Thursday, October 07, 2010

Keeping Your Workforce Sustainable

by Michelle Strong   Edited Thursday, December 02, 2010

Keeping Your Workforce Sustainable: The ROI for Work Life Resources - Veterans to Millennials
(The First of a Series of Keeping Your Workforce Sustainable )

Originally Published in Biz to Biz NW Arkansas

United States Business history is marked with periods of paradigm shifts and business megatrends affecting the competitive landscape within a variety of industries. Sustainability is the current mega-trend for businesses as they develop strategies and new business models to conduct business in a fashion to sustain our natural resources. As Human Resource (HR) professionals, we need to ensure that we are investing in innovative strategies that sustain our organizations’ most precious resource, our human capital.

Although work life programs have been around in some organizations since the mid 1980’s, due diligence must be done in order to ensure that our organizations’ programs are progressive, offering resources that are appropriate for our changing workforce, from Veterans to Millennials. This is the first time in the history of U.S. business that we are managing four different generations with a broad spectrum of work life needs. In order to develop an innovative work life strategy, we must understand each generation and the return on investment for offering work life resources (not just programs) specific to an individual’s need.

A one- size-fits-all program or systems approach to work life resources is not enough. Work life issues are as diverse as each individual in your work force. Educating employees on work life balance on how to create their own work life program is just as important, if not more, than the company program benefits. As HR professionals, we need to leverage our relationship as a strategic business partner with our leadership and our employees to help them understand the Return on Investment (ROI) on work life resources. In many organizations, this may be a true cultural shift, but a shift in a very positive direction and the potential to have a significant ROI in terms of managing human capital and costs associated.

Understanding Work Life Needs of Each Generation

  1. Veterans - Veterans have a hard approach to work life needs. They are strong believers in work before fun, a strong work ethic, and traditional families therefore, the work and family never cross. In addition, many of the Veterans have or will be soon exiting the work force.
  2. Boomers - Boomers are workaholics and live to work. They view work as an adventure resulting in personal fulfillment. For the most part, they have no interest in work life balance because they live to work and receive greatest satisfaction from recognition in the form of monetary rewards and titles.
  3. Gen X - Generation X is much less committed to one employer and have a work to live outlook on work ethic as opposed to their workaholic parents. They are more ethnically diverse, better educated, value work life balance, and have a work hard/play hard mentality. Additionally, many Gen X’s are caring for elderly parents as well as children and are known as the sandwich generation.
  4. Millennials - Millennials are a very tech savvy and entrepreneurial generation. They seek companies who are engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility and want a work environment that can provide personal fulfillment and opportunities to express ideas. They require frequent feed back and have a very keen interest in work and life balance. Unique to this generation is the retention factor. If the needs are not being met, the millennial will easily leave.

The ROI for the Organization

  1. Competitive advantage for a diverse work force - Providing work life resources for employees that meet needs of each individual can attract and retain a diverse work force within your organization. The ability to attract and retain a diverse work force will allow the organization to have diversity of thought within the organization and diversity of connections to the customer.
  2. Full engagement and high levels of customer service - Employees that are out of balance, over worked, or unnecessarily stressed or disgruntled greatly reduces engagement with the internal and external customers as well as reducing the motivation to work toward the organizational goals.
  3. Part of the solution to rising health care costs – Work life resources are a part of an overall health and wellness plan within and organization. Employees who have a healthy balance and a culture that is accepting of that balance tend to have less health related issues such as insurance claims and absenteeism.
  4. Growth and profit - All of the above mentioned items contribute to the very existence of our organizations: growth and profit. In order to maximize growth and profit, we must attract and retain a diverse work force, we must know how to manage them based on the generational characteristics, and we must allow them to have a healthy balance between their work and their life. All which contributes to the bottom line.

The most important aspects of providing work life resources is to communicate them, implement them, and create a culture that is open to them!