Employee expectations have changed, so what can we do as employers?

Over the past few years, the employment market has become more competitive than ever, so, as employers, we need to work with our people to make sure that their working environment is somewhere they see themselves for a long time!

Working in the technology sector has always meant seeking highly skilled people to join our team. However, this has become increasingly harder as the job market undergoes significant change.

Over the last year, the employment market has become considerably broader as companies have the ability to hire employees living across the country. In this article, we have researched current trends surrounding "The Great Resignation" and an insight into how we provide our people with a working environment that is best suited to them.

Introduction

At Circle, our people are our most important asset, so exceeding their employer expectations has always been our goal. However, we suffer the disadvantage of competing with larger organisations, which has grown with the introduction of hybrid working, as people now have the option to work from wherever on a greater wage bracket, due to differences in the cost of living across the country.

Despite offering competitive salaries across the board, we have a range of employee reward and recognition programmes across our organisation to encourage our people to feel appreciated in the workplace. But, despite this, salary and core compensation packages are still labelled as "number one" for people when considering a role.

However, over the last year, we have noticed a change in this as more people look beyond the benefit of pay to see the bigger picture when joining an organisation, which is why we have put together the following article to recognise our approach.

Key findings

The changes to the job market have had a huge impact on employee expectations, it is now being described as an "employees market" as employment options have grown, with unemployment being the lowest since 1974. There are a number of key factors that have swayed this change, including:

The return-to-office is a huge driver of the current high movement between jobs, as companies are offering fully remote options or even ‘work from anywhere’ policies, which are a force to be reckoned with.
73% of workers surveyed want flexible remote work options to continue, while at the same time, 67% are craving more in-person time with their teams, so finding the balance has become a challenge for employers.
Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff have suffered high rates of interest in advertised jobs.
The need to define productivity much more broadly is required throughout the field as 54% of employees feel overworked so would rather seek employment elsewhere.
People expect their employers and leaders to empathise with their unique challenges, but this isn't always the case.

Our approach

Whilst we remain in the shadow of large corporate tech companies, we have witnessed a huge shift in the way that our people feel about joining these organisations. Over the past year, we have experienced several members of our team "boomerang" back to our organisation following their departure to larger businesses. Whilst the money may be better, overall they noticed feeling like "just a number" rather than a part of the bigger picture, which was a key decipher when returning to the Circle Group.

Overall, people want to be a part of a team that encourages their personal growth and allows them to be a part of the bigger picture, whilst implementing flexible working strategies through hybrid working. This is what we aim to deliver at Circle to encourage a positive working environment for every person in our organisation.