A team that is motivated, enthused and committed to their work is an invaluable asset. It is in an enterprise's best interest to encourage and nurture its teams. An enterprise looking to build a committed and motivated team needs to understand what employees want from their jobs and draft workplace policies around them. It is always a good idea to empower the team to have a strong voice in creating the work environment suited to their needs, and implement policies that are employee driven.
An organisation that puts employee interest at the centre of its workplace policies will have a team that is driven, committed and focused on ensuring the company's continued success.
Here are some of the key factors that I think organisations need to keep in mind when drafting employee policies:
Learning and development
Continuous learning is the key to career and personal growth. The modern employee, in particular, expects to have superlative learning and development opportunities at work. Integrate upskilling and training programs in the HR policy. Introduce mentorship programs and specific leadership training initiatives. Allow for both formal and informal mentoring and training programs for a diverse set of employees.
Sense of achievement
Increasingly, employees want to know what difference their efforts are making in the world. Sharing details about a project, sharing customer reviews and feedback with teams and maybe even telling them about their department's contribution to organisational growth is an excellent way of letting them know how crucial their work is to the larger organisation's operations.
Larger purpose
It is not enough for today's employees to work on cutting-edge technology, and make a tangible difference to their organisation's performance. They want to work for a larger purpose and for a bigger sense of good. Aligning workplace policies to include community outreach programs that leverage the organisation's core expertise is a good idea. For example, many technology companies, including ourselves, focus on STEM education. They provide volunteering opportunities to their engineers to contribute in enabling greater diversity in these fields and expand opportunities for underrepresented students, by inspiring and enabling them to explore STEM careers.
Work-life balance
An individual's life extends well beyond work to his or her family, interests and hobbies. Organisations have to take cognizance of this fact and design workplace policies that allow employees to spend time with family. Paid maternity leave of up to six months, in-house crèche facilities, medical and accident insurance for employees and family members, work from home policies, in-house medical and counselling facilities, informal support and hobby groups all go a long way in ensuring job satisfaction and employee loyalty.
Flexibility and mobility
Technology has changed the boundaries of the workplace. Today's employees expect to be able to access work from anywhere at any time and on any device. Human resources have to work closely with the IT department to facilitate mobility and on-demand access.
As markets become increasingly competitive, the enterprise talent pool stands out as one of its key competitive differentiators. An organisation that puts employee interest at the centre of its workplace policies will have a team that is driven, committed and focused on ensuring the company's continued success.
