Attracting and retaining talent has become increasingly important yet difficult as we sit at a paradox where many people are voluntarily quitting their roles while demand for workers is rising as the economy reopens. Changing demographics like ageing and retiring workers are another factor contributing to the labor shortages, as are demands for better pay and flexible working arrangements.
As we move into 2022, organizations will need to think more broadly–and possibly a bit differently—about their recruiting and retention strategies—from compensation, rewards, and benefits to learning & development, succession planning, and diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I).
For guidance on improving your organization’s recruiting and retention efforts, check out the top tips from our team of HR, recruiting and talent experts below.
1. Offer Flexibility & Competitive Pay – Candidates are open to making career moves where remote working or hybrid arrangements exist. In several of our recent executive search engagements, 75 percent of engaged candidates were interested in learning about compelling career opportunities only if the new opportunity offered flexibility. With the emergence of new COVID variants, this will continue.
In this tight marketplace, candidates also know what they are worth and can command competitive compensation. To secure or retain the right talent, compensation must meet the market where the market is. When open to exploring new opportunities, candidates often have more than one opportunity pursuing them. Knowing the market from a compensation analysis / survey perspective is key but must also be paired with true candidate marketplace information and what it takes to compel a candidate to make a move. This creates other internal challenges associated with internal compression as well as budgetary constraints; and internal pay structures should be carefully evaluated. Not doing so invites the risk of losing key individuals.
– Mary Riccobono, Vice President & Practice Leader, Talent Acquisition
2. Re-Onboard Everyone – High turnover, the shift to hybrid work, concerns about health and safety, and continued uncertainty about the future mean that your entire workforce may be feeling unmoored. These upheavals mean that even long-tenured employees, many of whom have spent years building their reputations within an organization, may now feel like they are starting from scratch. That has enormous implications for performance, innovation, risk tolerance, and well-being. By seizing the new year as a moment to re-onboard everyone, managers can boost team cohesion and performance, and enhance the employee experience.
-Rob Croner, Vice President, Senior Executive Services
3. Unlock Your People Leaders – Management skills have never been so critical. A hybrid environment is a call to action for people leaders to see behind the screen of faces in meetings and into the hearts and minds of their employees. Retaining and developing talent requires personal attention that begins with a conversation. Find out if your employees’ motivations have changed, what their career aspirations might be, and whether they feel supported in their role. Based on what a manager learns, opportunities should be secured to coach and develop them to stay with you instead of losing talent because of managerial neglect.
-Adena Johnston, Vice President & Practice Leader, Talent Development
4. Get Creative with Compensation Programs – Against a backdrop of rising inflation, record turnover, and pandemic uncertainty, some organizations find themselves in the unenviable position of creating a meaningful, strategic approach to compensation – not only to manage their employee total rewards program, but to increase employee engagement as well as attract and retain top talent. To achieve these goals in your organization, look for creative ways to develop thoughtful, agile, and transparent employee compensation programs. Review your total reward programs and make sure your compensation and benefits offerings are not only competitive but offer an advantage in this unique market. Additionally, make sure you have a sound compensation strategy, your employee pay is market tested, and your benefits offer flexibility to meet employees’ needs.
-Paul Jeffers, Vice President & Practice Leader, HR Consulting
5. Make Succession Planning a Strategic Priority – For the past two years, companies have been in survival mode, focusing on day-to-day, here-and-now needs and putting succession planning to the back burner. However, now is the time to focus on the growth and development of their future leaders. Succession planning can be a great recruiting and retention tool as it creates future opportunities, drives engagement, provides a path for individual development, and preserves the culture by developing and promoting from within where possible.
Succession planning goes hand in hand with enforcing a culture of diversity and inclusion. Putting the right people with the right skills, experience and diverse backgrounds in place rounds out future teams and brings diverse thought leadership to the table. From our own experience, we realize that each new person has a unique perspective; as we build the CCI team for the future, we know our diversity and inclusion efforts will sustain our success.
-Sharon Imperiale, CEO/ Owner
6. Recognize that your organization and each one of your employees is unique. Just like your organization, each employee has different strengths, needs, and limitations. This means that leaders need to be creative and flexible in how they leverage the strengths of each team member while being cognizant of their limitations and attending to their individual needs. Failure to do so limits success, reduces engagement, and drives unnecessary turnover.
Recognizing and attending to the uniqueness of your organization and each employee is a simple and powerful way to increase organizational success. This flexibility can play out in a variety of ways, including embracing hybrid work polices, offering part-time schedules for those who want to work but are trying to gain better work/family balance, providing phased retirement as a bridge for older workers interested in extending their career, and broadening efforts to identify and recruit talent from non-traditional sources. Success will come to those organizations and those leaders who are willing to think outside the box and create win-win scenarios for prospective and current employees.
-Brian Clapp, President
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