Employee expectations today

Employee expectations today

Today workplace is rapidly changing along with the changing employee expectations. Employee expectations could be defined as employee assumptions, anticipations & behavior that the employee expect from their employer. In other hand the way that the employee prefers to be treated from the employer is called as employee expectations. In most instances there will be a gap between what employee is expecting & what employer is delivering which creates the expectation gap in the employee which could lead to several HRM problems. (Oraman et al., 2011) According to Lee, (2006) 48% of employees left their job as employer is failed to meet their expectations. It was also proven that the morale rises when employees have a clear understanding of what to expect from their company. Higher morale leads to greater team unity, purpose, and productivity.

Mcbain, (2004) has stated that the impact of the success of a business is depending of the organizational HR officials’ ability to align organizational expectations & employees’ expectations into a same platform.

Emerging expectations of todays’ employees are rapidly changing in response to the changes in the environment & improving human needs.  According to Shukla, (2014) following are the major demands that the employees expect today.

Positive work culture – Organizational culture is a critical factor in deciding the success of an organization. Positive work culture would encourage employees to commit towards their work. Majority of job seekers today are concern on the culture of the organization & also the change of the existing culture in the organization also leads toward the challenges in employee retention.

 

Recognition – Motives of employees are varying, most of organizations misled by assuming that the motive of the employees is money. But in some instances some employees value the recognition that they receive for their commitment towards the organization. Employees in the changing world of 21^st century may expect an appreciation, recognition, a simple thank, kind word or even an email as their expectation which could not cost for the organization at all.

 

Work-life balance – Another critical factor that the employees expect today is work-life balance. Although the employees are committed towards their employment, in return they also expect their employers to be positive on their work-life balance by allowing them to manage between their workplace & the personal life. In order to facilitate such requirements today the concepts such as work from home, remote working & workcation concepts have become popular.

References

Lee, S.Y. (2006) “Expectations of employees toward the workplace and environmental satisfaction,” Facilities, 24(9/10), pp. 343–353. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/02632770610677628.

Mcbain, R. (2004) “Uncovering the linkages between HRM and organisational performance,” Henley Manager Update, 16(1), pp. 20–28. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/174578660401600104.

Oraman, Y., Unakıtan, G. and Selen, U. (2011) “Measuring employee expectations in a strategic human resource management research: Job satisfaction,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, pp. 413–420. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.09.022.

Shukla, S. (2014) “Emerging issues and challenges for HRM in public sectors banks of India,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133, pp. 358–363. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.201.