Achieving a work-life balance that suits their employees is now a major issue on the business agenda, Mr Bob Mason, director human resource (HR) planning at BT, told delegates at the annual conference of the Institute of Personnel and Development in Tralee yesterday.
He said people expect employers to be more flexible and understanding of family commitments, to be valued for what they achieve rather than the hours they put in and for childcare to be more readily available, better and affordable.
Perceived barriers to employers adopting flexible working practices include fears over reduced communication, access to resources, concerns about security of information, lack of support services and difficulties in maintaining good customer relations, according to Mr Mason.
But far from being problematic, the introduction of flexbile working practices in BT allowed it to attract and retain the best workers, widened its span of productive hours, led to decreased turnover and recruitment costs, reduced absenteeism, and increased motivation, loyalty, commitment, productivity and customer satisfaction. One area in which organisations and their HR departments fail is measuring the return on investment in their people, Mr Rick Emslie, partner with EPSaratoga told the conference.
"If people are our most important asset, why don't we measure the return we get on that asset?" he asked. "There are so few organisations in which that is done."
HR benchmarking or human asset measurement allowed organisations to maximise the contribution people make to meeting organisational objectives and achieving competitive advantage at least cost, said Mr Emslie.
Benchmarking also enables HR to prove its bottom line impact and show companies how to focus on winning the war for talent, he said. Dr Peter Cappelli, the George W Talyor professor of management at the Wharton School, told the conference that surveys had shown a decline in commitment by workers to employers, while online recruitment had changed the nature of the game. The balance of power had shifted to employees and made it easier for rivals to find and hire "passive" employees - the ones who say they are happy in their jobs and are not looking for employment elsewhere. These are usually the most sought-after employees, he said.
But, he said, a number of things that drive turnover in employees can be fixed, such as developing a performance culture.
"Cultures that don't recognise merit and deal with slackers demotivate good people and cause them to leave," he said.
Companies also have to look more closely at their remuneration packages. "You have people sitting in an organisation who are five times more valuable than others but only getting 20 per cent more. How long do you think that will go on before these new online recruiters target those people?" he said.
