Remote working: employers have to work harder

How do you motivate someone you only ever see on Zoom? How do you engender in them a sense of belonging and loyalty? How do you effectively manage them without coming over all big brother?

Holding onto talented staff, indeed any staff, is harder now. Hybrid working has been a long time coming and is welcome in so many ways, but inevitably people will feel less rooted, less loyal and more inclined to switch employers. After all, a new job no longer necessarily means a new location.

HR goals remain the same: get people to feel that their career needs are being met, that their input is valued and that the culture of the organisation is one they can identify with. Hybrid or remote working just makes those goals that much harder to achieve.

HR and senior management are going to have to focus on adapting and repurposing their personnel practices if they are to hold onto staff.

One company more likely than most to get it right would appear to be Immediate Media, who last week announced that they had been named as the UK’s 4th best place to work in the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards 2022.

Apparently, Immediate received an overall ranking of 4.5 out of 5, scoring particularly high on ‘Culture & Values’, ‘Work / Life Balance’ and ‘Leadership’. Executive Chairman Tom Bureau received a whopping 98% approval rating!

According to Jo Brandl, Immediate’s Group HR Director, “over the last ten years, we’ve worked extremely hard to build a people centric culture, which is caring, inclusive and collaborative and brings out the best in our people. We’re proud of this strategy, and believe it’s been fundamental to our growth and success – 2021 will be Immediate’s most successful year financially.”

It’s easy to be cynical, but let’s take this at face value. Great brands aside, the secret to financial success is recruiting and retaining talented people. Staff retention might be harder now, but the time spent getting it right will pay dividends in the long run.