What is the workforce of today like, what does it mean for your company, and how can you go about creating it? We take a look.
As Covid-19 shakes many traditional work practices to their core, we are seeing a rising trend in different workforce arrangements, from work-from-home setups to employing contract and part-time workers instead of full-time staff.
In particular, the image of a single office employing many long-term staff is a thing of the past. Contract work is on the rise, from 7.2% in June 2018 to 7.6% in June 2019. In fact, a survey commissioned by The Straits Times has found that nearly a quarter of professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) in Singapore are hired on fixed-term contracts. This trend is occurring on an international scale, as projections say the number of self-employed workers in the USA will triple to 42 million people by 2020, while freelancers are the fastest-growing labour group in Europe.
There are other shake-ups as well, as employees reskill themselves and take on different work tasks, and more corporate functions are automated or augmented with AI. “Workforce” of today may also include work performed by outsourced teams, contractors, freelancers, gig workers, and the crowd (outsourced networks).
HR Challenge: How to Foster Employee Engagement and Belonging in an Alternative Workforce
With so many different kinds of staff involved in the company of today, employee engagement and branding often suffers. In fast tech startups or large MNCs, information sometimes does not flow as easily as it should. Sometimes, employees only speak with their immediate colleagues or supervisors, in other cases, someone on contract may feel disengaged and distant from the “real” workers. Work from home arrangements deepen the problem, as employees feel isolated and alientated.
This can lead to problems of communication and engagement, where employees do not feel united or appreciated. They may not even know what they are working for, or what impacts their projects have, leading to low morale and productivity.
Workforce Solutions: SocialReferral
A tool like SocialReferral is perfect for building employee engagement and employer brand. SocialReferral is an SNS for companies, which gives employees the the power to create and share content internally and externally and hence boosts employee engagement. In particular, SocialReferral integrates with the existing referral programme so that employees need only go to one portal to check their referrals and engagement.
There’s value in the details as well. SocialReferral can host hashtag challenges to inspire content creation, creating a cohesive brand story everyone can participate in. These are run by dedicated Community Managers (CMs), who will create email and mobile campaigns, competitions and hashtag challenges to encourage staff participation. They will also share statistics about reviews, engagements, and competition winners to keep morale high.
Interested in HR Solutions? Email [email protected] for a demo, or contact your CareerBuilder rep to learn more.
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