With diversity on the rise and a lack of skilled candidates in the market affecting 65% of employers, businesses have a significant job on their hands when it comes to employee engagement. But the benefits are considerable; engaged employees are easier to motivate, more productive, and more like to stay loyal to their employer (233% more loyal according to one study).
If that doesn’t persuade you, perhaps the fact that companies with an employee engagement programme achieve 26% greater year-over-year increase in annual revenue will.
Sitka are delighted to have recruited two members of staff for Creditsafe Business Solutions, one of a handful of companies in Wales to be ranked in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for 2016. We asked Gareth Way, Chief HR Officer at Creditsafe’s shared service centre in Cardiff what they do to keep their employees engaged.
Career development
“We’re very proud to have a strong management team who value employee career development and provide support to employees at an individual level,” said Gareth.
“We provide all our staff with opportunities to train and grow, even if it’s not directly related to their work.”
Candidates consider advancement opportunities one of the top three most important factors when considering a job. When you consider that 46% of people leave their jobs because a lack of development opportunities, it’s easy to see why companies like Creditsafe are getting accolades for their proactive approach.
Recruitment and onboarding
Investing in engagement makes sense from a recruitment perspective as well; internal hires (38%) and employee referrals (34%) are the highest source of new appointments. In addition, candidates read an average of six reviews before they form an opinion about a company. Treating your current employees well will invariably lead to positive word of mouth and more positive online reviews to support your recruitment efforts.
Gareth says the initial recruitment process is crucial to getting engagement off to a good start: “The consideration given to candidates during the selection process plays a big role in getting the right people to begin with. Recruiters like Sitka who take time to understand the specific workplace culture and skills required are much better able to find people who are a good fit. And those people tend to be much easier to onboard and retain.”
But it’s not just employers who recognise the value of engagement in the early stages of recruitment. Claire Cooper, a candidate we recruited for Tŷ Hafan, says: “The recruitment process is such an important reflection of an organisation – often the first impression with a prospective employee. Because my experience was a positive one which enabled me to succeed in landing my dream job, I certainly felt more confident in starting with my new employer.”
Culture
“We want our staff to be incentivised to do a good job at Creditsafe” said Gareth, “so we offer attractive remuneration packages and other rewards for good performance. We also encourage a culture of transparency and try to listen to our employees’ ideas.” Their employees testify to this; as the Sunday Times report states: ‘Suggestions are taken seriously when staff have a brainwave at Creditsafe Business Solutions…they provide plenty of opportunities for employees to submit ideas in suggestion boxes, focus groups, surveys and intranet polls.”
Work-life balance has another big influence on engagement. One study found that 54% of workers in Britain value a healthy work-life balance over the salary amount. 68% of staff at Creditsafe were found to be happy with their work-life balance. It’s not that hard to believe when some of the staff incentives include Group wide anniversary conferences (this year in Alcudia, Spain) and a half day long ‘School sports day’ engagement event that leads into a summer party to thank employees for their hard work.
Cause
Recent research found that 25% of candidates want to work for employers with a strong charitable ethic. Allowing employees time off to volunteer during working hours can be a great way to provide them with a sense of purpose and increase their satisfaction in the role. This is another area where Creditsafe excels, to the extent that they’re ranked 29th among mid-size firms for charitable activity, 89% of their employees recognise that the company encourages charitable work and 10% undertake it during company time.
Sitka is privileged to work with clients like Creditsafe who recognise the value of culture, development and the recruitment process to engage their existing and future workforce. If you’d like any help with talent development, please get in touch.
To find out how we can work with you, please drop us a line
Ita took the time to understand my objectives and needs as a candidate also – something unusual for a recruitment agency.
Information was provided quickly, in full and was very clear. Ita also took the time to follow-up post interviews to understand how things went and confirm next steps/timeframes. She has also gone the extra mile of checking in with me since starting in my new role.
Ita approached every stage of the recruitment process in a professional, honest and open manner. It was clear she was committed to finding the right candidate for her client
This was the most professional recruitment processes I have experienced as a candidate. I felt really well prepared for the hiring process. Ita took the time to understand my experience and align my skills and values with those of role that I was applying for. This meant that I felt really prepared for the interview process and confident that I understood the role, culture and values of the organisation.
I would recommend Sitka and I would also consider using them as a client in the future. Having experienced their service as a candidate I have seen the effort that is made to ensure there is a good fit between candidate and client. Thank you Ita!
Sitka was honest all the way through and went above and beyond to make me feel prepared and ready for the interview. Everything went really smoothly and I had regular communication from Ita who made sure I knew everything I needed to along the way. I felt equally as important to the agency as the client and knew I could trust Sitka to represent me as a candidate.
I just want to say a big thank you to Ita for believing in me and being so supportive from the first LinkedIn message until I started my first week!
I thoroughly enjoyed communicating with Karen and having her represent me. Karen was very hands on and made me feel very informed. Therefore I was able to relaxed and feel at ease during my interviews.
The recruitment process was a very smooth one with constant, non-intrusive updates. We benefited greatly from a personalised visit to our business, ensuring the right candidates were sourced for us. We received an excellent service.
Karen was committed throughout my interview process as well as afterwards. You can see that she strives for excellence and has the utmost integrity.
Thanks very much for making a potentially stressful activity completely non-stressful!