How to retain employees with flexible work arrangements

In today’s dynamic world of work, many factors influence employee engagement and retention. Forward-thinking leaders should look beyond traditional retention drivers, such as pay and benefits, and broaden their thinking on flexibility to stay competitive and meet the demands of today's modern workforce.

Ceridian’s 2023 Pulse of Talent Report surveyed 8,833 workers from around the globe and found they don’t just want flexible jobs – they want flexible careers. 

The report underscores the importance for employers to understand employee needs as only 46% said they felt their employer understands their career aspirations. This is problematic as many organisations’ promotion and career pathing structures assume people want to move up. Our study showed that is largely a myth. What’s more, less than half (47%) of Singapore respondents said they feel committed to staying with their current employer for at least three to five years.

For organisations looking to drive retention, give employees the flexible careers they want, and build the flexible workforce organisations need, here are two places to start: 

Understand career aspirations 

To become an employer of choice, organisations need to listen to their employees in order to uncover what they want from their careers and provide them with the support and flexibility to achieve their goals.

The Pulse of Talent data shows that workers in Singapore are interested in internal career opportunities, with 53% of respondents saying they'd like to contribute their skills to new projects within their current role and 52% stating that they'd be interested in moving into a new role in a different department or team.

Despite this interest from employees, we see barriers to career flexibility in the survey findings. One such barrier comes from career pathing. Less than half (48%) of Singapore respondents said they see clear career paths with their employers.

To help break through these barriers, organisations should consider the following: 

Leverage modern technology to help employees identify open roles internally that are relevant to their skills and interests.

Make internal opportunities available to those who seek new roles and those who want to experiment with a job rotation on another team – true career flexibility involves options.

Set internal hiring goals and use data-driven insights to help place the right people with the right skills in the right place within your organisation.

Prioritise learning and development

Learning and development is a persistent organisational challenge. According to the Pulse of Talent data, while 61% of Singapore workers strongly or somewhat agreed that their employer has a good understanding of the skills they have, only half felt their employers had a good understanding of the skills they would like to have.

It's up to employers to take the first step in solving this problem. Modern technologies can help organisations foster a culture of learning and development and embrace career flexibility in the following ways: 

• Provide a personalised, actionable plan for all employees to sharpen their current skills and acquire skills of interest
• Help employees understand how their skills could be utilised in other roles and teams
• Set a regular schedule for learning initiatives that makes learning a daily part of the employee experience