Great workplaces don’t mean maximising employee performance and productivity

|blog strategic-hr

I read an article recently about the 20 best workplaces in retail and it was interesting to see the reasons as to why they were determined to be the best workplaces.

The reasons they were determined to be the best workplaces were mostly around benefits for employees and some examples of these were;

  • Paid day off on their birthdays
  • Concierge service to assist with personal chores
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Free breakfast and lunch
  • Childcare reimbursements for those who travel
  • Health screenings
  • Subsidised weight watchers
  • Weekends away
  • Discounts
  • Profit sharing

Whilst these benefits are great and I am sure assist with attraction, recruitment and retention, there is more to building a great place to work to increase performance and productivity.   These examples do sound great and I sure it mostly is and that you will get benefits from developing a ‘great’ workplace.  However, there is more to it for both an employee and employer.    It is about bridging the gap between employees and employers and making sure the alignment is right.  Both parties give for something in return so it’s more than providing attractive benefits and conditions.

This ‘great’ stuff will only retain them for so long.  They need to work in a safe and healthy environment, they need an environment and with leaders that will support them, respect them, help develop them and give them challenging work.  They need to be able to contribute and be part of an accepting and supported team and of course, to be paid enough to allow them to pay for their most basic needs – but pay isn’t everything for everyone and individuals are, at times, willing to sacrifice pay for something else.

For an employer, in order to maximize performance and productivity and so maximize return on investment, it’s more than having a great culture and great benefits – it’s about ensuring the culture aligns to the vision and strategy; it’s about having strong leaders to drive the culture and strategy; it’s about having strong teams to work within the culture and towards the strategy, the right organisational structure to support both the culture and the vision, workforce plans to support the vision and being workplace compliant.

There is more behind great workplaces which employees and others will eventually work out so look at it holistically to ensure you are maximising performance and productivity because you can have more than a great workplace!  Don’t be driven by having a great workplace, be driven by genuinely caring about your team and maximising their performance and productivity and making it a win/win.

At HR Business Direction we can do more than help you create a great place to work. Contact us here.

Leisa Messer BBus(HRM); GradDipIR; CAHRI; IRSQ
Managing Director | HR Strategist
leisa.messer@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2066
www.hrbd.com.au