Latest news Jobseekers want flexibility at work personal reputation the key for managers businesses fail culture test

Flexible working conditions seal the deal

Four out of 10 professionals say they would knock back a job offer that did not have flexible working opportunities, according to a new whitepaper from recruitment firm Robert Walters. The findings, drawn from a survey of thousands of professionals and hiring managers in Australia and New Zealand, also reveal that 88 per cent of jobseekers are more likely to consider a role that has flexible working arrangements.

Yet despite these sentiments, only a third of employers say they promote flexible working policies when advertising for new staff. James Nicholson, managing director of Robert Walters Australia and New Zealand, says many organisations consider flexible working as an “employee perk” while ignoring the link between loyalty gains generated and increased productivity levels. “This approach also runs counter to a number of increasingly influential societal trends – a rise in the number of mothers returning to full-time employment, the rebalancing of childcare responsibilities and an ageing population – all of which have pushed flexible working to the top of the jobseeker agenda,” he says.

Other conclusions from the whitepaper include:

• contrary to common perceptions, family and childcare responsibilities topped the list of male drivers (cited by 38 per cent of men), while women were more driven by health and wellbeing (41 per cent) than any other factor
• 64 per cent of employers feel that flexible working increases employee loyalty, yet just 26 per cent say flexible working leads to productivity gains
• professionals are most worried that flexible working will affect perceptions of their work ethic, while employers are most concerned with treating workers equally.

Personal reputation the focus for managers

Personal reputation tops the list when Australian managers measure their career capital, according to a new survey by the Australian Institute of Management. AIM gathered responses from more than 200 members to measure how they ranked 10 elements of their career capital, including reputation, the ability to find new business, resilience and personal relationships. Dr Malcolm Johnson, AIM head of research, commented that it was crucial for managers to view the value in their careers from a wide range of factors, not just job title and salary. The survey reveals that more than 40 per cent of respondents rated personal reputation (43.4 per cent, quality internal relationships (41.9 per cent) and resilience (39.4 per cent) in their top three factors.

The bottom three components were having a professional edge through ongoing education, having an ability to read how a manager’s organisation will be affected by the competitive environment and having a personal ability to identify and act on new business opportunities.

HR teams failing to build right culture

An international survey by Deloitte suggests most organisations are still failing to take action to improve their culture and, as a result, are potentially jeopardising future growth. Deloitte’s third annual Global Human Capital Trends 2015: Leading in the New World of Work shows that as demand for talent rises, the balance of power in business is shifting from the employer to the employee. As staff become more mobile and harder to manage and engage, organisations need to rethink the way they manage people, especially through HR functions, and come up with out-of-the-box ideas to make their businesses relevant.

Deloitte says the report highlights a gap between what business leaders want and the capabilities of HR to deliver. Organisations are quickly falling behind on developing the right skills across all levels. There is an urgent need for organisations to re-evaluate their learning programs and treat leadership development as a long-term investment, rather than a discretionary training spending item when times are favourable. One telling statistic is that only 5 per cent of respondents rated their organisation’s HR performance as excellent.

Re-skilling HR is a critical business issue that must be addressed confidently at the CEO level. HR and business leaders must have the confidence to re-imagine, reinvent and reinvigorate their talent and HR functions, according to Deloitte. To do this they should:

• design the HR organisation to be an enabler and builder of talent
• align the specialist capabilities with priority business needs and decrease the effort of generalists
• harness the wealth of data available to act as a research and professional development capability for the business
• improve HR capability development around factors such as consulting and project management, organisational change and HR analytical skills.