Your employees need visibility. Are your wipers on?

Your company culture is likely helping, or… hurting you more than you know. It’s time you turn on the windshield wipers. You need employees with “visibility.”

Let’s be honest. The last few years have not been easy for employers and employees alike. Everyone has been impacted by layoffs, hiring freezes, reduced budgets and smaller profit margins. Between a tumultuous economy and new legislation, some may ask – how can staffing firms afford to invest heavily in employee culture to retain and attract top talent?

More appropriately… how can they not? Investing in workplace culture is no longer an option.

And, it doesn’t always have to entail large-scale programs to create a happy and motivated workforce. Create visibility and pay attention to your recruiter’s day-to-day lives.

Visibility into management.
Lack of communication is the number one reason for low employee morale according to a recent survey by Accountemps, a Robert Half Company.

•   33% of the human resource professionals interviewed said that a communication breakdown was at the heart of low morale.
•   38% also cited communication as the most effective way to counter low employee morale.

This should not be news to the staffing world. We are people working in the “people industry.” But, even we need to be reminded that behind those time to hire and placement goals are people that likely want more two-way communication.

Visibility into day-to-day performance.
Employees are motivated by different things. Some by reward. Others by the challenge. Yet, at some level, we all want to know how we are performing. Am I close to achieving my monthly placement goals? Should I be talking to more candidates? Performance ambiguity in the mind of recruiters can create a sense of monotony and discontent.

Today’s leaders in staffing software get this. Through enterprise technology, employees have the ability to understand and track how their daily activities impact daily, weekly, monthly goals and performance.

Visibility into a growth path.
Most of us want to know where we are headed. This is especially true of the younger, up and coming Generation Y workforce (ages 18 to 29).

“One of the ways of nurturing these younger workers is to ensure that they get regular feedback so they can see a growth path for their career,” says Alan Townsend, SVP for Monster in his article for SIA’s The Staffing Stream. “If Gen Y’s aspirations are aligned with a realistic career development plan, employers will benefit from bolstered engagement.”

Ask yourself if your workplace culture has visibility. The road to success is a lot clearer when the wipers are on.