This spring, Microsoft revealed that 40% of employees are thinking about leaving their jobs in the next six-to-twelve months. In the US, the "great resignation", as it's been coined, is already in motion and only time will tell whether the trend will become a reality elsewhere. If it does, the impact for businesses could be seismic. HR Week reported that the cost of a mass exit could amount to 16.9 billion for companies in the UK and Ireland alone.
From our own conversations, it’s clear that the battle for talent is very real right now. It’s becoming harder to attract and retain good people with the right skills and aptitude. And with the rate of hiring and job ads surging across the country and a growing skills shortage, competition is going to get even tougher. So, strategies to handle talent attrition need to be prioritised.
There isn’t a quick fix, but what steps should HR and engagement teams take to counteract the potential hit to the bottom line?
1. Double down on engaging your people with your strategy, vision, and purpose. If your people’s personal values are aligned to your vision and they believe that there are growth opportunities ahead, feel self-motivated by what you’re striving to achieve and understand the impact they can have in their own role, they are more likely to stay! You will lose people if they don’t think that your company is living up to its promises, even if you’re still stuck in crisis mode.
2. Focus on employee experience. The rules of engagement and expectations have changed drastically, and employee experience in a hybrid working world needs to be different.
3. Prioritise reward and recognition. More than ever people are seeking rewarding work and want to feel appreciated for their efforts
4. Reinvigorate your culture to create a sense of belonging, unity, and connection to the company and each other.
5. Focus on developing the skills and capabilities of your leaders and managers so that they can engage their teams confidently.
6. Review your employer brand – does it differentiate you enough and do you stand apart from your biggest competitors?
7. Create flexible working policies that enable your people to thrive.
8. Get creative on how you look to build a talent pool that is fit for the future. Shake up your hiring practices to attract a truly diverse workforce. And tear up the rule book when it comes to location.
As businesses continue to bounce back, they need to recognise that employees' expectations of their employer have dramatically risen. Focusing on every touchpoint of the employee journey has never been more important.
Most businesses are still in crisis mode, or dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic. They are behind and grappling with how they accelerate towards the opportunities hybrid and remote working clearly offer, or forcing employees back into office spaces. Strategies need to be redesigned to meet the current attrition challenges, otherwise businesses will be left with a talent pool that is unable to meet customer demands.
If you need support creating an engagement strategy that will help you to retain talent, get in touch at Hello@unitedcultureco.com. We’d love to chat.
