The tech industry has seen great change and innovation throughout the 21st century, with more on the horizon. Employees have been able to take advantage of new opportunities and develop new ways of working and they are in turn making new demands on businesses. Those new models are spreading out of the tech sector and impacting employee expectations across many industries.

Here are some tips on how to meet these expectations:

Employers need to be challenged to improve workplace culture

There is pressure for employers to work harder to ensure improvement in many areas. One way to do that is by supporting greater diversity across the organization and providing equality of opportunity and equal pay. Another is more social engagement, such as taking action on issues like climate change, or supporting fundraising and other charitable activities.

Additionally, take into account quality of life, the ability to work remotely at certain times, or to fit work around parenting and other responsibilities.

We see a growing demand for workers to self-manage as far as possible, to take more responsibility at work and to access training and education to continually improve their skills.

Leaders need to recognize their employees in the workplace

Put processes in place to offer praise outside of your line management structure. It's one thing for your boss to say well done, but it's even more powerful if an employee knows that their boss is championing them to their peer—that demonstrates that it's not just platitudes.

Make sure that you are rewarding the right behaviors. Reward the behavior you want to drive. in most organizations, this is about being customer facing, and yet many people appear to get rewarded for doing things internally, making their bosses lives easier, for example.

Celebrate team victories and accomplishments. I recently heard about a company that offers team incentives—if 90 percent of the team adopted a new initiative, everyone gets a day off. That's a nice idea.

Keep employees happy and engaged

If the business is growing and innovating effectively, if it is producing products and services that people love, that is the best recipe for a happy workplace. When employees are working together as part of a team that is having a real impact on customers or clients, when they feel supported to do their best work, and when they feel part of a strong and winning team, that is when they will be most engaged.

Don't let people get stale. Even if they are doing a great job and you are worried that changing their role will risk problems in their current area of responsibility, you have to be open to letting people grow and develop in new directions.

When offering people the chance to develop new skills, make training available. But think outside the box a little; perhaps an HR Director course for the IT Project Manager, rather than more project management training. Perhaps offer media training rather than presentation skills for customer-facing staff.

It is also important to have a culture of openness and transparency rather than a blame culture. Allow employees the space and opportunity to learn new things. Accept that where employees are making decisions, they will make mistakes—everyone can learn from these and move on.

Know the differences between engaging employees of different generations

I don't believe that the generation coming into the workplace now is much different from any other. Wanting to do interesting work, wanting to be part of the team, wanting to be respected—that goes for every age group. People of every age group also want some level of autonomy in the work they do and some flexibility in their pattern of work. Employers who don't do the right things tend to hide behind this by saying that it's the fault of the new generation – isn't that just an excuse for being a poor employer?

Meaningful work isn't just a millennial thing, it is a "great employer" thing. Today's generation has perhaps brought this conversation to the forefront. But it may not be that they have different ideals, but just that this is more possible now. Technology is a great enabler in the workplace. In the last century it was that much harder to share information in real-time and to create the instant communication that we have access to today. That meant there were usually more layers of management and workplaces were more hierarchical. In fact, the digital workplace functions better if people self-manage more, and that is engaging for every generation.

This starts from day one when they sign on the dotted line. Involve people in communication right away; invite them to join the Fantasy Football League or to join a chat channel. From the job interview to the start date is an opportunity to capture hearts and minds so that new people feel excited about walking through the door on their first day.

Have a monthly induction course but don't just have new starters. Cycle everyone through it so you get a mix of people and that it works as a refresher for old hands. Make sure that senior leadership engages in this as well.

Encourage communication among teams and across departments. Cross-collaboration and multi-functional teams are great as they help people to see the bigger picture. Ensure that remote working employees are included in communications channels. All staff meetings are always helpful for keeping everyone on the same page.

Fun events and socials are good team-builders as well. Organizations often have a company day for all staff, but why not have a weekend away for all staff with partners and families? Then the family gets engaged with company too!

Stay competitive in a busy space

Look ahead to the future. If you are very tuned into the market, customer needs and interests, you will be more aware of the emerging skills you want to hire for. Look for opportunities to recruit – being ahead of the game gives you more time to find the right people with the right skills.

Make sure your workplace is an excellent place to work in order to attract and retain high-performers. There is room for incentives such as extra holiday for each year's service, paid sabbaticals for people who have stayed for five years, and so on.

Of course, people do move between jobs more than they did in the past, so have a plan in place for that. There will often need to be succession planning and onboarding initiatives in place. This can be an opportunity for people to move into different roles and to bring on new talent. Employees are generally a business' main assets. They are the people who are responsible for realizing the company's vision on a daily basis; they interact with customers and they are often the source of innovative ideas. Making sure that the business is doing a great job for both employees and customers is vital for success in today's competitive environment.

Mark Robinson is chief marketing offer at Kimble Applications.

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Employees set the bar high--employers must rise to the challenge

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