Your employees want you to look after them. That’s standard across industries. But what are you actually doing on a practical level to assuage their concerns? Are you really taking care of them the way they want you to care for them?
If you’re not, this post is here to help. We take a look at some of the things that employees are looking for from you so you can retain more talent.
Physical safety is a top priority
One of the main things that your employees are looking for is physical safety. They want to ensure that you’re minimising hazards and that you have the proper equipment and protocols in place. You should view employee safety as non-negotiable.
If it’s something which is lacking in your business, it can cut into your reputation and that can ultimately harm profits. Customers are less likely to buy from businesses that treat their workers poorly, but at the same time, regulators can also impose enormous costs. Surveys show that the vast majority of workers see physical safety as a priority. This isn’t the school playground any more.
Job security and stability
Another thing your employees want is a sense of security and stability in their work. If you can’t provide this, then it makes life more stressful for them, and they’re much more likely to want to move to a different job. Job security and stability is also related to general trust in the workplace.
In high trust environments, employees simply assume that they’ll have a job to come to next month, and they’re not afraid to take vacations. But in low trust organisations, the worry is that management is constantly planning cuts, and that employees will be let go without having somewhere else to move to. When this happens, it leads to an extremely high turnover rate and a lack of commitment to the job or alignment with the firm in general. Again, you want to avoid this by providing long-term incentives and structures.
Clear reporting and response systems
Employees also want clear reporting and response systems. This is a hallmark of safe organizations. Most workers want unbiased treatment, even if they’re in the wrong. This means that your disciplinary processes need to be well thought out, and leadership should react to feedback properly instead of just ignoring it. There should also be confidential facilities for highlighting concerns, hazards, and whistleblowing. If these facilities aren’t available, you’ll want to implement them as soon as you can.
Comprehensive fire protection
Employees are also sometimes looking for comprehensive fire protection. A lot of workers want to know that they’ll be safe in the event of an emergency. Fire protection can involve multiple systems. The main protection according to companies like USA Fire Door, is to build a culture of fire safety. Everybody on the team should be briefed on how to operate at all times.
However, it is also useful to have fire suppressant systems in place. This is particularly important in large office buildings where workers may have to descend from high floors to lower floors in an emergency. Stairwells should be particularly protected from fire, and there should be nothing flammable in them, of course.
Inclusivity
In the early 2000s, Google did a study on what workers want most from their workplaces. What they discovered was that psychological safety was the most important factor. Employees needed to feel like they could come forward with their ideas and do their jobs without being harassed by management. This is all part of fair treatment and inclusivity. Authentic inclusion and equitable policies are a must for companies, especially those that grow beyond around 20 employees. Once you start bringing in larger teams and management structures, then these rules really come into their own.
It’s worth remembering whenever you make a decision that workers want to bring their whole selves to their work. This means the employment should reflect their personal values and align with it. Obviously this is a factor that you’ll need to consider during the hiring process and whether the people that you’re bringing onto your team are really adding to your well-being and theirs.
Mental health support
Safety could also include mental health support. Many workers face issues with burnout, stress, and work-life balance. If these are operational in your organisation, then dealing with them is critical for people to feel safe. It’s very difficult to feel safe when workers have massive demands on them which are unreasonable and not related to their original terms of employment. When companies take advantage of these terms, then it creates all sorts of issues that ultimately are counterproductive.
Employees therefore are looking for employers who care about their holistic well-being. Things like fatigue and financial strain are rising because of economic circumstances, so companies that can militate against this are highly sought after. If you can do this, you’re much more likely to retain staff you take on.
Open communication and employee voices
If you really want to hold on to your workers for the long term, then providing them with open communication channels they can use to make their voices heard is critical. Workers now expect to be able to provide feedback to companies that don’t meet their expectations. Employee-driven changes are becoming increasingly common and they’re not necessarily capitulation. Many of them are often common sense, and most employees can be trusted to make sensible suggestions.
Hopefully, reading this guide, you’ve discovered some safety priorities that you need to address. Most safety concerns are interestingly psychological, not physical. And most (and all of them) affect things like productivity and retention. If workers don’t feel safe, they’re less likely to want to put in a lot of effort and more likely to be looking for opportunities elsewhere.
The trick here is to create a safe workplace from multiple angles. Don’t just focus on physical safety, although this should definitely be a priority. You also want to think about how psychologically safe people feel and whether they can come forward to management or their peers about the issues that they’re facing.