With many people now classing themselves as ‘passive job seekers’, could working from home be key factor in whether they stay or go.
As a small business, staff retention is hugely important. Hiring new staff is a long and expensive process, so once you’ve found the right person you want to make sure you keep them. Especially if you’ve also spent time and money training them.
Always on the look out
A new survey from GCS Recruitment, though, has found that 70% of people class themselves as ‘passive job seekers’.
These are people who are currently happy with their job but who could be persuaded to switch companies if the right role comes along.
Thanks to the likes of LinkedIn and other job sites, people looking to hire new staff have become much more active. Your team are now more likely to be approached by another company than ever.
Importance of working from home
The survey found that 62% of people are not happy with the benefits package offered at their organisation, with 44% saying that being able to work from home is the work perk that would make the biggest difference to their life.
It means that if you don’t offer this as a perk then your rival might. And this might just be enough to make your vital employees jump ship.
Hiring people to work from home also means that the job offer doesn’t necessarily have to come from a company located near them. Home working roles allow recruiters to cast their net across a much wider geographic location. And means the number of companies looking to poach your staff is growing larger.
Why is it so important?
There are a number of reasons why working from home is such a key issues.
A ZDNet study found that 73% of workers who telecommute are happy in their jobs. It also found that fewer telecommuters are looking for other employment and they believe their management has more interest in their well-being and morale.
An article in the Harvard Business Review backed this up showing that employees who work remotely are more likely to stay with their company.
What can you do?
Now might be the time to consider investigating whether you can offer your employees the chance to work from home.
And don’t judge workers that ask to work from home. If they feel guilty doing so, they might still decide to leave if a company comes along that has the policy written into their job description.
It doesn’t have to mean them permanently leaving the office, but offering a day or two could be just what they need to stick with you instead of heading to a company that already has a home working policy in place.
Posted by Julie Tucker