NEWS & INSIGHT
BESPOKE APPROACHES WILL BE NEEDED TO ENGAGE A MODERN WORKFORCE IN FLUX SCHOOL : Henley Business School, University of Reading COUNTRY : UK
To attract and retain talent across the full spectrum of desires and attitudes towards work among today’s employees, organisations need to be more flexible in their approach, suggests a new Henley Business School report. The Omniployment Era outlines the need for employers to recognise that rigid HR structures restricting what can be offered to employees, for example in relation to career progression or flexible working, are no longer effective. Based on a survey of 3,000 private-sector employees, it identifies six distinct ‘segments’ in the UK workforce and considers what attracts and retains them. “Omniployment might be a new term, but the idea is not – heterogeneity in the labour market existed long before the pandemic,” explained Henley Business School director of flexible work Rita Fontinha, who led the study with James Walker, pro-dean of academic resources at the school. “However, our data-driven focus offers a fresh perspective, allowing us to characterise the shift, post-Covid, by quantifying it to detail what’s happening now between different and diverse groups in the workforce.” Fontinha continued: “It is crucial that business leaders wake up to the omniployment era and take steps to change the one-size-fits-all approach of
the past. If they don’t, it’s clear that employees in sectors with a high demand for talent will feel empowered to look elsewhere.” Among the six groups identified, ‘work-life balance advocates’ are the largest in number and are said to represent 39 per cent of the workforce. The other groups are ‘the socially conscious’, said to represent 15 per cent of employees; ‘lone rangers’, accounting for 14 per cent; ‘salary-driven weekend workers’, representing 13 per cent; ‘employee advocates’, who make up 10 per cent; and lastly ‘employee satisfaction enthusiasts’, also representing 10 per cent of the workforce. However, 72 per cent of all workers are said to seek a good work-life balance, a sentiment that spans these segments. This makes the need to offer employees flexible working key among the study’s recommendations, alongside showing greater transparency in company communications and building a workplace culture built around heterogeneity. TBD
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Ambition | MARCH/APRIL 2024 | 11
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