What employees want…

Job security, a better pay or freedom at work?

In the days of yore, it was job security - meaning one plum job that you stuck to all your life. But in this ever-changing world and with the expectations of employees increasing by the day, there is indeed a lot that they look for from their organisations. "Gone are the days when the most important aspect of a job for an individual was salary and job security. In today's job market, an individual doesn't merely concentrate on these aspects. Instead, one looks for value addition – learning and development by enhancing their knowledge and skills and perhaps even attitude to an extent. By doing this, they aim at increasing their market value. Alternately, they want to maximise the qualitative ROI from a job," says Sudhir Dhar, senior vice president and head – HR, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Here's a list of employee expectations, according to Kavalapara: The freedom to express and create; Team approach – work closely with others for good results; Less tolerance to non-performance of co-workers; An opportunity to move up quickly if talented, no matter what the age or background is; A blend of good work-life balance; The ‘party' atmosphere; Finally, good financial recognition for contribution.

"Today's workforce increasingly thrives on a collaborative work environment. They welcome and seek an environment that enables exchange of thoughts and ideas. They look for equal opportunities, recognition, brand identity, a flexible work environment that is richly replete with the latest technology enabled tools, work-life balance and sound company policies. In today's competitive environment, organisations that favour an entrepreneurial work culture, emphasise values of trust and transparency and instill agility in terms of learning, thinking and execution augur well with the current generation and can help in sharpening their leadership qualities," notes Naveen Narayanan, global head, talent acquisition, HCL Technologies.

With the advent of globalisation, workforce demands in India have changed drastically. Employees today are ready to give their 100 per cent to their work but in return expect better compensation, learning, recognition and welfare on the whole. They do not like being told what to do. In a nutshell, they want to feel valued by their employers. "Post independence, employees were more concerned about job security. Today, though job security is something, which many look for but owing to availability of multiple opportunities, employees are seen transitioning to different jobs more frequently. They are also willing to take risks to move from one organisation to another to find the right fit. Another benefits that employees are availing of are flexible work hours and work-from-home. These options help them achieve a better work-life balance; additionally, it removes the stress of peak hour commute," avers Sampatkumar Aratti, vice president – HR & admin, Lapp India.

Earlier, individuals didn't aim at changing jobs for better prospects. Also, there was a huge social stigma attached to being laid off by a company. The hire-n-fire culture was also not prevalent. Speaking on how this concept has changed over the years, Ramaswamy S Kavalapara, head HR, Asia, Xchanging speaks, "Earlier, growth opportunities within the organisations were limited and people were happy doing the same thing over the years and retire. They either contributed significantly or reconciled to the ‘two punch one lunch' attitude. Another key factor was a majority of them had low or moderate lifestyle patterns. Hence, the need for higher financial requirements was limited. But today, the trend is different. There is no fear of failure. Employees are willing to take risks, multi-task, etc to see if they can grow faster. Loyalty to the job is diminishing and is replaced by ‘what's in store for me here?' and if not, ‘is someone else ready to give me a better opportunity?'"

The freedom to choose their own path of achieving goals and not being restricted to stringent processes that interrupt creativity are what employees are looking for from work today. HR, are you paying heed?

 By By Sheetal Srivastava

Source : http://www.itsmyascent.com