Becoming an employer of choice:
Focus on the private sector
In the fifth part of our 2009 series on becoming an employer of choice organisation, we look at the unique challenges faced by the private sector.
Within a broadly free market and mixed economy, the private sector is – by necessity – much more budget conscious than the public sector.
With competition perennially driving both efficiency and innovation, business owners and CEOs can rarely afford to take their eye off the financial bottom line. Simply put, any investment in additional inputs – whether improving the quality of the final product or the quality of employee wellbeing – must be pitched against the projected return, whether in the short- or long-term.
As such, many of the benefits that the public sector can offer their human resource base too often seem way out of reach to the private sector.
But just as production innovations can lead to greater return for reduced inputs (i.e. increased efficiencies), new research is revealing how small investments in human capital can lead to both direct and indirect business outcomes, including increased profit margins.
Despite the growing evidence here, many business owners remain convinced that ‘any changes will simply cost too much’. Locked in mindsets that equate profit margins as a tough, scientific enterprise, they fail to understand that people are a lot more complex, fluid and engaged than they expect.
Simply, what many employees are often interested in actually costs a lot less than what their bosses expect it will.
The following examples can all be achieved without spending a cent outside of internal set-up costs:
- Internal mentoring: Work with the talent your company has by establishing an internal mentoring scheme that matches rising talent with established players.
- Culture change: It costs nothing to implement policies that foster worker enthusiasm and passion. Examples include: optional casual Fridays, at-the-desk team-based physical exercises and stretches.
- After work drinks: You don’t need to organise or fund it, but sometimes simply making a suggestion to a key team player can instigate something fun that the whole team can bond over.
- Idea sharing: Setting up inter-departmental meetings in which one department presents its successes and seeks support on new ventures can be empowering for all. Many managers fear adding ‘yet another meeting to the calendar’, but the short time spent can lead to large rewards.
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