From living to work to working to live: The future of HR

5-Star employers of choice give their take on the year ahead for the sector

From living to work to working to live: The future of HR

The pandemic has significantly impacted the way we work. These days remuneration is not the sole motivator of an employee – work-life balance, career opportunities, flexibility and meaningful work are equally key factors.

For employers, the competition is fierce, particularly in a talent shortage. A survey from KPMG found that talent acquisition, retention, and reskilling people to perform in the new digitised workforce was the main concern for leaders in 2022 with digital transformation coming in second.

The HRD Employer of Choice awards represent the core facets of HR. This year, 35 companies received commendations for their achievements.

Fair compensation and opportunities

The main theme that emerged from the winners in relation to employees’ changing expectations, is fairness. The size of a remuneration package is not as important as if it is a fair reflection of the work involved.

2022 5-Star Employer of Choice award recipient Fluent Commerce achieved 110% revenue growth in the 12 months before submitting for the awards.

“Our senior leaders prioritised remuneration packages to ensure employees’ compensation was in line with their high performance,” says Alex Pusenjak, vice president, people and culture. “A company-wide compensation review plan resulted in more than 70% of employees receiving a salary increase of at least 5%, with the majority receiving significantly more. This has now been implemented as a bi-yearly priority.”

Talent is also looking for career progression paths through benefits like training and development and DEI initiatives.

Sandy Rimagmos, head of people & culture, Australian Catholic Superannuation says: “We actively encourage employees to improve their skills to perform their current role more effectively, and also to develop the abilities and capabilities needed to perform more senior positions when they become available.”

Reward and Recognition

Madison Group Enterprises goes above and beyond in reward and recognition – they reward hard work regardless of the outcome.

“This is to encourage learning through failure,” says Kate Arnold, head of people. “We pay for both performance outcomes and alignment to our values though sales commissions, short- and long-term incentives, and values-based discretionary bonuses.”

DE&I measures

When ESG programs emerged into the limelight, environment was the main focus. Now the pressure is on to consider the social aspect which holds DE&I at its core.

Gender equality is the clear place to start. Novotech, an Employer of Choice for gender equality, said DE&I doesn’t end at gender equality, there’s much more to it.

“We recognise that fostering an inclusive workplace is essential to ongoing success,” says chief people officer Angela Edwardson. “Our commitment to inclusion extends to cultural background, LGBTI and disability to ensure our workplace is safe and inclusive for all.”

Building a healthy workplace

The pandemic had people fearful of physical illness, but the effects of lockdowns and uncertainty also affected people’s mental health.

“We knew that some people were struggling with working from home, from feeling constantly ‘on’ to conflicting priorities such as home schooling,” says Sarah McCormick, people & culture executive at Tilt Renewables. “We offered opportunities to start their days earlier and finish earlier or switch to a late start and later finish and supported a move from full-time to part-time work. Reminding our people about the importance of balancing work and personal life was a key message throughout the year.”

Visionary leadership

Singleton Council empowers its employees to have input into how the organisation gets involved in the community and have created a leadership framework to ensure they are building leadership qualities, starting with the leadership team then rolling it out to develop leaders of the future.

“Our leadership expectations are articulated through a competency and capability framework,” says Alison Bodiam, manager, people and culture. “This supports a shared vision, a strong identity and a culture that feeds into people management practices such as recruitment and selection, learning and development, managing performance, succession planning and career development to create an environment where our staff can succeed.”   

Take a look at our Employer of Choice winners here.

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