From ME to WE – What Employees Want

While most companies aspire to be one among the ‘Greatest Places to Work’, they often misinterpret monetary benefits as the carrot to attract the best talent. Through this two series write-up let’s explore some of the other more promising aspects that make employees want to work for an organization.

I have often heard employees say, “This is my dream job” or “ABC is my dream company”, making me wonder what is it that gives an employee that level of satisfaction? Is it the reputation of the company and its stakeholders or what it offers the employees? While each one might have a different reasoning, one underlying fact is that a successful business is the one which is high on the customer as well as employee satisfaction. So while organizations implement various business development strategies to win over customer loyalty, equal emphasis is laid on winning over employee engagement.

Developing an emotional connect with the employees too impacts professional relationships. Hence, it is necessary to identify and acknowledge the wants and needs of the employees first and then act broadly to stretch across the ‘Me to We’ continuum, wherein the vision and values of the employees are aligned to those of the company.

Let us start by first identifying the ‘Me factors’.

For obvious reasons, it starts with the remuneration that the company offers. Job seekers expect to be paid as per industry standards. But while employees look for a hefty package, what is also important to them is the trust. They prefer companies with ‘long service’ employees as it gives them a sense of security. They want to know that they will have a job next year and that they can commit to the organization long-term, assuming that they are happy in their work.
Felicitation of a dedicated long service at Transasia Bio-Medicals
Besides this, they want easy access to the information that they need to make decisions in the best interests of the business. A survey by Deloitte indicated that 76% respondents reported high levels of satisfaction in a creative, inclusive working culture.**

At Transasia Bio-medicals, we treat our employees as internal stake holders and empower them with all the necessary information for smooth operations. The achievements of the company are shared with our employees from time-to-time as we strongly believe that the success of the company is a result of the hard work of its people.

While we speak about dedicated employees, it brings us to the next point on enrichment. In a 2016 Gallup poll, 87% millennials said career development is important in a job.* From the time an employees joins a company he expects to know how his career graph is going to shape up. It starts with a well structured on boarding plan that entails an induction process and mentoring. In a Deloitte survey, it was observed that 6 in 10 employees are benefited from having somebody to turn to for advice, or who helps develop their leadership skills.**

Transasia Bio-Medicals conducts a structured induction programme - Gurukul, for its new sales representatives. Through the fifteen days, the new joinees are trained on the different aspects of the company, its products, technical know-how and soft skills. Besides, every member of our HR is in-charge of a team, and acts as their point of contact for any advice.

Transasia Bio-Medicals' new joinees with CMD -Mr. Suresh Vazirani at the induction program 'Gurukul'
Providing developmental opportunities also plays an important role in an employee wanting to stay longer with an organization. Employers should offer an array of programs that assist employees with improving their skill sets and take on additional responsibilities. A dedicated Learning & Development team at Transasia, helps us identify these needs. Also, we regularly send our employees for an off-site training to the ‘Initiatives of Change’, an organization that focuses on personal development. Besides, we arrange for successful leaders from different walks of life to have ‘pep talks’ with our think tank.

'Winning through Performance' - our development programme for the top management
Another important aspect in enrichment is to provide a ‘perfect job environment’. As they say, all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy! It is important to make work fun for the employees. Through our annual picnic, sports day, celebration of festivals, and many more exciting activities, we try to provide a holistic environment to our employees.

Striking the right work-life balance at Transasia Bio-Medicals
The Deloitte survey also highlighted that a good work life balance is what is most important to an employee. Employers should ensure they are enabling—or at the very least, not preventing— employees from having rewarding and fulfilling lives outside of the workplace. Providing flexible working hours, work from home opportunities, paternity and maternity benefits, helps businesses retain their best talent as they give their employees an option to do great work, in a way that fits their lifestyles, providing a win-win scenario for all.

Rewarding the employees for their good work is a part of their enrichment process. More often than not, companies restrict this to the yearly appraisals. However, this needs to be done more often and in ways more than one. For e.g., at Transasia we regularly give out the ‘Kaizen’ award to employees who develop new ideas for continuous improvement of working practices. Our ‘referral program’, encourages employees to be our brand ambassadors and refer their friends to join Transasia and in turn earn a referral fee. This besides our annual awards to the sales team for their outstanding efforts.

Rewarding innovative ideas through Kaizen award at Transasia Bio-Medicals

Watch out for the next issue where we focus on the We factors…

Sources:
https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/08/10-things-employees-want.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2016/10/12/employers-take-note-heres-what-employees-really-want/#69c3c2d71c83
https://www.thebalance.com/what-employees-want-1918690
https://hbr.org/2015/12/the-intangible-things-employees-want-from-employers
https://www.wayup.com/guide/10-things-look-company/
*http://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/191435/millennials-work-life.aspx
**https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-millenial-survey-2016-exec-summary.pdf

Authored by:

Vaibhav Pagedar
Assoc. Vice President- Human Resources
Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd.

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