Officevibe / Workable – Webinar takeaways – Tips to hire and retain talent in turbulent times
Workable recently partnered with Officevibe - a leading employee engagement solution to bring together experts from both teams. The focus of this conversation was how human resource professionals can adapt and thrive in the current turbulent landscape of the modern workplace.
Our guest speaker Rob Long (Chief Human Resources Officer, Workable) and Jackie Sirni (Senior People Operations Specialist, Workable) took to the mic alongside Julie Jeannotte (HR Expert & Researcher, Officevibe) to share their insight and personal experiences.
Below I’ve distilled my favorite actionable takeaways from Jackie and Rob.
1. Put yourself in their shoes
When you get on the phone with them and you’re speaking to them for the first time, Put yourself into their shoes, create a personal connection, and understand what they’re looking for in the role. Make sure they feel comfortable and understand what their journey’s going to look like.
2. Be their first friend
Remember you’re the first person they talk to. You’re the person they’re emailing asking when they’re gonna be onboarded and reminding yourself once a new hire comes on board that you are, that person for them is so critical. Example: Even if it’s just a Slack on day three to say how’s it going? It creates a warm positive feeling. They know that you’re still thinking about them.
3. Create a safety net
Regardless of if the employee is remote or office based. Make sure they know that they have that safety net (in you). So that they can come to you in the future with any other concerns. Take it beyond a phone screen relationship. Make it genuine and make sure they know you’re there for them.
4. Make sure that they know that they’re valued, and that development is available
Work to get consistency around the career path and onboarding experience you offer. Make sure it’s being implemented across different teams, and break down silos.
So how can we make sure that everyone in the company has that, that great employee experience as well, which I think people are expecting more of.
5. Bridge the remote working disconnect
Since the pandemic we’ve seen a significant shift towards remote working. Away from the office where genuine work and social interaction were able to happen a little more organically. It’s important to actively address challenges. Team events are historically office based, and with the pandemic, that just stopped overnight for many people. So in order to maintain a healthy remote and/or hybrid environment companies should look to actively implement more policies to help us engage more with the company?
6. Work from home isn’t for everyone
For many people life fits really well around working from home, but that’s not everyone’s experience of work from home. There’s a lot of people who want to be in the office every day, whether it’s because they want to be around people or because their work set up at home just isn’t as enjoyable. The shift and the technology have enabled choice. Where employees, if we’re able to give that choice, it’s great, but it doesn’t mean that everyone wants to be working from home.
7. Maintain and promote transparent
Being transparent is hugely important. Call it out whenever you can with employees. Help them understand there’s things that you can’t tell you right away, but when you can you will, and that there will be an opportunity to talk about more. Making what they’re going to expect when joining your team, Really taking that side of transparency, wherever possible.
Thanks for reading. I hope you found these tips useful. Next, drive deeper with more insights from Jackie, Rob, and Julie Jeannotte.
Our partner, Officevibe is the incredibly friendly people-first employee experience platform – providing a fresh, new way to engage, recognize, align, and enable world-class leaders and teams. Learn more
