In order to stay competitive in the race for top talent, companies need to keep pace with an evolving and changing society. If you’re still negotiating salaries and shaping benefits based on values that faded away in the 1950s, it’s time for a re-evaluation. You’ll be better able to attract a target audience of talented employees if your company and these employees share the same values. And you can only keep great workers away from your competitors if you can provide the compensation, environment, and benefits these talented employees need. Consider the following tips and make sure these modern benefits play a role in your recruitment and retention strategies.

Family Benefits

The men and women of today’s workforce are having smaller families than they were a generation ago, but these families occupy the top of their list of priorities. If you make life difficult for an employee’s family, prepare to lose that employee. Medical benefits for dependents must be affordable, salaries need to account for cost of living increases, and maternity and paternity leave need to be not just available, but offered generously and in good faith. Childbirth and childrearing are part of life for modern employees, and if you don’t provide appropriate accommodations for new parents, recognize that your competitors can and will.

Room for Growth

In an earlier era, a relationship with an employer often lasted for the duration of an employee’s working life. Loyalty was considered a matter of courtesy, if not a core aspect of ethics, and if talented employees felt secure and respected, they had no qualms about staying with an employer for many years at a time. But modern employees need to plan ahead when it comes to navigating a long term career path, and if you can’t offer the advancement they need, they’ll eventualy search for opportunity elsewhere.

Your talented employees are your most valuable form of capital, so don’t let them stagnate. Cultivate their skills, pair them with mentors, support their educational goals, and make sure that you’re ready to restructure the workplace in order to provide them with increasing levels of responsibility.

Schedule Flexibility

Modern employees, those with and without children, recognize that a successful life requires balance. If you can help them attain this balance, you’ll earn their loyalty and respect. Try to cultivate a workplace in which employees can complete their work from remote locations and interact using wireless devices. If possible, allow talented employees to come in early in order to leave early. Employees will appreciate this, and studies show that workers who are offered more schedule flexibility are often more productive that those who are required to be on the premises between 9:00 and 5:00.

For more guidance on staffing and retention issues in an evolving workplace, contact the team at Expert Staffing and arrange a consultation.