Perks still make a difference, says UNSW management lecturer
The labour market is super tight. Australian Bureau of Statistics data for August show the participation rate at a record high of 67.1%. The number of jobless fell by 10,000 and the ranks of the employed swelled by 47,000.
About 4.2% of Australians are unemployed, tracking very slowly up from a record low of 3.5% in July 2022.
As they battle to fill roles, employers are toiling over ways to attract talent while keeping an eye on wages inflation at 4.1%. The field is tough but the game is the same: hook quality workers and keep the ones you have.
With cost-of-living pressures squeezing household budgets, HR professionals can lure talent with anything that will make an employee’s life better, Dr Andrew Dhaenens, a lecturer in the School of Management and Governance at UNSW Sydney, told HRD.
“You’re going to be competitive in this market by offering simple things like fitness passports, or perks that can help people ease their transition between home and work life,” he said.
Organisations that offer products or services which genuinely and incrementally improve life on Earth will also stand above others in applicants’ eyes, Dhaenens said.
“There is clearly a frustration growing among employees at different organisations … over the direction [the business] may be going. They don’t have a clear answer as to how they’re making the world a better place or making Australia better.”
It’s time to drop the spin in recruitment, because today’s recruits can see through it. Instead, he said, organisations must answer questions about what they are doing.
“Be direct with your employees about what you are accomplishing, and be clear about where the challenges are within the work,” Dhaenens said. “You are much more likely to get the response you want out of employees if you are direct with them. People are willing to make certain sacrifices to do difficult work, but they have to know it upfront.
As for offering hybrid work, that’s still a negotiating tool, he said.
“That’s asked at almost every interview: ‘How can I have the flexibility to do my work?’”
But tensions are emerging, Dhaenens said, especially among leadership of organisations that are offering perks above average levels.
“There is a sort of anxiety that industry is facing,” he said. “At the same time, employees themselves are working in a way they feel is working. They are not going to want to give up something that clearly has been a boon for caregivers, for women in the workplace, for everybody who wants to have a better work-life balance.”
The pandemic forced a dramatic flexibility on society. Workers were quick to adapt to hybrid work that seemed radical at the time but four years later has become normal. Dhaenens said businesses should think long and hard about unwinding flexible practices.
“It’s a huge loss to Australia if we are going to give that up and force people to come back into cities,” he said. “If you take away that right, take away that flexibility, we’re really at a worst outcome for everyone.”
Human resources professionals are pulled between what their employees want and what their leadership expects, Dhaenens said.
“If you can constantly be working on ways to make employees’ lives better outside of work, you’re going to have employees who want to stay,” he said.
“At the same time, you are going to want to still make it enticing to want to come to the office – and have the space available to do so.”
Making desks available to workers who don’t show up five days a week means “planning for a little bit of slack,” Dhaenens said.
With office vacancies generally higher than residential vacancies in major metropolitan commercial hubs, the property market may be accommodating, he said.
“That’s where the slack can go,” he said. “It’s making sure you have a place available for people, both at home and in the workplace.”
