Recruit, Engage, Retain to Beat the Great Resignation

From 30% in May growing to 55% in recent months, the latest stats all point to a growing trend—a record number of employees are quitting their jobs. The Great Resignation, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic for many, has motivated employees to step back and rethink their careers, creating an opportunity for employers to also reconsider their employee experience to improve recruitment, engagement, and retention.

So as turnover continues to hit historic highs, tightening the labor market, what can businesses do to bulk up and retain their workforces? And how can they do it effectively to keep up with the competition? Let’s talk about what today’s workers want and how actionable data and robust HR technology can enhance your recruiting and retention processes, now and in the long-term.

Understand Changing Employee Priorities 

The pandemic has revealed and even shifted priorities for many. As the boundaries between work and life become less defined, a traditional workplace and 9-to-5 work hours are no longer compatible.

Since many people work from home or in hybrid environments, today’s employees want harmony between life and work, which means they’re increasingly seeking employment with companies that match their values. What’s more, for a growing number of employees, it’s become even more important that employers take a stand on social issues and promote a truly inclusive environment.

Especially for the younger generations, like Gen Z, work transcends clock-in to clock-out. They want to work with companies that show up, show their cards, and show they care, and they’ll prioritize values. In fact, according to a LinkedIn Workforce Confidence survey, 69% of Gen Z employees recently switched jobs to find something more aligned with their interests and values.

Employers across the country and around the world are adapting to these new employee expectations, creating a Hunger Games-like hiring environment. And if you’re behind the 8-ball with staffing, you also risk losing the staff you have to burnout. So, as we transitioned from hiring freeze to hiring frenzy, HR professionals must have the right plan and tools to come out on top. If you’re more agile than ever, you can keep the talent you have and attract the talent you want. 

Let Data and Insights Drive Your Recruiting Roadmap

If you want to know where your recruiting journey will take you, it helps to know where you’ve been and where you stand now. Before you start building your roadmap, it’s important to take a close look at your recent workforce data and insights, like recruiting and attrition:

• Workforce planning: Use data around turnover, compensation, scheduling, and other workforce insights to identify trends and forecast labor needs that inform more effective decision-making
• Study turnover data: Be sure to include trends related to demographics and specific roles, paying close attention to exit interview feedback as well
• Time to fill/hire: These details can show you how quickly you filled past roles so you can adapt your process as needed to help ensure you keep up with competitors
• Review sources of hire: Knowing where you’ve successfully (and unsuccessfully) hired from in the past can help you prioritize your recruiting efforts
• Evaluate offer acceptance rates: If you see a decline, it may be time to reassess your compensation packages and revamp your interview process

Build Your Candidate Pipeline

Working with the right recruiting tools can help you build a more robust pipeline with streamlined communication, extended reach through automatic job posting, and configurable applications with opt-in simplified background checks. From talent acquisition to effective, timely communications, these tools can help you track each lead’s progress from applicant to candidate—and keep them engaged throughout the process.

Wherever you're sourcing candidates now, tapping into various talent pools will also expand your options. And wherever candidates may be searching, ensure your company is attractive to the talent you want. Your brand should be fresh, focused, and authentic. For example, if DEI is a priority for your organization, be sure your corporate site and social channels reflect that. Wherever your brand shows up, make sure your employer value proposition is clear and strong.

Enhance and Advance Retention With Technology

Today’s HR technology (many of which are enhanced by artificial intelligence [AI]) can accelerate hiring and improve the candidate experience. But once your new hires are in place, do you have what it takes to keep them there?

Engaging and equipping today’s workforce requires tools that help you build and enhance connection and collaboration throughout the lifecycle. Consider how you can redefine, rethink, reimagine, and recalibrate the employee experience:

• Rethink onboarding: A new hire’s early days can mean a world of difference— 82% in retention and 70% in productivity. Develop an onboarding program that provides a consistent experience for every new hire — remote, on site, or hybrid —so they can hit the ground running.
• Redefine engagement: Stay ahead of (or address) communication breakdowns and the loss of emotional connection that comes with the new hybrid workplace with new tools and techniques to both encourage and measure employee engagement.
• Reimagine management: Provide managers training that’s tailored to your unique environment and teams to help them effectively and confidently manage things like productivity and team morale.
• Recalibrate your data: Tracking analytics to identify turnover and recruiting trends, measure employee sentiment, and monitor which benefits are utilized most, for example, will help align your programs and initiatives with the organization’s goals and your employees’ needs.

After the rapid turnover of The Great Resignation plus nearly two years of layoffs and hiring freezes, it continues to be a challenging time to work in HR. To help you win the best possible employees, download our ebook—Post-Pandemic Survival Checklist: The New World of Employee Experience.