AS COMPETITION for skilled workers becomes more and more fierce, employee loyalty and other such soft outcomes will gain increasing weight with the business – and be understood as key drivers of competitive advantage
AS COMPETITION for skilled workers becomes more and more fierce, employee loyalty and other such soft outcomes will gain increasing weight with the business – and be understood as key drivers of competitive advantage.
So says Kirsten Lees, author of a recent book for women returning to work after having children.
In her book, Let Go of my Leg!, Lees speaks with such women and looks at how recruiters and employers assist them back into the workforce.
Many companies have policies and good PR around being prepared to help parents return to work after having children, but Lees said companies tend to want to see results in terms of numbers: profits, share price, production quotas and the like – for now.
“As flexible work practices become increasingly embedded into our work patterns, as skilled workers become harder to find – and are therefore competed for more fiercely by companies wishing to attract/retain them – the business case will become clearer and easier to make,” she says.
“With the incentive of a couple of court cases in Australia establishing women’s right to work part time after having children as well as some big payouts in similar cases overseas, the multinationals are understanding the hip-pocket impact of getting it wrong.”
“In general, HR professionals that I have spoken to in my research for this book appear committed to facilitating the changes required, and in several instances people wanting to work part-time, introduce job shares or other flexible work patterns new to their organisations found that the HR department were their greatest ally – keen to sponsor such initiatives,” she said.
“In the end, however, it is your line manager or business manager that has to be convinced, and as most HR professionals will confirm, it takes a while for cultural change to filter throughout an organisation.”
Lees said the strongest argument to change in any work pattern is the business case, however she acknowledged that making the case for women returning to work after children in terms of the raw numbers is not easy, with general phrases like ‘increased employee loyalty’ still being relied on.
According to Lees, while it is the line manager’s responsibility to ensure HR policies are implemented successfully, HR professionals could assist women returning to work after having children by:
• Giving employees the tools to make their case – help them put their request for flexible work patterns and the like.
• Encourage initiatives, in business terms, like company-wide job share databases.
• Introducing programs that ensure the company stays in touch with women on maternity leave and keeps them up to date with what is going on in the business, so they continue to feel part of the team.
• Working with managers to monitor the success of parents returning from parental leave, so that they can ensure any practices adopted continue to work for the employer and employee.
• Putting in place ways to measure the business success from the business’perspective.
• Keeping up-to-date with what the company’s key competitors are doing in this area – it can strengthen your argument for change when you can say that a new practice has become the industry norm, for example.
• Keeping a finger on the pulse of what is actually happening around the company not what should happen, or whether or not the word of the policy is being sufficiently adhered to – is the spirit of the policy being met?
• Knowing the line managers, their strengths, weaknesses and their pressure points. Use this understanding to show how flexible work practices can ease some of the pressure on the business.
