Securing and retaining talent through autonomy: What your people really want

One of the impacts of this is what we’re now labelling, ‘The Great Resignation’. People are prioritising different things in their lives and want their jobs to follow suit. We want choices and freedom to work on our terms. We no longer work to live. And there are now several non-negotiable factors for employers to consider. People demand more from their professional environments to better suit and enable their lives. 

This means those with the power to hire need to consider a wider range of factors. And while there has been considerable change brought about by COVID - hybrid working or work-from-anywhere the obvious outcome - there’s a lot more to it than simply allowing people to have flexible working arrangements.   

More than freedom to choose where to work 

While more people have greater freedom to work in terms of their physical location, how ‘free’ are we in terms of our ability to perform in our roles? COVID forced employers into hybrid working arrangements, but in a bid to regain control, there’s been a rise in employee remote-monitoring and surveillance tools. 

And the possible rationale for why this is occurring can be found in our own Autonomy for the People research, conducted last year. It found 44 percent of people operate in what’s regarded as a ‘command and control’ working environment. It’s little wonder that as people drift further away from the office, some employers want to maintain a handle on what their people are up to.  

But employers must take heed. While command and control dominate working styles, people desire the antithesis; to be given greater autonomy. Our research shows a swing of almost 70 percent away from command-and-control behaviours towards those enabling autonomy. 

And the smart employers know this. They understand their people want more than to simply work from home. They want the freedom to act, self-direct and make decisions. They want autonomy.  

Data enabling autonomy  

So, what impact does having an autonomous working environment have on an organisation? This is something our own research set out to explore - to understand the impact of different working styles on a range of business outcomes.  

Put simply, autonomy is great for business. 

We examined the effectiveness of three models (autonomy, empowerment and command / control) in delivering business outcomes. We discovered autonomy is more effective at helping organisations achieve a better employee experience, as well as other areas such as innovation, customer experience and organisational agility. The case for great autonomy in the workplace is clear. 

But to understand how to enable a more autonomous working environment, it’s important to consider what lies at the heart of being able to self-govern and make decisions. And the answer lies in data. For it is data, and the ability to access, interpret and then act upon it that will decide how autonomous your organisation is.  

Using the ITIL framework - people, processes and technology - provides us with further insight and guidance as to how to enable this, namely the effectiveness of processes and technology in supporting autonomy. Our study supports this notion, highlighting how both factors play an important role in enabling teams and individuals to be autonomous. For example, over half of respondents believed technology was effective or very effective in supporting autonomy.  

The ability to access data and resources at the point of need is a critical enabler. However, our research goes on to show that only a small number of organisations are delivering access to data effectively. Less than a quarter of respondents believed they had ‘extensive access when needed’ to:  

• Visibility of their organisation’s objectives  
• Information about their task.  
• Training and mentoring 
• Additional skills or support  
• Data or feedback on their progress and achievements 

The absence of extensive support and insight goes some way to explaining why autonomy is not more prevalent in organisations today. If people don’t have the information they need to perform their role, such as the areas highlighted above, then how can they be expected to help the organisation meet its objectives?  

Or do we simply carry on with traditional command and control methods, where managers act as a filter and people are expected to merely perform a function with little input or say as to how outcomes are best achieved? 

People are demanding more from their employers in terms of having greater control and input over their role, how that impacts the business and their ability to make decisions. They want autonomy and if they don’t get it, they will go elsewhere. If we really value our talent and want to close the resources gap, then organisations need to get serious about autonomy and how that might look for them.  

We’re not saying autonomy is the silver bullet for everything. Indeed, there are some business outcomes where a command-and-control style of operating is valid and needed, operation efficiency for example. But to ensure the best results, organisations must work out their priority outcomes and how they are best delivered. Then, they need to put data into the hands of people across the business to enable them to make great decisions and self-govern. 

Because if we don’t, the talent drain will continue, and organisations will be unable to perform at their best.