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People Poaching - The Problem or the Solution?

Written by: Peter Nicholls

Article Overview: Attracting and keeping good staff is a major issue today. It's common to poach them and equally common to have them poached. The right workplace culture is vital for both and the answers require going beyond what happens only when people are at work.

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People Poaching - The Problem or the Solution?

Employers face an apparent dichotomy:



Poaching can therefore be a solution and a problem.



Being able to attract, retain, nurture and sustain the right people
is becoming an art form. Money, status or even flexible working
conditions aren't enough anymore. People want to work for companies that
offer “the right feel”, a very individual perception that is not easy
for an employer to second guess. It means having to take a hard look at
that vague expression, the workplace culture, which I define as the way
we do things here.



Nor is it a case of one culture fits all. A successful team is like a
mosaic - recognizing and nurturing the unique individual talents,
skills and abilities of each person to achieve team goals. To attract
and retain good staff now requires seeing people as more than just the
person who turns up at work each day.



For the individual employee - including the CEO - the line between
work and personal life has become a blur. So we get into looking at
flexible work options and the wider question of work life balance.



Work life balance is interesting. It's largely time-based, with a
battle between employers and employees as to how much time is spent on
work matters and on personal matters. Even with the growth of flexible
work practices and time management, there just isn't enough time in the
week to get everything done. It is getting worse and if we don't find a
better way we are eventually going to run around in ever-decreasing
circles until we go bust. This links to the other major cost factor in
business today - the rise in work-driven stress-related illnesses and
claims, depression, divorces, and heart attacks.



I found myself looking at the bigger picture. We are trying to still
fit square pegs into round holes. While the huge changes in 21st
Century living are making us look at life and work very differently, the
business machine is still grinding under the industrial age principles
of the work ethic. People are increasingly seeing work as a means to an
end, not an end in itself. However, in the world of business and
economic development, work is everything - it's the driver on which
material success depends.



People want to express and develop their talents and feel they are
contributing something of value through both their work and their
personal life interests. This flags the need for a new direction to
replace work life balance with a theme of work life harmony in which
each person creates their own unique harmonious mix of energy-burning
and energy-generating work and personal life obligations and interests.



This with two vital motives in mind:

1. developing a diversity of opportunities to creatively express
their talents and maximize their life potential through all their
interests, and

2. sustaining the mental energy and resilience needed not just to
survive but to positively thrive in the constant, competitive jungle of
the business world.



Harmony, as in choral or orchestral music, is found in diversity,
not uniformity. People thrive on diversity in so many areas of life and
it is this fact that makes the concept of work life harmony so
attractive, realistic and feasible. It also implies the absence of
conflict and discord and encourages collaboration, co-operation and
mutual enjoyment for the conductor, the participants and even the
audience (customers).



The “right feel” workplace culture to which I alluded earlier goes
deeper than simply giving official recognition and blessing to the work
life harmony concept. It goes to the very core of building a strong
ethos of...



employing the whole person, recognizing and encouraging the
development of all their unique talents and abilities at work and in
personal life and drawing on the energy and self esteem that these
interests generate.



It has to be an ethos that every person, especially the chief
executive and senior managers, emotionally embraces in their own
lifestyles - in this case the buck starts at the top!



To keep your best staff from being poached, or if you want to poach
staff from your competitors, your workplace culture can become your
greatest asset. The result will not only benefit the employees' total
lifestyle but add significantly to the stability and viability of your
business.

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Home > Work-Life > Peter Nicholls > People Poaching The Problem or the Solution
Article Tags: attract, balance, harmony, keep, lifestyle, people, poach, staff, workforce

About the Author: Peter Nicholls
RSS for Peter's articles - Visit Peter's website

People are crying out for ways to beat the human energy crisis. Prolonged excessive stress has becomes the world's number one business cost. My methods ease the stress and also provide new energy to survive and thrive. I have over 30 years of professional experience helping people plan and develop leisure/recreation interests. My lifestyle management services focus on work life harmony, retirement planning and lifestyle reviews. I invite you to tour my website at http://www.workleisure.com for loads of helpful information. It includes details on my flagship book Enjoy Being You and other life-changing personal growth publications. I live in Adelaide Australia and can be contacted at peter@workleisure.com. Listen to my monthly webinar presentations for the US-based Business Expert Webinars. Click here for further information.

Click here to visit Peter's website
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More from Peter Nicholls
Lifestyle and Leadership
How to Make Life Work for You
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