More than ever before, companies are turning to employee engagement pulse surveys for employee feedback and, empowered by new technology, they are soliciting it more often and on more topics than ever. No longer requiring support from specialists, they are keeping their costs low and their options open.

Let’s enter the world of lean and mean small and medium-sized businesses for a few minutes.

Whether you’re a staffing company, a corporation, or a privately-held business, reaching the top talent before the big firms and large corporations swipe them up can be extremely difficult. Not to mention, exhausting. You don’t have the resources they do, the budget, the talent, the headcount, or even the diversity. So, how do you stay in the ring without getting knocked out? 

The candidate experience is now more important and personalized than ever before, making it a prerequisite to landing the best talent. But, to be honest, you just don’t have the time on your calendar or the resources at your fingertips to do your research on each candidate and provide them the experience they desire. You’re sick of taking piles of resumes (or files) home with you to study and find that perfect match that the hiring manager won’t get off your back about.

This blog was originally published on the Willis Towers Watson Wire, February 15, 2018.

In today’s talent management environment, the most successful employers are the ones who listen. In Willis Towers Watson’s 2017/2018 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, we see that benefits are more important to employees than ever before. While retirement and medical benefits tend to top employees’ list of priorities, paid time off ranks relatively high around the world. Additionally, the topics of workforce flexibility and work-life balance continue to receive significant attention from employers who want to attract, retain and engage talent. More and more, top employers give prominence to employee success, satisfaction and security outside of the workplace, as well as within, as part of their employee value proposition, in effort to help them stand apart from competitors vying for the same talent pool. 

In our first blog post about Change Leadership, we talked about the hallmark of a great change leader as being able to navigate complex organizations, understanding what makes people tick and using that knowledge to inspire and motivate change.

Well, no matter how good you are at doing that, if all your employees are hearing is “blah, blah, blah,” they won’t get the vision for the change, grasp what success looks like for the company, nor understand what’s in it for them, how it affects them and how they can help make it happen.  

The best trick is to figure out how to strike the right balance between the serious nature of the change and conveying the details of all noted above, while avoiding corporate speak, high-level platitudes and the 'blah, blah, blah' of many change initiatives.

It’s no secret that in order to successfully attract and retain talent, employers must establish competitive and sustainable pay policies. But often, much attention goes towards determining “how much” and “who” without taking other facets of reward into consideration. In many markets around the world, getting pay right may also involve other aspects, such as “what” in terms of specific elements and sometimes even “when” they must be paid. Pay aspects such as these may be statutory obligations for employers, mandated by collective agreements or simply customary practice in specific markets. What’s more, local tax treatment may incentivize specific elements of pay but that’s helpful only if employers are aware of the programs and their benefits. For ‘new’ employers in a market, ignorance is not blissful. Rather, it’s often expensive, both in terms of controllable employment costs as well as employers’ long-term ability to retain staff.

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We’ve all been there. Holiday shopping for friends, family and co-workers can be challenging. What mom likes is different from what little Timmy wants, which is again different from that new gadget your boss can’t stop talking about. Gifts also depend on the holiday: Birthday’s, Christmas, Anniversary’s, Valentine’s Day, the list goes on and on…