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Three Major Workplace Challenges and How to Solve Them

By the KMA consulting team

The workplace is the epicenter of some intense challenges these days. The team at KMA Human Resources Consulting has worked with our clients to tackle a host of issues, including these top three: the difficult hiring market; employee burnout and mental health at work; and the demand for flexibility in when and where employees work. In this article, we will look closely at these challenges, appreciate how they are interconnected and intersecting, and consider some high-level solutions to create a workplace that attracts and retains top talent.

1. A historically tight labor market

With conditions of full employment in the US, companies are facing an extraordinarily challenging recruiting environment. Not only is it difficult to find candidates and swiftly bring them on board to fill your open positions, but key employees on your team are vulnerable to being hired out from under you. Hiring managers are struggling to fill holes, and as a result, employees who are picking up the slack are burning out.

Solution: While money is the tool most often deployed to attract and retain talent, a ratcheting of salaries without a thoughtful, data-driven approach can throw your entire compensation structure out of balance. We recommend looking at company culture to determine if there are ways to improve the employee experience and, by extension, employee retention. One way to do this is to survey your employees to find out what is working and not working within your organization. It’s a good practice to send out quarterly employee surveys, or more frequent “pulse” surveys, designed to capture employee satisfaction, and to track how, and if, that metric changes over time.

Answers to these survey questions will give you data on whether you have a larger cultural problem that needs to be addressed. If the results suggest that you have a positive culture and that your team members are satisfied – well done! Make sure to nurture your winning culture, and incorporate it into your brand and recruiting messaging. Celebrating employee satisfaction data is an effective recruiting and employee retention strategy.

2. Employee burnout at work/mental health issues

As mentioned above, a workforce that’s stretched thin can be a major factor in employee burnout, but there are so many other variables currently contributing to this urgent issue. In this McKinsey report, employees cite the following grievances as most negatively impacting their mental health at work: “the feeling of always being on call, unfair treatment, unreasonable workload, low autonomy, and lack of social support.”

Solution: Employee wellbeing programs are nice to offer and can alleviate some of the pressures an individual might be experiencing by focusing on behavioral change, therapy, meditation, physical health, etc. But as the McKinsey study asks: do these kinds of initiatives really solve the right problem? Employers need to determine to what degree employee burnout is caused by real conditions in the workplace, and this can be done in one-on-one interviews, or, again, through an employee survey.

Survey responses will give you an understanding of the level of burnout and stress that is being experienced by your employees, and can indicate if there are systemic issues company-wide, or within a particular department, that need immediate attention, and which approaches might be most resonant for employees.

3. The demand for flexibility in when and where employees work

While we agree that the workplace has been permanently changed by the covid pandemic, we believe the office in some shape or form will have a place in the future of work. It may look very different by industry or region, and will continue to evolve over time, but there will always be value in bringing workers together to collaborate, innovate, and solve problems in a shared space. Early career professionals and new hires in particular benefit from professional relationship building and mentorship in person in a way that simply can’t be replicated through remote technologies. Also, right or wrong, being seen has proven to be a real advantage for advancement and promotion.

However, knowledge workers got a taste for remote working, figured out how to make it productive, and aren’t likely to give it up anytime soon. The many benefits, including zero commuting time, more comfortable/casual attire, and working when and where it’s convenient, are hard to argue against, and employers will have to weigh the risks of losing valuable employees if they insist on a full-time return to the office. [See #1: a historically tight labor market, above.]

Solution: In the early stages of the pandemic, we recommended patience and flexibility, and that is still an appropriate approach now that the pandemic is officially over. If you’re at a point where you need to establish some rules or guidelines around remote working, make sure to engage representatives from all the stakeholders in your decision making. When people feel they have a voice and input, they are more likely to accept and honor decisions.

If flexible work just isn’t succeeding in your organization, there could be many reasons why that’s the case – and many pathways for improvement. A rigid, top-down culture might explain why management distrusts that work is getting done remotely, but shifting this mindset is possible by focusing on outcomes, and whether goals are being met, rather than the specifics of when an employee is sitting at their desk. Be prepared to check in more with your remote employees. A daily chat can keep you connected and up to speed on the status of projects – but figure out what communication structure and cadence works best between you and each of your reports, and go with that. You’re probably getting the idea that quality, two-way communication is key.

When things get challenging on the human front, resourceful companies rely on KMA. We have experience in successfully implementing many of the solutions recommended in this article. Please reach out to us to discuss any employee experience, recruiting or compensation obstacles you are confronting; our team has the tools and expertise to help you solve them in a cost-effective way.

About KMA Human Resources Consulting

Since 2007, KMA’s mission is to offer superior HR, recruiting and compensation consulting solutions through a cohesive team of employees who value personal flexibility and the opportunity to contribute their best work. We partner with clients in New England and beyond of virtually any size or industry, offering direct access to a dedicated HR, recruiting or compensation professional – and sometimes all three – who help them navigate everything from the straightforward to the super complex. We offer expertise on compliance issues, policy questions, employee relations and engagement, compensation, recruiting, and retention strategies for all types of positions, and so much more.