum flexibility and minimum constraints. It goes beyond just flexible working or telecommuting and focuses on eliminating the barriers to getting work done efficiently”.

If you want to retain talent, you have to make policies that help people be more flexible at their jobs. In light of the recent pandemic, people are focusing more on the ‘You Only Live Once’ philosophy. This is why they want to work for companies that let them have more work-life balance. Agile work environments are much more productive and are known to benefit employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing. Digital workplaces are best suited to enable an agile environment and attract global talent.

Keep an eye on gig workers

As more people are becoming freelancers, it is easy to hire gig workers to get the work done on time. However, as an employer, you might want to keep an eye out for the skilled talent so that you can convert them to payroll employees. As the ‘gig’ economy is getting real organizations need to know how to hire the best of the contract workers.

Define a clear scope of work to attract the right talent. As workers are more discerning about how jobs add to the quality of their lives, it’s important to let gig workers know what you are offering. You also need to evolve the way you evaluate talent and when hiring remote workers, you should put less emphasis on corporate fit and focus more on proven ability to get results.

Now more than ever before, employers are faced with the challenge of retaining their talent. Retaining and attracting employees gets easier if you understand how to strongly portray your employer brand. Talent500 has been building global teams for Fortune 500 companies and we offer the best solutions to hire, build, and manage a distributed workforce. To learn more set up a consultation today.

How to ensure you are hiring developers with the right skills

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by naveen

Ever since the pandemic struck, businesses across industries have been disrupted, and are still trying to pick the pieces and make sense of this new work world. Companies are facing a severe talent crunch and the software industry in particular has been further impacted by this disruption. According to the State of Software Development study, nearly 24% of employers agree that hiring developers in 2022 is difficult. A downside for companies experiencing severe skill shortage is that more than 50% of them report hiring developers who don’t meet the job requirements.

As organizations are faced with a historic level of uncertainty regarding finding the right talent, simultaneously, software technology is growing at a mind-boggling rate, reiterating the need to hire the best software developers.

Let’s start by looking at the major challenges businesses are facing today.

The need for tailored apps is at an all-time high

For companies to stay competitive in this new business and economic environment, the landscape calls for new digital strategies and practices. According to a new McKinsey Global Survey of executives, companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years.

While companies navigate between a remote or distributed way of working, it calls for skilled developers who can build and enable a digital workplace; companies can no longer settle with off-the-shelf apps. There is a sharp rise in the need for customized apps by businesses to meet their business requirements.

Remote work culture is changing everything

The remote work culture is on the rise and IT professionals are leading the way. While the ability to hire candidates from anywhere in the world is widening the talent pool, it is also making organizations lose talent at a rapid pace. Over 4.5 million people quit their jobs in November last year, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics presents a picture of a tightening talent pool that is forcing HR managers to ditch traditional approaches to hiring and training.

Development teams need platforms and tools that help the company preserve intellectual property. It is also important to combat orphan code and enable knowledge transfer. The right talent-hiring helps fast legacy creation in case severe team changes happen within a short timeframe.

Legacy tech maintenance is a constraint

The software development industry is experiencing a major shift and we are managing 100% more code today than we did back in 2010. Interestingly, 72% of the IT resources at big companies are engaged in the maintenance of legacy systems rather than innovating and creating competitive success in the long run. This is why identifying and hiring skilled talent who can use modern cloud infrastructure to help migrate is critical for organizations.

To tackle these challenges and hire the best talent we recommend these top tips.

Switch to objective-based hiring

Organizations will no doubt lose out on candidates if they are stringent about the policy, and insist on ejecting candidates who lack experience with specific language and tools. A competent programmer can pick up a language within weeks as new development tools and libraries are made available to them. This is one of the primary reasons organizations should hire for talent and not only skills.

Use realistic coding evaluations

Because ‘mis-hires’ are increasingly expensive for tech organizations, it is also imperative to thoroughly assess a programmer’s technical skills during the recruiting process to validate whether or not they will be a good fit for the role. Putting across coding problems taken from real-life situations that the company’s software team face on a regular basis is one of the best approaches in evaluating the potential on-the-job performance of developers.

Establish a system of verifying skills

When organizations move beyond technical skills, they can hire a developer who, at their best, has the capabilities to function as a Swiss Army Knife for software development. This is where organizations will benefit from looking for candidates who are able to display creative, insightful, and rational thought processes. If you think a whiteboard interview or code and bug fixing is the way, you might want to revisit that. It is best to create a work sample quality test as recommended by researchers Frank L. Schmidt and John E. Hunter.

Sell your company to the candidate

A common misconception is that during the interview process, a candidate needs to sell their capabilities to the interview. However, the tables have turned and now it’s up to recruiters to try and convince candidates to join the organization. A candidate needs to be fully on board with the company culture and their day-to-day functioning to ensure that it does not lead to an employee dropping off shortly after joining the organization.

Make quick hiring decisions

This is an important part of the overall hiring process. Some of the best hiring managers and leaders are the ones who can streamline the entire hiring process to make decisions within hours or days. Given that employees always have options of job offers available to them, this becomes even more critical. In a Talent500 Talent Intelligence Survey, over 5000+ active tech professionals said that 2-3 rounds of interview were sufficient. Long drawn interview processes simply don’t cut it anymore.

Talent500 can help you hire developers with the right skills from anywhere in the world, with a faster time to hire. Connect with our pool of pre-vetted elite talent. Request a consultation today.

A 9 step guide to improving the digital workplace experience

Posted on April 5, 2022 by naveen

According to Gartner, the biggest competitive advantage for 30% of organizations will come from the ability to exploit digital technologies creatively. A smart move for companies today is to have upgraded IT systems, the best talent, and revised (if needed) business processes to lead the way for the digital transformation of any kind.

In the words of Gartner analyst Carol Rozwell, “A digital workplace is a business strategy to boost employee agility and engagement through the consumerization of the work environment.”

When organizations have engaged employees working with them, it leads to a 2.5 times high revenue than companies with comparatively low employee engagement. So, in order to retain top talent and achieve higher revenue, it is crucial to prioritize employee experience.

In its ideal state, such a workplace helps increase productivity without operational compromises. Apart from computers, mobile devices, and productivity applications, a modern digital workplace creates a more immersive employee experience through chatbots, virtual assistants, and personal analytics. So, if you want to bring simplicity and intuitiveness to employees, improve their digital workplace experience by incorporating the following steps.

1. Establish a collaboration framework

Given that collaboration is the single most effective component of a digital workplace, it needs to be prioritized and well-planned out. A collaboration framework is essential to provide employees with tools that help them document ideas, share information, solve problems, have a discussion, and make decisions.

The most effective way is to define which tools are best suited for such collaboration and encourage their adoption through consistent use by the top management. Slack, Google Keep, Trello, Jira, and Asana are a few tools used by some of the organizations of all sizes, for their collaboration framework.

2. Prioritize collaborative content

For companies, organizing content is critical as keeping track of materials necessary for business operations and customer service can get overwhelming. Things get more challenging when multiple teams, large scale projects, and distributed initiatives are involved.

Therefore, in order to create a truly digital workplace experience, companies must create a unified platform to store, update, and share documents to keep team collaboration and functions running smoothly. We advise a cloud-based file storage platform such as AWS or Google Cloud Platform.

3. Create a feedback loop

Almost every organization has some sort of feedback solution to get insights about a customers’ experience. Dedicated solutions like SurveyMonkey, Promoter and Hively might work great for customer feedback, but are an overkill for employee feedback.

Consider creating a feedback loop for internal teams because it encourages consistent, authentic communication and establishes positive feedback loops, which are essential to the success of any reciprocal relationship. A feedback loop works better than a one-on-one performance evaluation because it takes away the pressure of providing objective guidance only from managers and instead spreads it uniformly across the organization.

4. Adopt agile tools

Improving collaboration and boosting productivity is a lot easier when you have the right agile tools for your digital workplace. Today, there are several agile tools available that are designed purely to serve within a digital workplace. The choice of tools would heavily depend on the needs of the workforce.

There are quite a few options but some prominent ones are Jira, Kanbanize, GitHub Project Management, and Monday.com. As important as it is to hold content at a central location, organizations can drastically improve the overall digital workplace experience by improving the efficiency of holding meetings using agile tools.

5. Employ talent with the right collaboration skills

A central point of digital workplace success is hiring people with the right skills and attitude. Employees with a positive attitude are important for any team but an additional requirement here is a mindset of using digital communications at all levels of collaboration.

For this, companies will need to employ people with the collaboration skills or put in place training programs that enable them to communicate seamlessly in the digital workplace. When employees know how to collaborate and cooperate with others, it increases workplace efficiency, helps in career advancement, and ensures they contribute to achieving organizational goals.

6. Make an effort to integrate

A digital workplace is not an isolated environment and therefore needs to co-exist with other systems within an organization. Companies need to create digital workplaces that integrate with existing CRMs, enterprise resource planning apps, human resources workplace systems, and other applications.

The integration at a personal productivity level as well as enterprise system level is necessary to remove applications that are not included in the broader workflow. The more integrated an organization’s digital workplace, the less are the chances of decision delays due to lack of information or clear communication.

7. Set communication guidelines

Instant messaging platforms, emails, and conference calls leave scope for miscommunication. Given the lack of visual cues, it is easy to misunderstand statements made, this is why it is beneficial for a digital workplace to hold important discussions over video conferencing.

Companies must also look to create and implement policies that enable collaborative communication between workers in different locations. For example, training employees to be sensitive to cultural nuances will make communication more easily acceptable. Set clear guidelines against behaviors such as muting one’s line, showing tardiness, or frequent connectivity issues, to ensure meetings go smoothly.

8. Artificial Intelligence

In 2022, it is almost impossible to find a digital workplace where AI (artificial intelligence) is not part of the overall infrastructure. AI has come a long way from being just a topic of academic research and has become a mainstream communication solution in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants.

The human touch in customer support still remains an important part, but chatbots offer a 24/7 communication option and substantially reduce waiting time. AI can help employees in the digital workplace get more qualified leads, automate initial questions from new prospects, and onboard new customers.

9. Training

The digital workplace introduces new technologies and it can be stressful for employees to adapt. With effective training, companies can make this transition more seamless for employees, especially given that reskilling is an important part of improving their experience in a digital workplace.

Many companies, especially technology companies have hired external digital consultancies to help employees learn new technical skills. Enabling continuous learning is important to ensure that employees are learning on the job.

Bottomline

What we’ve talked about above is merely the blueprint of a digital workplace; its success lies in its execution. Talent500 is helping companies hire the right talent for digital workplaces. We connect you with an elite talent pool from across 50 countries. Start building teams for the digital workplace with us today, request a consultation today.

Why distributed workforce is the future of work

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by naveen

The pandemic made working from home a necessity, globally. Given that organizations were forced into this model, many of them were under the assumption that remote working would firstly, be a temporary response, and secondly, would hinder productivity. That unless employees came into work every day, timelines would be overlooked, and expectations would go unmet. But, as it turns out, those who work from home spend 10 minutes less a day being unproductive, work one more day a week, and are 47% more productive. Additionally, in 2021, 70% of those who worked from home during the pandemic report virtual meetings are less stressful, and 64% now prefer hybrid meetings.

Many organizations decided to have a distributed workforce that would give them the flexibility to stretch beyond the physical restrictions of a traditional office set-up. One of the most critical factors affecting organizations today – technology sector and employment – is the growing acceptance of remote or distributed working teams and the adoption of key digital collaboration tools.

So, what is a distributed workforce?

Simply put, a distributed workforce means an organization has employees spread across multiple locations instead of having them all come to work in the same office. In a distributed workforce, some employees may work from the company offices while others may choose to work from satellite offices, co-working spaces, or their homes.

Note: remote and distributed working environments are not the same.

Remote work requires discipline for the individual worker, but distributed work requires discipline for the entire organization. It is based on the idea that an employee does not need to work in a specific location to complete their work.
In distributed work, employees may work from anywhere in the world, even if the organization has a physical headquarters. Though it might be a thought that’s already come through, digital technology is critical for a strong distributed workforce.

What has become clear is that the future of work will be a combination of where and how work happens.

Let’s first briefly look at potential challenges (and solutions) of this way of working.

Feeling disconnected with the rest of the team

In the office, there are plenty of opportunities for employees to engage with one another – lunching together, having a chat over coffee, and so on. It’s these little moments, that we really didn’t give too much thought to, moments of sporadic connection, that go a long way in enhancing team dynamics, building a sense of belonging, and initiating collaboration between teams and team members.

In such scenarios – what is usually done in person, should happen virtually. Given that distributed working requires a change in mindset, when managers are mindful of the connection gap, they can take the necessary steps to virtually fill these gaps. Some ways to do this might be through bonding and fun activities, online workshops, one-on-one check-ins and so on. But these become critical in enabling employees to feel more connected with team members, and engaged at work.

Productivity issues at a process level

While employees themselves reported increased productivity in this way of working, where organizations may see a challenge is at the process level. Because organizations transitioned quite quickly to distributing working, there is a risk of teams working in different ways across different tools.

What managers and leaders can do is put in place set working norms and choose standard tools that can make remote working seamless. Some of the tools we use at Talent500 to standardize work are:

Slack for daily communication
Trello for project management
Google Meet and Zoom for video meetings
Miro as an asynchronous collaboration tool

Difficulty in maintaining company culture

According to a Virginia-based Hinge Research Institute study, when evaluating job prospects, 57% of job seekers across all career levels consider culture as important as pay. Transitioning to a distributed working model might sound relatively easy but it is quite complex in the various nuances that need addressing. For instance, a company’s culture doesn’t transition automatically.

Given that culture happens, no matter what, establishing the right company culture becomes a challenge. Managers and leaders will need to replicate moments throughout an employee’s time at work to instill and reiterate company culture.

Benefits of a distributed workforce

Global companies to fast-growing startups, the distributed workforce is helping organizations achieve company-wide goals by offering opportunities that are only possible when the workforce is geographically dispersed.

1. Increased employee productivity

A study by Stanford of 16,000 workers over 9 months found that working from home increased productivity by 13%. By providing employees with access to the right tools and technology to enable distributed working, companies can save on many resources as well as increase productivity. Additionally, employees who are disciplined and motivated can get more work done within a shorter period of time. A key outcome of distributed working is that a remote employee may perform better than those who come into the office regularly because there are lesser distractions in terms of meetings and other interruptions common to a shared workspace. CompuVision is a good example of how a distributed workforce can help increase productivity multi-fold.

2. Access to a global talent pool

80% of tech CEOs said the availability of key skills is their top challenge. Organizations have always struggled with finding the right/ideal candidates to fulfill openings. However, now that they are no longer restricted to physical locations, organizations can experience the benefit of hiring beyond geographic boundaries. According to McKinsey & Co, skilled and superior talent can be up to 8X more productive than average workers. By thinking beyond location-dependent teams, and evolving their hiring strategies, organizations can gain access to and hire the best developers and technical employees in the market, anywhere in the world.

3. Reduced cost

It is estimated that the average office space cost per employee is around $18,000 per year. Building a globally distributed workforce offers cost savings for organizations in several direct and indirect ways. With a globally distributed workforce, organizations can greatly reduce the main office footprint. Overhead costs related to office space, internet, electricity, water and more is a big cost factor for businesses. Additionally, as companies shift applications from onsite to the cloud, it enables decentralization and reduced IT costs.

4. Improved employee retention

The Great Resignation has made it challenging for organizations to attract, hire, and retain skilled talent. Some industries are feeling the burn of this talent crunch which is why employee retention is a critical determinant for an organization’s success today. According to Stack Overflow’s 2016 developer survey, flexible working options are a top priority for developers with 64% of them already working remotely. Giving employees what they want leads to a happier workforce, therefore a more engaged and productive workforce. So, instead of organizations focusing on where employees are located, the focus should remain on empowering them with the right tools to make distributed working possible.

5. Adds diversity to the workforce

Agility, autonomy, better talent pool, and reduced costs are not the only benefits, but a diversified workforce is a proven asset for profitable companies. McKinsey found that companies with higher ethnic diversity in the workforce are 36% more likely to be profitable than companies with lower diversity. Hiring employees with different backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and perspectives improves the team’s ability to innovate, solve problems, and be creative. Another thing to remember is that hiring diverse employees can help fulfill the organizations diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) commitments.

Companies adopting the distributed workforce culture

Apple: Maker of the iPhone allowed for 100% remote work options for some of the roles in the company such as Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst. The company also expressed its willingness to promote a hybrid work model allowing employees to work from home at least once a week.

Automattic: Automattic, the company behind WordPress has over 800 staff spread across 67 countries. The company prefers the term ‘distributed’ workforce as they believe ‘remote’ implies there is a central hub of more important staff. This approach has been instrumental in their growth since the beginning.

Amazon: The eCommerce giant employs over 92,000 people all over the world. With a large presence in each continent, the company made a crucial decision of allowing employees to work from home two days a week from June 2021, provided their roles allow for such flexibility.

A distributed workforce – a mutual benefit

In a distributed workforce, organizations depend on all employees to continue to meet the expectations of the job and company, and this is where hiring the right talent can make all the difference. Talent500 is helping companies of all sizes ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies to shift to distributed work models. We connect you with the best of the talent from over 50 countries. Request a consultation to discuss more.

What companies can do to empower employees to be productive anywhere

Posted on April 5, 2022 by naveen

As the popularity of remote work is growing, the challenge to keep employees productive while empowering them is real. A distributed workforce is the future for companies and learning to adapt to this work culture shift is important. When your employees are working remotely, it can be difficult to keep them engaged and feel inclusive. As a manager, the onus is on you to develop trust among the employees and inspire them to take responsibility to be more productive.

How do you achieve that?

Through employee autonomy and empowerment.

In simple words, this refers to the philosophy of encouraging employees to make decisions independently on their own and to take accountability of their tasks. As a manager, your role is to support this decision-making and make employees feel more confident about themselves. As employees work remotely, you cannot micromanage them. You have to let them have autonomy and flexibility.

Here are some important tips for empowering your staff for business success.

Start by demonstrating trust

Unless you make your employees feel important and valued, they will not be able to make independent decisions. To achieve this, you will have to gain their loyalty by showing your trust. Instead of explaining the means, introduce your employees to the end goals and let them take their path. This approach might not achieve everything that you want, but the employees will feel empowered due to increased autonomy and flexibility.

Establish clear communication

As a leader, it is your responsibility to bring transparency to the communication between the distributed workforce. You must bring everyone on the same page, as a communication gap will create confusion and the employees will remain in the dark about what they are supposed to do. Another important factor in empowering your employees is to clearly define the company vision to the staff. Finally, clearly define the tasks and duties that they can work on independently.

Avoid small talk – build a connection

As the distributed workplace environment further reduces the chances of one-on-one conversations, small talk doesn’t cut it anymore. It is important to remain engaged and connected with your employees and have deeper, quality conversations. To instill a sense of empowerment in your employees you must know them on a personal level. Have more personalized conversations such as accomplishments and complaints they might have, ask about their work progress and what’s going on with their families. This not only encourages your employees to feel more engaged but also helps you to grow as a leader.

Make way for self-improvement

When employees learn new skills, they feel more empowered and it helps improve the company as a whole. This is why continued upskilling and reskilling programs are important; it empowers employees to take on new challenges at work. It also enhances their personal growth which is important for their empowerment. Companies that have resources make tools and ways available for employees to take courses to learn new skills. If you do not have such resources, you can allow flexibility in your work schedule such that they can pursue upskilling programs. You will be surprised how constructive such support can be for your employees’ well-being and work ethic.

Delegate responsibility not just work

As a leader, you can easily impart empowerment to the employees almost immediately by delegating not just the work but asking them to take more responsibility such as handling an important meeting or pitching a product you all have been working on. The best way to let them feel important and motivated about their work is to let them work on projects that people and customers notice. This will make them realize that they have a real effect not just on business but on other people as well.

Employee empowerment can help companies not only grow but take on challenges with a distinct zeal. When you make them feel empowered you have better chances of retaining them, sparking job satisfaction, improving customer service, and driving individual growth.

At Talent500, we are empowering companies by helping them build and manage global teams. To know more, request a consultation.

The employee-manager relationship – why it matters now more than ever

Posted on April 5, 2022 by naveen

Remote and distributed ways of work are gaining popularity and very quickly becoming the norm as companies are offering permanent work from home and hybrid work options to employees. As a result, there is an increased spotlight on the employee-manager relationship.

The way teams are communicating due to the hybrid work environment has changed at a breakneck pace. This has caused a shift in how employees and their managers interact on a day-to-day basis.

Let’s explore how the employee-manager relationship has changed in the wake of the pandemic and distributed work culture.

Building better work relationships

From an employees’ perspective, there has been a decline in communication with their managers since the pandemic. For managers, this might look like a loss of control over employees, but this actually demands that both parties make the extra effort to stay in sync in their relationship, with managers taking on the load more heavily.

When done right, it could lead to employees feeling more connected and engaged with their team members, managers, and the organization. According to a survey by Paychex, around 66% of employees agree that they have received more honest communication from their managers during the pandemic. This has made them feel more confident about their roles and their productivity has improved.

As a manager, you need to bring an increased level of transparency and accountability to your communication with employees. As research has pointed out that job satisfaction is the second most important determinant, after mental health for employees for retention, managers need to create a positive experience for employees.

A new perspective on employee development needs

22% of employees report disinterest of their managers in encouraging or enabling them to learn at all. Only 17% of employees report that their managers help them create a plan or set upskilling goals.Learning and development have been the cornerstone for the engagement and retention of employees. But today, managers are struggling to keep track of what their employees need. Also, there is a growing worry among employees that their skill sets will fall behind due to rapid technological advances. They are looking up to their managers to help them keep up with these advances through reskilling.

As a manager, you must be more involved in the learning process of employees. Make this involvement collaborative. In the post-pandemic era, employees want more control over their work-life and look for opportunities that better align with their interests, goals, and experiences. This is why rather than telling your employees what to learn, have a discussion with them about their aspirations and goals.

Incorporating a bidirectional feedback loop

Collaborative conversations are more important today. A bidirectional feedback loop is what you need to reinforce trust and loyalty with your employees. In this age of work, sharing feedback with employees about their performance is just half the battle, you need to extend them the same favor and take their honest opinion on how supportive and empowering the managers are in helping them grow.

As a manager, it is your responsibility to help them proactively share their honest opinions and feedback. For instance, you can encourage opinion sharing by asking how you performed in a client meeting. You can also show vulnerability by asking them which aspects they think you can improve upon.

Many managers are letting the employees take control of the team meetings by setting up an agenda for regular check-ins. This is a clever approach to schedule meetings focused on topics important for employees. This also gives them more control over their career and development. You can learn a lot about your employees from such meetings like what they want to learn to upskill, what their career goals are, and what interests them most.

A renewed take on the employee-manager relationship

As a manager, there is a lot that you can offer to mentor and coach employees in a time when building connections is more important than ever. As employees evaluate their jobs, they want to feel more connected to their roles – a reason that is greatly affecting the attrition rate.

This is why your new approach towards the manager-employee relationship should focus on taking on the role of a coach and mentor and guiding employees to be their best – at work, but also from a holistic growth and development point of view. Taking this approach shows employees that you genuinely care for wellbeing, value their presence in the organization, and are dedicated to their growth.

Talent500 is a powerhouse managing global teams for Forbes500 companies. We hire, build and manage global talent for you. Schedule a consultation to discuss your needs.