Retention, employee turnover and the employee experience is something you can expect to hear a lot about in the news and media in 2022. Part of the reason for this is that the great resignation was one of the key global phenomenons and stories of last year, and its effects are still being felt at companies around the world.
The global pandemic, like any business emergency or case of severe disruption to the economy and work environment, represented an opportunity for entrepreneurs with clever ideas and innovative thinking to enter the market with new ideas. As a result, a lot of new businesses and companies entered the market last year, looking to carve out market share and move quickly to take advantage of opportunities that many of them felt the more traditional multinational companies may not have been in a position to exploit, because all their time was taken up with handling the fallout from the pandemic.
But these new businesses, similar to established businesses, find that it's a genuine challenge when it comes to employee retention. In this article, we are going to look at some of the reasons for this and shine a light on some of the things they can do in terms of retention policies that will give them the best opportunity to hold on to top talent and the best employees in a hugely competitive labor market.
A shift in the balance of power
In 2022, many people agree that the shift of power has moved over from the employer to the employee. Remote working and hybrid working opportunities means that global employees no longer need to be located in the country of their employer-this massively broadens the scope of the kind of work they can search for and the kind of opportunities they can now be considered for.
Now, we have a whole new generation of employees based in Europe who may work for a U.S. company, or an organization based in Asia. Thanks to the advancement in digital payment facilities and global banking, it is feasible for companies to employ them and pay them in a similar way that they do for local country employees.
This makes retention for new businesses a challenge-employees simply have so many opportunities and so much choice. There is much less hesitancy on their part to quit their job when they know they can pick up another job relatively quickly and easily. Video conferencing and video technology meetings have helped global employees become accustomed to communicating and expressing themselves on camera, therefore getting a job via a process of video interviews is no longer intimidating or problematic-for some, it is even their preference.
What does this mean for new businesses? It means they need to consider a retention strategy right alongside a recruitment strategy- it cannot simply be about getting qualified candidates in the door, there has to be a long-term view around how to keep them productive, engaged and satisfied. This is a challenge for new businesses because many of them have arrived so quickly onto the market, that they have not fully set up and established their human resources department, policies or strategies. It is advisable that they prioritize retention in 2022 or they may find themselves struggling to keep hold of qualified employees. Employee engagement for new hires will be important- human resource management will now need to focus on incentives and helpful initiatives to create an attractive company culture for new employees.
A younger workforce
A generation or two back, you would have found yourself in the company of people who had one job for life! This is something that sounds crazy to millennials and recent college graduates who fully expect to bounce from job to job for the next decade before they feel they have to make important life decisions.
Right now, millennials in particular also have other priorities-a desire to travel and see the world being high on their agendas, means that the new normal of remote work and hybrid working will afford some of them the opportunity to do both. So, they will actively be seeking out companies who can afford to be flexible with the length of term in their contracts as well as global mobility policies that might enable them to travel in their jobs and work in other countries.
Many millennials do not see themselves committing to one specific employer for longer than three years. They tend to have more options at their disposal, and they also tend to have much less responsibility eg they are less likely to be tied down by a mortgage as many don’t have kids, and don’t own a house yet. They also tend to consider moving from job to job as a way of gaining varied and different experience, which they believe makes them even more employable in the future. Development opportunities, employee benefits and workplace culture are things they look for in a new job as well as the all-important, work-life balance.
The result of all of this is that an exciting new business may succeed in recruiting millennials, but these millennials may not share their employers level of excitement for a very long time!
Technology to explore options
While securing a new position via an interview may not be easier today, it is certainly a lot easier to get some clear visibility on both available roles in the job market as well as the type of organizations that are hiring.
Technology has advanced so much that applying for a job and setting up initial conversations is usually a relatively quick process. The Internet and social media make it easier for potential candidates to research and find out the type of companies they wish to work for or learn quite easily about any interesting developments happening at organizations that may pique their interest.
Potential employees can register interest at the organization of their choice and then this organization has an easy way to contact them at a future date when a position becomes available, or when they are simply gauging interest among potential candidates. This easy communication flow helps potential employers and available candidates stay in touch and engage.
Job hiring websites send out alerts with profile matches to give you the opportunity to follow developments at companies of your choice. All of this results in a younger generation simply leveraging easy to use technology to keep track of what's happening in the employment space, and it creates a feeling of always keeping their options open and being ready to move should a perceived better opportunity present itself.
So, what does all of this mean for new business? It really means two things:
- They cannot take their employees for granted
- They must research and put in place some employee retention strategies
Without considering these two things, they risk underestimating the ease at which their employees can move quickly and seize opportunities at other companies. Turnover rates and shortages of good employees will surely follow. The balance of power has shifted to the employee, particularly in a post COVID world and it is down to global employers and new businesses of this world, to look at new and innovative ways in which they can retain qualified staff.