What is the most pressing concern experienced in workplace environments today?
A definitive and complete answer would require knowing specifically what kind of work environments (office, service or physical labor) and from whose perspective they are most pressing (employer or employee)?
In general both employers and employees three areas are crucial to ‘success’: Safety, Compliance and succession .
Everyone should be concerned with workplace safety, both physical and being free from unethical practices, bullying co-workers or even supervisors. Unsafe environments, ones where there is a lot of inequity in how various employees are treated (in terms of respect/appreciation for their contributions–obviously pay will vary depending on position and length of service).Because it impacts turnover which can be costly and lose customers and general reputation of the organization. In general, safe, happy workers give better service and/or more consistently produce your product more efficaciously (usually a balance between accuracy and speed).
Everyone should also be concerned about compliance with local, state and federal guidelines as non-compliance can impact whether the company stays in business and so whether jobs are retained.
Whether a Mom & Pop grocery or a huge corporation, succession planning is also very ‘pressing’. There should always be at least two people trained in any position and ideally supervisors know how to do the jobs of those they supervise in practical ways not just the broad theory of it. 1) You need backup to cover for vacation and sick time taken. 2) None of us escape life. At some point everyone ages. When older workers retire or anyone dies–accidents happen, you need to have a well-trained back up in place to prevent interruption in and/or diminishing quality of whatever function they served. 3) For larger organizations having a clear ‘career ladder’ that lets employees know how they can progress should they demonstrate loyalty and the ability to learn and take on additional responsibility tends to attract workers who value employment stability while still be able to address new challenges.
