In a previous post titled, Why Are Employees Quitting During the Great Resignation?, we discussed whe employees are leaving there jobs in record numbers. In this post we discuss how this unprecedented number of people quitting without taking another similar job is having an enormous impact on the labor supply. All organizations and businesses must act to retain their current employees and to attract new talent—both those at other companies and those who have temporarily left the traditional workforce.
Here are some actions your business can take to both retain and hire new employees.
Employee Retention
It takes significantly longer to recruit someone than it does for them to give their two-week notice and depart, and becoase of this, employers should focus on bolstering retention.
Incentivize Loyalty
You have to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. So, in addition to updating your overall compensation package, consider offering employees one-time bonuses, helping them pay down student loans, and providing them with work-from-home stipends. You may also want to recruit people who have recently departed by offering to immediately vest them in long-term compensation plans.
Provide Opportunities to Grow
Show current employees you value them even more than potential new hires by providing them with new opportunities to grow and advance. Workers are hungry for this vote of confidence. A survey by Boston Consulting Group shows that 68% of workers around the world — blue- and white-collar alike — are willing to retrain and learn new skills.
Elevate Your Purpose
Purpose is the timeless reason that your organization exists. It’s the reason most people join and choose to stay. In turbulent times a belief in what an organization is trying to achieve is even more important than in quieter periods. Prove to employees that there’s more to your organization than the bottom line.
Prioritize Culture and Connection
Now more than ever, it’s important to keep team members engaged, healthy, and connected. Make time to connect and build relationships with — and among — your people. Not only will this solidify their relationship with your organization, but social connection also has a significant positive impact on productivity.
Invest in Taking Care of Your Employees and Their Families
Provide mental health resources, acknowledge the personal sacrifices everyone has made during the pandemic, help parents with small children by providing or subsidizing daycare, and give more paid time off.
Embrace Flexibility
The future of work is going to be providing flexible work environments in terms of place, time, job description, and career paths. Embrace it work environment flexibility should also be applied to hiring requirements.
Listen to Employees and Show Appreciation
One key for managers looking to retain top talent is to listen better. Get direct input from employees in terms of what is working and what is not, and then address concerns with a plan of action. Employees also want to feel valued and appreciated for their contributions. In fact, according to research by OC Tanner, 79 percent of people leave jobs because they feel unappreciated at work.
Encourage Internal Entreprenuerism
Create opportunities for employees to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions inside the company. By unleashing a worker’s entrepreneurial spirit, companies can not only retain the best staff but also help generate new sources of growth.
Hiring
Reevaluate Remote Working Options
A survey by Bankrate suggests that 56% of working Americans would prefer remote work and adjustable working hours. “Pandemic-inspired changes, including the ability to work remotely and/or from home, have transformed mindsets and expectations for many workers,” said Mark Hamrick, Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst and Washington Bureau Chief.
In 2020, almost 70% of full-time employees worked remotely. The possibility of a hybrid work model has become much more feasible as businesses were forced to pivot to work-from-home arrangements. It’s getting increasingly clear that employees are now seeking jobs that have the opportunity to work remotely. In fact, 23% of full-time employees surveyed by Owl Labs are amenable to taking a pay cut of over 10% to work from home at least some of the time. Remote work, at least part-time, keeps employees happy, saves on overhead office costs, and definitely attracts more job seekers.
Offer Comprehensive Benefits
The pandemic did more than usher in a new era of remote work. It impacted all of us — on a macro and micro scale. Unsurprisingly, more and more employees are reporting higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. This often bleeds into their work. As a result, companies are revising their benefits packages, and many are providing perks like time off, counseling and other mental health services, and technical training to boost morale and ensure their team is taken care of.
Be Flexible In Hiring
Consider hiring candidates who don’t quite fit your profile; if they have 75% of what you’re looking for, grab them. More than half of technology giant IBM’s U.S. job openings do not require a four-year college degree. With the right mindset and support, people who come up a bit short on paper can learn what’s missing.
Make use of Success Profiles to Increase Hiring Precision
Success profiles allow hiring managers to identify key skills, knowledge, experience, behavior, and personality traits that fit a particular role. They work as a useful tool when determining open positions needed in the organization and as a template when assessing candidates. While job descriptions do a good job of defining the job itself, success profiles determine what makes a job seeker exactly right for the role. As qualities and expertise vary for different positions and departments, success profiles can act as a hiring blueprint every time a position needs to be filled.
Using success profiles helps keep the recruitment process objective and avoids unconscious bias in the selection process. They allow organizations to be very specific about what they need in a potential employee, increasing hiring precision and considerably lowering the chances of unsuccessful hires. Success profiles even aid in forecasting whether a candidate can take on larger roles in the future.
Turn to the Experts and Work with an RPO Provider
In the cut-throat hiring market that we see today, it makes increasing sense for business owners to turn to recruitment process outsourcing to fill their staffing needs. RPO providers already have an existing pool of possible candidates, which saves a tremendous amount of time spent on sourcing applicants. They take care of sourcing, credentialing and interviewing candidates, which gives HR managers more time to assess and select the best talent for the job.
RPO providers streamline the recruitment process and help manage large volumes of job orders. Services can be scaled up or down depending on the organization’s hiring requirements. This considerably reduces hiring costs, time-to-hire and time-to-fill. As the demand for top-tier talent continues to rise, it’s in a business owner’s best interest to leave recruiting to the experts in order to get ahead of competitors hiring for the same job.
Adapt to the Future of Work
Great talent is getting increasingly hard to find, and the best candidates know it too. Most potential candidates are already working with five to six different recruiters and typically receive three job offers before accepting one. It’s a candidate-centric hiring market, and job seekers are more willing than ever to wait for roles that resonate with their goals and lifestyles.
With the Great Resignation still looming over the market, business executives and hiring managers need to adapt to the future of work, embrace flexibility and reevaluate their recruiting initiatives to fill the growing demand for exceptional talent.
Show that you Invest in Your Team’s Growth
No one wants to feel stagnant in their career. Many people in tech leaving their jobs listed limited career progression and a lack of training opportunities as their primary reasons. In fact, 91% of the tech force is seeking further development from their employers.
Investing in your team’s growth is mutually beneficial. Not only does it help boost productivity and innovation, but it also helps create more value for your organization’s stakeholders.
Identify Candidate Goals
When interviewing, assess motivations or what a candidate is looking for in a next role. If their motivations (or what they’re looking for out of their next role) align with your company values or mission (or the position they’re interviewing for), this is typically a good indicator that a candidate might be likely to stick around longer.
Emphasize your Company’s Values
No one wants to feel like a cog in a wheel. People need to know they’re making a difference, that their work is meaningful, and their voices are being heard. Companies that emphasize purpose and impact over processes and operations have lower turnover rates. This can be achieved (in part) through a quality onboarding process and by connecting individual responsibilities to overall organizational goals.
In Conclusion
The current labor shortage is unprecedented, and some of the shifts in employee wants are probably here to stay, but for businesses and organizations that can adapt to these changes, there are opportunities to hire the right candidates and come out of this period as a stronger organization.