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Are you ready to handle the current job surge?  Nearly half of the 22 million jobs that were eliminated in the early months of the pandemic have been recovered.1 A combination of the financial stimulus, the quick roll-out of vaccines, and increasingly positive jobs reports have caused hiring to be on the rise.  Thus, competition for talent has grown extremely intense.  In fact, 42% of companies report that they have job openings that they cannot fill.1 In addition, a 2021 Federal Census Survey reported that 6 million people did not seek work because of childcare issues; another 4 million workers said they were not seeking work because they feared catching or spreading the virus.

Finding talented and retaining employees is always going to be a challenge for a variety of complex reasons.  But here are the 7 things you can do to outmaneuver your competition and win the war for talent:

  1. Optimize your recruiting efforts.

In a hot job market, you must ensure that your recruiting process is streamlined and flawless.  Small changes can have a big impact, such as:

  • Offering a mobile careers page and application process.
  • Making your application process short and sweet.
  • Building a stellar interview process.
  • Ensuring that your Human Capital Management (HMC) reporting system shows exactly where each candidate is in the hiring process.  Also, making sure your HCM reports the reason why candidates were NOT hired. 
  •  Build an employment brand from the bottom up.

Post-pandemic many candidates are for more than just a job.  There is a new focus on companies: providing a healthy environment, corporate social responsibility, and better wellness benefits.  In fact, 61% of employees say they would consider leaving an organization that does not offer a hybrid workweek.2

  • Become an organization known for Training, Learning, and Development.

During the pandemic, worldwide workers witnessed entire industries disrupted or nearly wiped out overnight.  As a result, a rising number of workers are experiencing career insecurity.  As such, workers want to recession-proof themselves by acquiring more skills and abilities.  The great news is that it is still less expensive to retain (and retrain) your existing employees than to find and hire new ones.

  • Make Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) an integral part of your culture, strategy, and mission.

Countless research studies have proved that a solid focus on D&I leads to higher profitability and industry leadership and dominance.  Concentrating on D&I also provides the added benefit of enlarging the pool of talent to be recruited.

  • Become an organization known for Pay Equity.

Post-pandemic people have a renewed focus on ensuring that they are paid fairly.  Considering pay issues are the second most factor in job turnover, great organizations are conducting regular salary surveys to ensure their pay levels meet or exceed the market for their industry.

  • Become an organization known for its Benefits.

The bottom line is that the traditional benefits package will no longer cut it.  In fact, 98% of business leaders surveyed by Harvard Business Review plan to offer or expand at least one employee benefit, such as flexible work hours, childcare, or improved mental health support.  Having just lived through their first pandemic, employees have never been more concerned about receiving strong and innovative benefits, especially Health & Wellness.  

  • Innovate and modernize the way you develop talent.

Talent attraction and talent retention all come as a direct result of the organization providing clear and solid growth opportunities.  As mentioned in tip 3, employees want to grow.  In fact, 94% of employees say they would stay at their organization if the organization invests in helping them to learn.3

Of course, performance matters, but future performance matters more.  Thus, performance management should be an ongoing conversation.

We hope that these 7 best-practice tips help you win leadership with recruitment and retention in your industry. 

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Kevin Sheridan

Kevin Sheridan is an internationally-recognized Keynote Speaker, a New York Times Best Selling Author, and one of the most sought-after voices in the world on the topic of Employee Engagement. For five years running, he has been honored on Inc. Magazine’s top 101 Leadership Speakers in the world, as well as Inc.’s top 101 experts on Employee Engagement. He was also honored to be named to The Employee Engagement Award’s Top 100 Global Influencers on Employee Engagement for three consecutive years, as well as being designated as a Senior Fellow at The Conference Board. Having spent thirty years as a high-level Human Capital Management consultant, Kevin has helped some of the world’s largest corporations rebuild a culture that fosters productive engagement, earning him several distinctive awards and honors. Kevin’s premier creation, PEER®, has been consistently recognized as a long-overdue, industry-changing innovation in the field of Employee Engagement. His first book, Building a Magnetic Culture, made six of the best seller lists including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He is also the author of The Virtual Manager, which explores how to most effectively manage remote workers. Kevin received a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 1988, concentrating his degree in Strategy, Human Resources Management, and Organizational Behavior. He is also a serial entrepreneur, having founded and sold three different companies.

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