If you’re wondering how to keep employees, you’re not alone. Retention is one of the biggest problems that organizations face today.
Employers will thus find Gallup’s new State of the American Workplace report of great interest.
Here’s how to keep employees by offering flexibility:
A key finding of the study was that more than half of U.S. workers surveyed (51 percent) said that they would change jobs if they were offered flexible work hours. This means if your company doesn’t already offer flexibility, you’re at high risk of losing much of your top talent to an organization that does.
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What’s more, the report revealed that more than half of employees polled (51 percent) are actively looking for a new job or are on the hunt for openings. Assuming some of those job searchers are on your teams, it’s clear from the information above that offering flexible work options is a way to make them stay. As stated in the report: “Gallup consistently has found that flexible scheduling and work-from-home opportunities play a major role in an employee’s decision to take or leave a job. Employees are pushing companies to break down the long-established structures and policies that traditionally have influenced their workdays.”
The report also emphasizes how dramatically the American workplace is changing—an evolution facilitated by new and emerging technologies that make it easier than ever to work anywhere, anytime. Per Gallup: “More people do their job virtually or remotely and at various times of the day rather than between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and teams have fewer face-to-face interactions, communicating increasingly through email, instant messaging and conference calls.”
With this in mind, it makes sense that the research organization found that over the last four years, the number of remote employees climbed four percentage points, from 39 percent in 2012 to 43 percent in 2016.
Yet despite these clear findings, some employers (most recently IBM) continue to make policy decisions around remote work that show they are not convinced that flex work works. If in doubt, take a good look at Gallup’s recent State of the American Workplace report, and make your own decision. When over half of employees in the nation are ready to jump ship for a company that provides the benefit of workplace flexibility—and half are already hunting for new opportunities—the message is loud and clear. If you want to gain a competitive advantage in the talent wars and improve retention, keep it simple and offer flexible work arrangements.
For more on how to implement flex work, recruit and retain talent, check out our recruit talent category.
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