Talent loss is now a top 5 business threat

One in four of your staff want to leave in the next 6 months. There’s never been a better time to revisit your talent strategy. In this article we explain why.

Your staff have other ideas about their future 

If there’s any big takeaway from the latest report on the talent market from Michael Page, it’s that the majority of your team is looking to move on to greener pastures in the next 6-months. Its latest report suggests wide-scale plans across all role disciplines to find alternative employment in the coming months, with no significant difference in attitudes from workers around the globe.

It’s not that your business has got 80% worse in the last 12-months. There are a few change drivers that are impacting worker attitudes. These include:

New habits 

The affect of people working from home, or being unable to work, for weeks on end during the pandemic created new habits that people have found hard to give up.

An awakening of ‘self’ 

Another consequence of the pandemic was how we, all of us, were awakened to thoughts of the unpredictability of life. Many of our loved ones had their lives cut short by a virus most of us had never heard of before 2020. It made life and our time on this planet somehow more precious.

Greener field opportunities in skilled roles

The Great Resignation is a double-edged sword. There are a lot of job vacancies out there. That sponsors the ‘Is there a better role for me out there?’ question in the minds of your workers.

Cost of living rises

The cost of living is driving down the usefulness of pay packets. When money is tight, workers inevitably consider ways to boost their income.

How to keep your team happy

Of course, the best way to cut attrition in your workforce is to keep your staff happy. But, in 2022, that doesn’t just mean paying well. For many workers, perhaps the majority these days, while a living wage is important,
other considerations also matter.
If you’re an employer and want to keep your team happy, try these things out for size: 

1. Pay fair

There remain discontinuities in pay packets in workforces around the world, and these obvious disparities cause irritation to workers who feel they are the wrong side of the line.

2. Support the physical and mental wellbeing of
your people

According to the World Health Organization, the global economy loses approximately US$1 trillion in productivity due to depression and anxiety.

3. Over communicate with your teams and allow
them to have a say

Bosses need to work MUCH harder to connect with their people; to make them feel like they are part of a team. The pandemic has caused more workers to blend home-based and on-premise working, causing teams to be geographically dispersed. This is having a negative impact on team cultures and on-the job coaching. The group most affected are those who are new to the workforce, who are missing out on the mentoring support of colleagues, which is hard to replicate on Teams.

4. Be a socially adept employer 

According to MetLife, American workers want more social responsibility from their employers, with over 70% believing their companies should address societal problems. As a big warning to bosses, they also found that 49% of employees felt their relationship with their employer had worsened and their productivity had fallen since the pandemic. Additionally, 25% of employees felt the response of their employer to the crisis had somewhat or significantly weakened their trust in them. 

5. Re-visit your flexible working options

One of the biggest reasons behind the increase in resignations comes down to inflexibilities over the remote working arrangements that workers have had a taste of, and now don’t want to lose.

Smart employers know that flexibility in work arrangements remains highly desirable. In their new job offers, more recruiters are offering a greater level of flexibility for those who wish to work remotely. This is causing more employed workers to reconsider their options.

6. Embrace diversity in its broadest terms

Diversity creates a more balanced and accepting workplace. It also increases productivity. According to one research study, a 1% increase in racial diversity similarity between upper and lower management increases company productivity by between $729 and $1590 per employee per year.

7. Offer workers a stake in the future of your business

To motivate employees, consider going the extra mile and offer your employees a stake in the future prosperity of your business. You could follow in the footsteps of the UK retail giant John Lewis Partnership, where every employee is a partner in the business because they are assigned shares in its ownership.

The John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s largest employee owned business, an experiment into industrial democracy sponsored by its founder, John Spedan Lewis, who believed there was a better way of doing business.

Living with a talent loss 

Time to reconsider your full-time workforce quotient?

Perhaps the most sensible course of action is to accept that we’re currently in period of talent disruption, and that proportionately high talent loss is inevitable. That being the case, sensible leaders will build strategies that embrace that new reality. One way to live with talent loss is to migrate from full-time employment contracts, to forging a better balancing act between fixed and flexible workforce.

Invest in direct sourcing

Organizations around the world are building their own reserves of talent by installing digital job boards and using their brand to reach out to talent direct. Our talent portal offers a super-set of tooling to equip businesses to build their own talent pool. The advantage of this approach is that your future job needs can be served by an eager and pre-vetted pool of contractors that cost nothing until they are hired. This brings added agility and is a win-win for both parties, as contractors know they stand a better chance of being in the first round of hirees, as and when the opportunity arises.