When you are considering the type of people you want to join
your business, and how to attract them, you would do well to look at your
working practices, especially if you are competing for a small pool of good
people.
How to Get them on Board
Naturally you demonstrate your own passion for what you are
doing and hope to motivate the same in them. Alongside this, and the attractive
pay package, sits the way you operate and will expect them to perform.
Recent research by Regus, the major international player in
business services, indicates the need to offer flexible working conditions to
attract and retain the best personnel. Of their survey of 3,000 professionals,
90% said that if everything else about two positions was equal, they would go
for the one that had the most flexible working options.
Richard Morris, Chief Executive of Regus UK, said that these
days flexibility is not looked on as a perk – it is seen as more of a right. It
has become “a key differentiator for talented individuals”.
The Retention Factor
Almost a third of respondents in the survey also said they
would not have left their previous position when they did if working hours and
conditions had been more flexible. Clearly, if you value your people, it would
pay to make their workplace setup and hours as flexible as possible.
Entrepreneurs need to have hard working people they can trust to remain in
place or progress through the business. You don’t need the expense and hassle
of the recruitment process every year.
According to Richard Morris, “A flexible role is one where
the individual has more control over where and when they are productive.
Managers must get better at measuring on results rather than on time spent at a
specified desk … There is also the
current business climate to consider. The economic uncertainty requires
business to be more agile and nimble so operating with a fluid and flexible
workforce, using available workspace, makes real commercial sense…”
If you think it’s time to make changes to accommodate all
this, you could discuss it with your local bookkeepers. They will most likely
have experienced a variety of ways in which companies have made flexible
conditions work for them, so they can warn you of pitfalls and advise on how to
avoid or negotiate them.
