The cost-of-living crisis, fuelled by a range of economic headwinds, has seen businesses and their employees alike suffer from a severe loss of spending power, with the impact being felt throughout global HR departments.
For businesses, the challenge of staying afloat can be a priority, but it’s equally important that you seek to support staff members in need during such a challenging time. Office for National Statistics data shows that seven in 10 adults are actively seeking to spend less on non-essential goods, while over 20% are borrowing more money or using credit on a greater scale than before.
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While happy employees can be more productive and beneficial to companies, it’s also the duty of HR teams to provide a level of care to the workers they recruit, and to ensure that they’re protected against the adverse economic outlook. This means that the recruitment and hiring process of businesses must change to better cater to these evolving worker needs.
With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look at how businesses can better manage employee welfare throughout their recruitment process:
When it comes to Human Resources, it can feel like a juggling act to balance daily tasks alongside the concerns of both existing employees and new recruits, but it’s certainly worth taking the time to consider the happiness of candidates throughout the recruitment process.
The challenge here is that candidates are still likely to prioritize being hired over their own contentment, but by remembering to ask ‘how does this sound to you?’ and ‘does this match your expectations?’ you can gain stronger insights into whether they’re happy with their prospective role.
The cost-of-living crisis is likely to impact employees in different ways. It’s vital that HR departments are capable of spotting the early signs of discontentment, discomfort, or any other negative emotions manifesting in team members and to take action quickly.
It’s also worth implementing an employee welfare and financial wellbeing policy that can help you to better care for employees. The level of commitment to this cause is entirely up to the company, and even the simple act of guiding employees to independent money and debt guidance firms can be a major help.
Highlighting or reiterating the benefits that employees have access to during the recruitment and onboarding process can also be a great help, as this can be a great way to empower them to hit the ground running and feel more confident in their new role.
The simple act of informing employees where they can access free and confidential financial advice from independent bodies can help to free them of their concerns and negative distractions.
Hybrid working can also empower employees to save money on their commute and the temptation of buying lunch at a store. There are even UK government tax relief schemes for workers who have no registered office to use, opening the door for your business to go fully remote and save on energy bills at the same time.
By highlighting these schemes, HR teams can help remote employees to discover new ways to save money. It can also be an appealing means of attracting new talent to the company that may seek a firm that’s more committed to their workers.
The financial uncertainty surrounding the lives of employees can be compounded by their perception of company performance. If they notice fewer sales taking place, they could experience anxiety regarding their own job security as news of big business layoffs continue to edge their way into news cycles.
While you may not be able to help take your employees out of the cost-of-living crisis, you can certainly help to allay their fears and to give them opportunities to improve their financial management to avoid falling victim to the tighter spending conditions.
The post How to Manage Employee Welfare in the Cost of Living Crisis appeared first on The Startup Magazine.
