There’s no getting around it: the global pandemic of Covid-19 has put many lives on pause. In the workforce, this means that many employees have stayed still preferring the comfort of job security over advancement, and certainty over uncertainty.
However, as the world begins to open up again with light at the end of the tunnel, many employees will begin to re-evaluate their situations and consider their plans for the future. Many will feel disillusioned with their current jobs or their relationships with management and begin to seek new opportunities and challenges. Research shows that between 25–33% of employees are planning to leave their current organisation at the end of the pandemic.
With such high turnover, now more than ever talent will be in control and the competition to secure the best employees will be fierce.
Employers must act now to prepare for the upcoming challenge or risk getting left behind. Here at Landing.Jobs I’ve identified 3 key areas to focus on to help you retain and attract the best employees: employee retention, improvement of your hiring process and definition of your employer value proposition.
1. Focus on Employee Retention
The consequences of employee turnover are high with negative impacts on company morale and reputation. Retaining your existing employees not only saves valuable time and money by avoiding expensive hiring costs but perhaps most importantly, when organisations have high turnover, overall productivity tends to decrease.
Keeping existing employees sounds simple right? But unfortunately, many employers overlook the value of focusing on retention. Indeed, since the pandemic, a recent Achievers Workforce Institute survey showed that 46% of respondents felt less connected to their company and 42% felt that their company culture had weakened.
So how can you foster retention to keep your best workers?
Everyone, regardless of their job, likes to feel listened to and valued. Therefore it is essential to identify, recognise and engage your top employees. Encourage communication and connection with your staff: listen to their problems, act on them, and then listen again.
I also recommend developing a clear strategy based on the 3C’s of retention: Compensation, Culture and Challenge. By developing clear action plans defined by these pillars, companies will be able to ensure they stay true to their cultural values and nurture, grow and ultimately retain their top talent.
2. Improve your Hiring Process
First impressions matter and how a potential recruit first sees you can set the tone for future relationships. Explore your current hiring processes and ask yourself: how can we adapt to account for new skills and competencies? I’ve previously written about the drivers of tech recruitment here but two ways to ensure you have the best processes in place are to focus on quality and speed.
Quality
Ensuring a quality hiring process means incorporating several factors. First, examine your candidate’s journey — 95% of candidates who have a positive hiring experience say they would refer others. Look at your current onboarding processes. Are they organised to ensure potential recruits understand not only the job requirements but also how they can excel with you? Look for ways to ensure your processes allow employees to thrive from the start.
Using relevant and up-to-date technology to screen and track candidates not only frees up your time but it enables you to recruit more efficiently. Using the right systems allows you to be continuously data-driven, and to identify which areas of your hiring process are failing. After all, if you don’t track, you won’t understand which parts of your hiring strategy need improvement.
Speed
Incorporating speed into your hiring process means being quick to attract the attention of new talent quickly. This may mean exploring new and creative techniques for attracting attention. Remember that candidates typically check out companies’ reputations before applying so ensuring that your reputation is strong will put you ahead of the game.
Once you attract your candidates you still need to work hard to keep them engaged. Therefore, it’s critical to keep ahead of the competition by prioritising strong candidates and moving them quickly between hiring stages. Keep your communication channels open with candidates and keep them engaged and informed throughout the hiring process to ensure their attention stays focused on you.
3. Define your Employer Value Proposition
And finally, you’ve kept your best employees and focused on improving your hiring process, now let’s look at why a new candidate should choose you. What makes you the best organisation to meet their needs?
Every company needs to be able to define and clearly express what they can offer potential and current employees, based on what those employees are looking for. The best way to do this is through your Employer Value Proposition (EVP). An EVP showcases your company’s benefits and articulates why an individual should choose you over the competition.
You can learn how to define your EVP here but in short, you need to consider what your employees’ motivations are and what they can expect from joining you. One way to define this is to consider job descriptions that set expectations in the first 3, 6 and 12 months.
Start Now
So there you have it. The market is heating up, competition for talent will be fierce and preparation now is critical. At Landing.Jobs, we can help ensure you are in the strongest position to attract the best talent when the hiring boom strikes. Book a 30-minute call with us now to discuss your post Covid-19 strategies to get ahead of the competition, retain your strongest employees and show potential new employees exactly why they should choose you.
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