The foundation of any business lies in the quality of the workforce. However, in the highly volatile market, companies are witnessing unprecedented employee movement contributing to the emergence of ‘Great Attrition’. As a result, organizations are struggling to maintain their desired pace of growth. A recent study reveals the difficulties of organizations in attracting and retaining talent have increased manifold with 78 percent facing challenges in attracting talent and 64 percent facing compression in retaining employees.
The rapid transition from offline to virtual to hybrid work models and movements in talent within the industry and organizations are creating unique opportunities for talent management leaders. Talent managers looking for fast pace hiring get access to a larger talent pool than ever. Similarly, technology being the frontline creates more space for talent managers to let their creative minds breathe and plan and execute talent retention strategies.
While the employee roles are transitioning at a fast pace, talent managers are buckling up to locate the right talent, and acquire and retain them to build a modern workforce.
Exhibiting a distinctive value proposition
Employees are alike business organizations when it comes to making commitments. Just like organizations want their employees to be committed, the modern workforce also requires their employer to be promising in adding value to their career. Exhibiting value proposition by defining unique promises made to the employees works as a secret sauce in winning acquisition and retention of the modern workforce. Organizations can emphasise on improving their communication with the employees and prospects, promising to deliver the benefits and experiences that they expect to receive including serving the purpose, healthy relationships with leaders, developmental opportunities and rewards.
Emphasising on non-traditional sourcing channels
While centrally talent networking and sourcing websites remain the core sources of acquiring frontline candidates, data-driven insights supplemented with unique strategies broaden the talent pool. Traditionally, talent managers relied on localised channels including their collaborations with educational institutions, recruitment agencies and promotional job postings. In the tech-savvy age, new channels have emerged to the rescue of talent managers that differentiate the employer from the rest by leveraging new platforms – social media, gig economy platforms and HRtech platforms. This helps talent managers identify the right data platform and convert it into useful insights for new talent acquisition.
Getting talent inside quickly
Waiting for weeks and months for a candidate’s notice period to get over and for the potential employer to respond is no longer relevant in the fast-paced world. To be successful in a competitive and highly dynamic market, talent managers must rethink their onboarding strategies to move quickly and take hiring decisions as an efficient workforce-building exercise. Candidates are navigating multiple opportunities each day to accelerate their career and professional life. As a solution, organizations and talent managers need to be ready to conclude their onboarding process and get in the right talent inside their doors quickly.
Competitive packages and benefits always win
Traditionally, salary always topped the list of packages to attract the right and desired talent. As the world of work progresses, ensuring a competitive salary along with great employee benefits is table stakes. In today’s tight talent market, companies are offering competitive benefits packages including financial and non-financial rewards, health insurance and benefit for their families. This demonstrates the employer’s support for employees to win the race of talent acquisition and retention.
Focus on assessment methodologies
The business landscape is continually evolving and a practice that works today may longer be relevant a year from now. The imperative for talent managers is to be highly dynamic in assessing the performance of new hires while designing fair performance evaluation criteria. Adopting an approach and methodologies with accurate, unbiased and up-to-date data can help reinvent the hiring and retention approach. Instead of predicting the high performers, talent managers can develop a data and analytics infrastructure to conduct fair assessment practice, performance monitoring and optimization system to drive lasting value.
Recruitment and selection of the modern workforce require due diligence on the part of talent managers to be thoughtful in identifying the right sourcing channels, defining performance and capturing data sets. In addition, diving deep into strategic workforce planning can help organizations to act quickly and be agile in a highly competitive talent market.
(The author is Mr. Sarbojit Mallick, co-founder, Instahyre – AI based HRTech platform and the views expressed in this article are his own)
