The Key to Remaining a Competitive Employer: Forward Thinking

June 30, 2021

By Mary E. Corrado, courtesy of SBAM Approved Partner ASE

2020 dramatically changed the workforce and workplace. The traditional business structure is fading away as employment preferences change and technology advances.

To remain competitive in today’s job market, employers must be forward thinking and embrace the many changes that have occurred over the past year and a half. Below are some tips, as published on forbes.com, to help you stay forward thinking as an employer:

Get your skills in a row. Start looking at the skills within your organization. Think about both today and the future. Identify which ones should remain in-house and which ones might eventually be outsourced. For those skills you want to keep in-house start working with management now to nurture and accelerate those skills within the team. For skills you may need in the future, but you might outsource for, start developing those relationships. We recently published an article on this topic: The Value of Reskilling Your Talent.
Be flexible about working. After working remote for the past year and a half, many employees are no longer interested in working the typical 9 to 5 hours in the office. In order to stay relevant, it’s important to offer flexible hours and working options. If you don’t, your talent pool will shrink significantly. Consider hybrid work options as you return to the office.
Maintain positive relationships with your contractors. As the median employee tenure is now 4.2 years, contracting is becoming much more common. Keep your mind open. While hourly rates for contractors can be high, you’ll save money on benefits, holiday, and vacation pay. Although they are contractors, keep those relationships strong by inviting them to company events in order to make them feel connected to the organization.
Invest in video communication. In order to support continued remote work, organizations should invest in video conferencing software if they haven’t already. The software should integrate well with laptops containing a good camera. It should be easy for employees to arrange conference calls and share their screens with co-workers.
Encourage continuous development. Encourage your employees to be forward-thinking as well. Invest in your employees’ continuous education. It will keep their skills at the forefront and has been shown to improve employee engagement. This should hold true for employees at all levels throughout your organization. ASE offers a vast array of employee development courses. You can view our complete catalog here. Our fall catalog will be released soon and contains several new courses.