You must have seen several companies complaining about the lack of manpower, the dearth of talent and employees moving out from organisations. Employees are the heart & brain of any organisation and that is why companies need them to thrive in business. It therefore becomes important to ask yourself, why talent should work with your organisation?

The market is open for everyone and there are a number of wonderful companies that people are eager to join. Does your company have that X factor which attracts talent? There is no dearth of talent, it is this X factor which is missing in most companies. Take the example of Google, we all know that working with Google is a dream for most of people and the kind of facilities they provide to their employees is incomparable. Be it facilities, culture, pay scale, stimulating work or future scope, Google has it all. 

Now on the other hand startups, small or mid-level companies may not have that good a pay scale to offer or facilities at work place but there are a number of factors that can attract and retain good talent for your business.

1. Work culture

This is something which is developed by business owners over a period of time. I believe this can be a winning card, the main differentiator as to why talent would love to work with you (or hate to work with you if not developed properly). The work place can be open & full of fun. We, at Bharat Infotech have a culture of having fun at work which keeps us all fresh and less tired even on our busiest day. Members interact with one another & help each other in processes & deliveries but at the same time they go for movies, have matches inside or outside the office, dine together and a number of things which never gives them the feeling that they are actually working in an office. They have fun while doing their regular work and it is a win-win situation for them and for the organisation. This way they develop a loyalty to the work (fun) place and friendship with fellow colleagues.

2. Holidays

Think of a situation where employees love to come to the office rather than making excuses & taking leaves and if ever they don't want to come they may feel free to take off for as long as they wish. This may sound impractical but I can tell you that if you have the right people working with you, it is never difficult to have that culture. Here is a fact about my company, we don't have the provision for sick leave, casual leave or earned leave etc. We have a certain number of holidays allowed for all of our members/ employees that too without deducting a single penny for holidays taken. Now imagine holidays taken by our members considering no deduction & obligation? It's almost zero for most of our members. Given the privilege of holidays, it is not that they actually exercise this option, rather I feel they become more responsible towards their work and the company.

3. Work-life balance

I was reading an article where it was proven by a study that employees may be ready to sacrifice their salary/hike if they find perfect work-life balance in their job. And I realised it too in my organisation. We have a policy for overtime, we don't allow it. Our employees are not allowed to stay in office after our official working hours. Period. I am personally a big advocate of work-life balance and always look out for ways to implement this in my company. Now ever since I introduced no overtime in office, imagine the number of delayed project deliveries? None. It is not because we have easy timelines or that we are over-efficient but our marketing team always try to buy sufficient time from our clients as per our working culture. Once a project is in, our tech team ensures that the project gets delivered within the timeline and that too without putting extra hours (remember our no overtime policy). We don't call our employees on holidays for any work. They can keep their cell phone on without bothering to have any calls from the office or customers on holidays or after office hours. For that very reason we do not share our members' personal number with a customer directly and all calls are landed to me on holidays & off working hours.

4. No rank

Most office environments are rife with unpleasant politics. There is often politics at work to prove oneself to the management, to defame colleagues and become a hero in the eyes of a senior and so on & so forth. Most of this politics is with an aim to curry favour with the seniors, or get a promotion or hike. These politics usually dent the company culture, revenue & reputation. We don't have any rank in our office and all members of the organisation enjoy the same respect, the same attention and the same sense of duty. There are, however, people who are more experienced to guide the people who are relatively new. So although there is hierarchy, but it is not by force of rank but by experience & willingness.

I remember how once a client after learning about our policies remarked, "Harish you are spoiling the work culture in offices."

Do you also believe that this is a 'good to hear but not practical' kind of thing or know of some companies which are also doing this partially or completely? Do you endorse this culture or do you believe that it is disturbing the status quo? I would love to hear your point of view and some of the best practices that you follow in your company.

Do share your views in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.