A Workforce Revolution is well underway; smart companies across Europe are future-proofing the way they operate by taking responsibility for the digital employee experience and making it a priority to meet the needs of their workers. They are at the cutting-edge of the Workforce Revolution.
And now is the moment to join them because, for many industries who rely on shift workers, a perfect storm is brewing. Many of you out there will recognise the signs: high overheads, highly competitive market places and workforce challenges. The three combined make it an extremely challenging time.At Quinyx, we see these challenges as opportunities and we want to help you lead the way in creating a ‘best in class’ flexible employee experience as well as giving you the tools you need to optimise your business.
With the new year fast approaching, we have four questions for you to help you determine if your business is ready to reach new heights in 2019:
1. Have you embraced flexible working?
A special report we created in collaboration with Development Economics and Censuswide, discovered that, by 2023, the UK could risk £12 billion a year in economic output, if employers do not fully embrace flexibility. With the right tools and technology in place, flexible working can allow businesses to improve productivity, save time, reduce costs, improve employee retention and boost employee happiness. While flexible working is by no means a silver bullet, offering employees the opportunity to work when and how they choose could see businesses rewarded with benefits to boost their bottom lines – as well as happy, motivated staff.
You can find out more about how to unlock the potential of flexible working here.
2. Is employee engagement at the top of your priority list?
How seriously do you take employee engagement? If it’s not one of your top priorities for 2019, then it should be. Engaged employees are happier, healthier and enjoy work. But the benefits don’t stop there. Engaged employees will make you more profitable. In fact, according to a study from Gallup, businesses with engaged employees see a 22% increase in profitability. What’s more, research from Watson Wyatt, found companies with strong employee engagement deliver a return for their shareholders of 64% across a five year period compared to 21% for those with low level of engagement.
Gallup also found business with engaged employees score up to 20% higher on customer satisfaction surveys than their competitors with low levels of engagement. And it’s not hard to see why. Happy employees who feel rewarded in their work are much more likely to go the extra mile for your customers. The same study found the productivity in engaged employees is, again, 20% greater than disengaged employees.
And, according to the Confederation of British Industry, the number of sick days taken by disengaged employees is double that of engaged employees. And retention levels are much higher in engaged employees.
Download our free guide to improving employee engagement and retention to find out more.
3. How effectively can you control your labour cost?
There’s nothing revolutionary about looking for new ways to reduce and control labour cost. Failure to control these costs effectively can quickly lead to you feeling the pinch and having to resort to drastic measure to combat them.
Typically, this includes cutting staff, either by making them redundant or reducing their hours, or raising prices and passing this cost over to the consumer. It also makes the business more vulnerable to competitors and eats into the capital that may be set aside to help grow the business in the form of advertising, marketing and sales.
Simply relying on complicated spreadsheets or, worse, ‘gut feeling’ to try and control your costs just won’t cut it. Instead, you should be able to see, in real-time, what your costs are, how they reflect the current demand from customers and then, if needed, be able to take action to change them.
4. Are you utilising mobile technology in the workplace?
The latest figures show nearly a quarter of 18-24 year olds spend more than 7 hours a day on their phones, although maybe it’s time we move past calling them phones when really they are supercomputers.
The use of apps, and the exponential growth of mobile phone use for a myriad of different tasks, are what fuels our mobile first approach to the development of our workforce management software. For a workforce management app to be successful, it has to be as easy to use as Spotify is for the end user. This means giving them the ability to see when they are working next, to punch in, and to attest their time, in the easiest possible way.
For businesses, being mobile first takes on a even greater importance. If you’re still using a legacy system or have limited mobile functionality within your workforce management solution, you’re making your own life much more difficult and compounding this in your employees.
Most businesses now accept (as you can see in this webinar with leading global retailer Swarovski) employees will have their phones in their pockets at work. And, providing it doesn’t impact the work of the employees, most businesses welcome this. So why not take advantage of the fact your employees have a supercomputer in their pocket? Doing so has the power to revolutionise your business.
You can take your next step towards leading your own Workforce Revolution by booking a free presentation with Quinyx.
