Broken business processes drive away employees
Employees blame broken IT processes, onboarding issues, administrative issues and promotion and salary procedures for limiting their career advancement.
It’s not just pay or benefits that prospective employees are looking for in a job. The first two may lure them in, but won’t be enough to make them stay if the business itself doesn’t run efficiently.
That’s according to findings from intelligent process automation firm Nintex’s study “Definitive Guide to Corporate America’s Most Broken Processes” on the frustration felt by employees, as first reported by HR Dive. According to the study, more than half of employees say their employers “don’t define or follow a process for career development.” That’s not only professionally frustrating, but this lack of clarity on advancement also leads to unnecessary stress on the employee/supervisor relationship. As a result, that former group is actively looking for greener pastures.
Related: The key to retaining your top-performing employees
Worse than career development, however, broken business processes that keep employees from reaching their full potential, an issue cited by 67 percent of respondents. According to Nintex, among those actively hunting for new jobs, 72 percent say IT processes are broken, while 71 percent cite onboarding processes as a problem. Seventy percent cite administrative processes, with 55 percent saying that raise negotiations are broken and 59 percent saying that about promotion processes.
Managing talent is a weak spot among employers, according to the findings, with three out of the top five broken processes relating to that particular skill (or lack thereof) among employers. Overall, not just among the active jobseekers, respondents cited the following activities related to career advancement as a broken process: the annual performance review system (57 percent); access to the tools and documents that enable good job performance (55 percent); and raise negotiations (47 percent).
HR departments and management need to take a close look at these processes and work with other departments to find solutions. According to Nintex, “By simply empowering employees with the right tools, automated processes, and career guidance, business leaders can ensure everyone within an organization is well-equipped to do their very best job.”