Good Morning SkedX'ers! Hope you are all getting through the mid-week grind and are looking forward to Friday tomorrow! (I know Rebecca Black sure is...what seat will she take!?) For todays post we will be looking at workforce shortage and why retaining employees is so important in the modern workplace. The demand for labour is exceeding availability and Gen-Y employees have re-defined what "work" means, so retaining good employees is a major cost cutting solution. Here are a few steps to help increase retention workplace: 1. Recognizing Gen-Y and the impact they have: Gen-Y makes up a large part of the current workforce and have brought change with them. As an employer you need to recognize this in your workplace, certain changes need to be made to make the workplace adaptable for Gen-Y workers. This means creating a fun workplace that engages them (look at previous posts for how Gen-Y influences the workplace further.) Employers must sympathize with Gen-Y employees and recognize their needs; giving them the opportunity for career advancement and showing appreciation will get you a long way with Gen-Y employees. Your organization could see an increase in the extra effort employees are willing to offer. 2. Reengage and retain the previous generation: Gen-Y bring fun, excitement and new ideas to the workplace which is good, but what about those who have been there before Gen-Y? Mid-career workers can already add to the development they already brought about in your organization. Often, employers feel that older workers are more expensive, they have outdated skills, they are less adaptable and less technologically savvy. Flexible work schedules, retirement opportunities, and alumni opportunities will have the mid-career worker feeling back in the loop of the organization, willing to stay longer and wanting to develop new skills to be even more effective in the workplace. 3. Future workplace: Consider where your organization is headed in the future in terms of organizational culture, future technology that could be implemented, and thinking about what your core values and objectives are. Consider employee flexibility and how you can make the workforce more adaptable for them. Social media is a huge force that emerged out of nowhere and managed to revolutionize some of the ways we do business. In order to keep your valued employees you must consider how you will utilize work sharing, social media, technology, and many other methods to increase retention and wanting your employees to stay with you. As workload increased and the availably of workers decreases its up to employers to discover new ways to make existing valued employees as engaged and effective as possible to balance out the lack of available workers as time goes by. Above post contains excerpts from: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/How_to_retain_workforce_in_your_company-nid-80889.html Happy Scheduling, Aman