By Melvin Chee, CEO, RPG Commerce
The tech industry has a big reputation when it comes to employee benefits.
You’re likely thinking about the storied ping-pong tables, always-stocked snack kitchens, and nap pods now, aren’t you? It’s okay to admit you are – that’s what those companies want you to envision when you think of them.
But while many tech companies have worked hard to establish themselves as the cool kids in town when it comes to corporate culture, what they haven’t been as successful with is retaining all those employees who make their culture cool. In 2021, the Achievers Workforce Institute’s Engagement and Retention Report found that the tech industry’s employee turnover rate is just over 13% – the highest out of any business sector.
Though the tech industry is notorious for its employee attrition, the fact that it remained so high in the midst of a pandemic was surprising. After a year and half of economic uncertainty taking its toll on businesses and workforces of all kinds, it seemed as though 2021 wasn’t the best time for people to take risks when it came to their employment status.
The year saw a global trend of unemployment, with Malaysia peaking at a 4.6% unemployment rate – the highest since 1998’s economic crash. While it’s easy to assume that the reason for this was retrenchments and layoffs, in actuality a portion of those unemployed left their jobs voluntarily.
The disruptions to life and work that we’ve collectively experienced over the past two years created many eye-opening moments that emphasised the fragility of life – in response, many people’s priorities changed. A recent survey of Gen Z and Millennial working adults across APAC during the pandemic made it clear that self-improvement and holistic growth have become top concerns for the growing population of young adults.
This applies to their outlook on employment, too, as shown in a 2021 survey conducted by Employment Hero in Malaysia. Sixty-two percent of leaving employees are doing so to seek opportunities that support better career growth and better training and development. Gone are the days of employees being content with their role and responsibilities for years on end – the workforce of today expects their workplace to invest in their growth if they want to keep them.
At RPG Commerce, we believe in creating and maintaining an environment that facilitates employee growth. After all, it is our employees’ brilliance that allowed us to grow from a digital Malaysian business to an eCommerce company with 10 unique brands and a strong audience across borders.
With over 120 employees and 10 brands, we have learned a thing or two when it comes to growing a global business out of Malaysia and what goes into attracting and retaining top-tier talent to make business dreams a reality. Here are a few useful lessons we’ve learned along the way.
Combine empowerment and emancipation
The concept of empowering employees is frequently brought up in the context of employee growth and development. Though it may conjure an idea of management striving to inspire employees and acting as a beacon of guidance, empowerment is more akin to motivation. Though a quick spike in drive and determination can work in the short-term, it needs refreshment, and can be easily forgotten when its source (in this case, the management) is not available to offer encouragement.
So how can we ensure an employee retains their drive and feels self-empowered to succeed in their work? With this comes the concept of emancipation: setting your employees free from old-school, inhibitive thinking that they are simply getting tasks done and executing orders from above and instead reinforcing your employees’ innate capabilities and empowering them to believe in their abilities.
Empowering and emancipating your employees to recognize that they do not require micromanagement to work effectively and efficiently is a great way to instil the belief that they can take on leadership positions, such as managing and completing projects without constant supervision.
This can be achieved by offering employees autonomy and recognising their skill sets. Managers should assign their employees tasks they have the ability to excel at, but also provide them with new challenges that require them to form initiative and take the lead. Allow them to tackle problems and develop new solutions sourced from their own vision, thought process, and initiatives – but also be available to provide guidance along the way, when they need it.
By helping employees feel capable and confident in their work, they’ll also be certain they are overcoming challenges and growing in their career.
Balance responsibility and accountability
In every job role, there are expectations and responsibilities.
As an experienced manager, juggling projects while obtaining results is no unfamiliar concept. However, a less tenured employee may struggle to understand how their tasks are contributing to the end goal of a project as it may seem distant or broad. To counter this, larger goals should be broken down into smaller short-term goals.
For example, if you announce that your employee’s KPI is to “raise annual sales by 20%”, a smaller, more manageable short-term goal could be “increase marketing ROI by 5% this month”.
Breaking down the goals of a project into smaller pieces can help employees understand what is required to achieve a greater goal, and in turn defines the employee’s responsibilities much more clearly.
As each goal is met, the responsibilities of your employees should grow in scale, too. By designating greater duties or higher-skilled tasks to employees, we allow them to constantly stay focused, gain new experiences, and to learn new strategies that will benefit them in the long-term.
As you provide employees with new challenges, it’s important to ensure they feel supported. This can be achieved through a mentorship programme where junior employees are paired with senior colleagues who help them learn and grow, or by pairing senior and junior team members as co-leads on projects, providing a hands-on learning experience. Whatever works best for your business, it is essential to guide employees who are taking on more responsibilities for the first time as well as gauging the employees’ capabilities to ensure they can catch up with their new workload, as an unmanageable workload may bring negative impact.
As employees shoulder more responsibility, each task they complete will carry a greater feeling of accomplishment. Hopefully, achieving KPIs will help encourage your team members to emulate – or better yet – improve upon this success in future tasks.
By increasing employees’ responsibilities over time, we provide a clear view of what is expected of each employee and how they are able to grow. In addition, these assignments make the employee accountable for their own success and growth, which can go a long way in making them feel that their role is imperative to the company’s success. Paired with proper guidance and reassuring support from their management, earnest employees will be given a chance to shine.
Though the process may seem long and difficult, employees can only flourish when given the chance to grow – be it from immediate success, their mistakes, or from the adversities they have to overcome.
Those of us with experience understand that the journey of growth can be an arduous one – but it doesn’t have to be. Rather, companies should focus on employee development in order to expedite this process for its people so that the company develops a force that consistently strives for innovation and excellence – for both themselves and the organisation.
