The employer of the future

December 2022 | SPOTLIGHT | LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT

Financier Worldwide Magazine

December 2022 Issue

How do employers attract and retain talent in challenging times? The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has acted as a catalyst for change on working practices and there has been a fundamental shift in the dynamic between employers and employees. In the current environment employers must be prepared to listen to the needs of staff and adapt accordingly. So what are the things an employer should consider in order to maintain good staff relations and make itself an attractive place to work?

Take care of mental health

One of the legacies of the pandemic is employers’ increased awareness of mental ill health and the need to take steps to alleviate any impact that it has on employees in their working life. The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has produced various pieces of guidance, including ‘Managing staff experiencing mental ill health’, ‘Dealing with stress in the workplace’ and ‘Promoting positive mental health in the workplace’, which it is useful to refer to.

Something else to consider is instituting wellness action plans (WAPs) for staff. Mind has put together a guide for line managers on WAPs which makes it clear that they are not necessarily just for those experiencing mental health problems and can be useful for all employees to help identify how an individual’s wellbeing can be proactively improved.

The Mind guidance contains tips on how managers can support staff wellbeing via their managerial style. It makes the point that how people are treated and managed on a day to day basis is central to their mental wellbeing and to how motivated and engaged they feel, so it is a good idea to ask staff what support they need. Developing an atmosphere of trust by regularly asking for feedback about levels of support, and weaving wellbeing into catch-ups can be ways of showing support, as well as being approachable and responsive, and proactively encouraging staff to monitor their workload, encouraging healthy working hours and a positive work/life balance.

How can an employer promote staff wellbeing? Offering attractive benefits is the most obvious answer and things to consider could include gym membership, sabbaticals, contribution toward work-related study and healthcare scheme benefits. The latter could include things such as health screening, contribution to glasses and dental care, flu jabs, setting up running or walking groups and introducing cycle to work schemes.

Adopt ESG criteria

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are an increasingly important way of showing that an employer has values which it believes are important. In the modern world we live in, with challenges such as climate changes and a societal push toward greater equality and diversity, employers are expected to drive change and have a sustainable business strategy. Many employees expect their employer to be able to display a commitment, so having an ESG strategy in place will be key.

Inclusion is a growing part of the ESG conversation, and employers are discovering the value that an inclusive culture can offer. It goes to the heart of employees’ sense of belonging in the workplace; the feeling that they are being seen, heard and valued as individuals. An inclusive employer will remove barriers and help employers feel safe to be themselves at work. This will involve accommodating neurodiversity, the menopause, gender identity, caring responsibilities and promoting social mobility.

Environmentally friendly practices should be encouraged, and it is useful to have a bank of easily accessible resources on these. This could be done via the introduction of a green handbook. Incentives could be offered to encourage sustainable commuting (for example an allowance to buy bikes) and sustainable holiday travel (for instance an extra day’s holiday or cash for those travelling by rail rather than flying). Staff could also be offered the option of investing their workplace pension contributions in ESG-titled funds that have a positive impact on people and planet.

Employers need to be aware that a genuine commitment to governance means much more than compliance with legal requirements. It involves complying with the spirit of the law and voluntarily adopting what is considered good practice. Some of the steps employers can consider include ensuring board diversity and putting in place systems to achieve future diversity goals, and adopting clear and transparent remuneration policies. It is also worth ensuring that any whistleblowing policy is up to date so that staff can easily raise any concerns about malpractice in the workplace and give consideration to voluntary reporting, such as ethnicity pay reporting.

Be flexible

Flexible working practices are something that employees are increasingly coming to regard as the norm. Although the days of having to work from home are now over, employees have become used to taking an agile approach to their work and will come to a job with expectations of flexibility. If an employer is able to take a more flexible and personalised approach to working location and hours then it will be able to draw from a wider pool of talent and can bring a focus to areas like disability inclusion and support for working families.

Allowing staff to work flexibly is also an easy way to help promote their wellbeing. A mixture of working from the office and home can help enhance job satisfaction and work performance and, in addition, can help reduce stress as employees will feel more in control of their working set up, and can combine their work requirements with other responsibilities.

Help out with the cost of living crisis

What can employers do in practical terms to help their employees with the cost of living crisis? There are financial measures such as giving salary increases or unconsolidated bonus payments, and some employee assistance programmes can provide financial advice as well as financial assistance for those who are experiencing stress as a result of financial pressures.

There are a number of other options to consider, some of which employers are already implementing. These include providing subsidised meals at work, facilitating public transport loans or providing a yearly parking permit which could then be deducted monthly from employees’ salaries. Salary sacrifice schemes can be used to offer childcare vouchers, cycle to work schemes and additional pension contributions. Some employers are now operating financial hardship funds to make grants to those employees most in need of financial help.

Something else to consider is offering more flexible working practices to save the cost of travel, or, alternatively, opening up offices to accommodate workers who find working from home expensive because of energy prices. Where previously employers may not have contemplated allowing their employees to have a second job, this might be something else which is subject to change. If an employer decides to allow this, then issues of confidentiality and conflict should be considered, as well as the fact that an employer is technically obliged to ensure that employees should not work more than 48 hours a week.

It is important to be aware of discrimination risks. Younger staff members may be on lower salaries than older employees, and women are statistically more likely to be paid less than men. These discrepancies should be taken into account, and any measures introduced by an employer to alleviate the cost of living should not discriminate against, employees who share a particular protected characteristic.

Reducing the skills gap

One of the trends emerging from the cost of living crisis is older workers coming out of retirement and rejoining the workplace. These workers will bring a wealth of experience with them that is well worth harnessing, but there will also be challenges to reintegrating them into the organisation.

Employers should not assume that older staff are no longer interested in career development. Training should be offered to help them reassimilate and the same training and development opportunities that are available to younger employees should be open to them. It is important to foster an age-positive culture and to acknowledge the benefits that experienced older workers bring to the business.

Something which could help with integration is the offer of reverse mentoring, whereby a more junior employee monitors someone more senior. This has positive benefits both ways as it can help people coming out of retirement to readjust to the workplace, while also developing the business skills of younger staff who can learn from the older staff member’s experience.

Another thing to consider is offering diversity training which encompasses unconscious bias and deals with the potential consequences of age discriminatory behaviour. Negative stereotypes of older workers should be confronted, and their positive benefits to the business should be promoted.

Conclusion

It is important to keep lines of communication open. Employees will be engaged and motivated and give their best to an organisation if they are part of a dialogue. Investing the time to get things right, as well as being responsive to specific challenges such as the cost of living crisis, is an essential way of retaining staff loyalty and sends out a strong message that the employer is committed to values which will make it attractive to prospective employees.

Nicola Ihnatowicz is a partner and Anna Scott is a professional support lawyer at Trowers & Hamlins LLP. Ms Ihnatowicz can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7423 8565 or by email: nihnatowicz@trowers.com. Ms Scott can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7423 8290 or by email: ascott@trowers.com.

Nicola Ihnatowicz and Anna Scott

Trowers & Hamlins LLP