News You Can Use: Keeping Your Workers Happy

Are your employees engaged in their work? Maybe even passionate? Here's a roundup of new insights on the workplace that may help you score a few points with current and future employees.

DELOITTE: INCLUSIVE CULTURES CAN HELP LAND NEW HIRES

In today's tight job market for tech skills, how can you make your company a more attractive destination for talent? Create and maintain an inclusive culture, according to new research for Deloitte. The business services giant – No. 15 on CRN's Solution Provider 500 – found that 80 percent of more than 1,300 full-time employees in the U.S. called inclusion an important factor in choosing an employer. Also, 72 percent said that would leave or may consider leaving an organization for another that's more inclusive. "Because inclusion is so personal, employers should try to understand how inclusion is experienced in their organization," said Deepa Purushothaman, a national managing principal of inclusion at Deloitte, in a statement. "Organizations should be asking themselves how their business practices impact their employees and take an honest look at whether they have the right workplace culture to make people feel like they belong."

WHERE HAS THE PASSION GONE?

If inclusiveness is in, passion about work is more elusive, according to a separate study out of Deloitte. The company's Center for the Edge says only 13 percent of U.S, workers are passionate about what they do. Meanwhile, 68 percent are not engaged, despite an expected investment by U.S. corporations of over $100 billion in training and $1 billion in employee engagement in 2017, Deloitte said. The study also found that only 35 percent of the workforce had the disposition to seek out challenges in their organization. That even extends upward to executives and senior management, Deloitte said; 64 percent of all workers and 50 percent of executives and senior management surveyed said they were neither passionate nor engaged in their work. What's it mean? "Employers might be focused too narrowly on employee engagement, rather than developing a workforce with the necessary passion to solve complex challenges and pursue new opportunities during this period of rapid technological change," Deloitte said in a statement.

SUMMER'S HERE; DOES ANYONE NOTICE?

As we shift into summer, how many of your employees have asked about more flexibility in scheduling or knocking off early on Fridays? Those two perks are what pique workers most during July and August, according to OfficeTeam. But companies have cooled off on providing those benefits, based on research by the division of staffing specialist Robert Half. Thirty-nine percent of workers surveyed said they're most interested in flexible schedules for the summer, followed by the go-ahead to leave early on Fridays (36 percent). But compared to a similar survey in 2012, fewer employers are offering either. Sixty-two percent of employers said they offer flexible schedules, down from 75 percent five years ago. As for early departures on Friday? Only 20 percent said they offer that, way down from 63 percent in 2012.