NEXT Canada, GRIT Ed.06, Brain Gain vs. Brain Drain - Magazine - Page 24
RETAINING
EMPLOYEES
WITH THE
POWER OF
MONDAYS
Pavla Bobosikova
Co-founder & CEO, WFHomie;
Next Founders, 2021
I moved from Prague
to Toronto in 2012 to
study Architecture at
the University of Toronto, originally drawn
here because of UofT’s
outstanding academic
programs.
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GRIT
As I progressed through the
program and started to build a professional network in the city, I found
myself surrounded by exceptional
tech and business opportunities.
I got to know people in Toronto’s
entrepreneurial community and I
became excited about how fast it’s
growing and the amazing people
it’s attracting. I’m glad that I could
stay in Canada after graduation to
make the most out of it, and build
my own business.
The idea behind WFHomie
came to me while going through a
company acquisition mid-pandemic (Nudge.ai acquired by Affinity in
March 2020). As the world abrupt-
ly shifted from mainly in-office to
remote first, and we returned from
San Francisco back to Toronto to
continue the integration process
remotely, it made me realize how
much of my startup experience was
rooted in the daily experience of
being in an office and collaborating closely with my teammates. I
started to wonder how companies
will be able to get new and existing
team members excited about their
mission and support them to be
productive in a remote-first setting.
Shortly after, my co-founder Reza
Farahani and I noticed that many of
our friends working remotely were
on the verge of burning out and
were finding it hard to connect to their work remotely.
The early signs of the ‘Great Resignation’ followed
and it became clear that companies are struggling with
attracting, retaining, and engaging top employees. We
wanted to crush the belief that work is “just work” and
it’s perfectly acceptable for it not to be fun — or rather, that it’s ok for work (ie. 30% of adults’ life) to suck.
We think that Mondays are awesome and work can be
highly enjoyable. That said, making remote work culture
awesome as remote and flexible work is clearly here to
stay, is challenging for people ops and HR teams, since
there is no pre-existing organization infrastructure to
support that at scale. And that’s what we’re solving
with WFHomie.
A SHIFT IN PRIORITIES
The past 18 months were an opportunity for people
to slow down and rethink their priorities.
Many of us realized that our current lifestyles — including where and how we work — might not lead to
long-term happiness. There’s a greater awareness of
the opportunity cost of work, combined with a new focus on living life to the fullest.
Working remotely has closed the psychological gap
between our careers and our quality of life. Now, people
want and expect things like health insurance, wellbeing
and home office perks, support for work-life balance,
and great culture from their employers.
Another emerging need has been recreating the informal social interactions employees used to have at
the office, remotely. Because they don’t occur naturally,
employees expect more effort and intentionality to be
placed into finding opportunities to socialize remotely.
These new expectations come in at a time where
demand for talent has never been higher. In 2019, up to
79% of CEOs reported feeling “extremely concerned”
about the shortage of skilled workers. That’s before the
pandemic and the Great Resignation, which have made
it much harder for businesses to retain top talent. Today, people know they have leverage on their employers — and alternatives.
THE NEW NORMAL
In general, I am not at all convinced by the push
to recreate the office environment online. What’s far
from a fad, however, is remote-first work, flexible and
results-driven work, and the emphasis on great culture.
More generally, HR Tech has gone from being seen as a
cost centre to being recognized as a business imperative, and that’s here to stay too.
Companies came to realize that their success depends on their employees - therefore in order to stay
competitive, they have to be able to attract, retain and
continuously engage their top talent. A part of this
is rooted in the shift in emphasis from successful onboarding-only, to investing effort also into providing
continuous opportunities to connecting with peers and
leadership, building trust, and actually supporting people to be able to care about their work.
Some challenges that we’ve noticed companies are
facing when it comes to attracting and retaining talent
is that the capacity to invest in employees on either side
of the border differs for employers.
In our experience thus far, Canadian companies are
hesitant to invest as much in compensation and culture
as our US counterparts, simply because there are tighter budgets. Unfortunately, skilled employees then face
a difficult decision about whether to leave Canada or
not - and when to come back, if ever. That’s why it’s
crucial for Canadian businesses to get creative when
distinguishing themselves other than through financial
metrics — through an emphasis on their mission, impact, values, or greater inclusivity at work.
ADVICE FOR FOUNDERS
“Shoot your shot. Stop planning and start testing.
‘Launching’ your product isn’t a one-time opportunity. Just put up a website, link a form, start collecting user feedback, and talk to as many people
as possible. No amount of passive research in the
world will make up for talking to potential users,
understanding their pain point, and getting them
to pay for your product or service. I believe that’s
the most effective way to understand if what
you’ve working on creates value. Entrepreneurship
isn’t glamorous (there are easier ways to get rich
faster with less effort), but definitely exhilarating,
fulfilling ride of constant learning and getting outside your comfort zone. You’ll never be ‘ready’ —
as Reid Hoffman said: ‘If you’re not embarrassed
by the first version of your product, you’ve
launched too late’.“
GRIT
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