One way to fight restless feet? Re-recruit your current employees
Despite a wave of headlines covering layoffs, primarily at tech companies, the labour market remains tight and hiring remains difficult. In other words, the rebalancing of market power towards employees (who have been dealing with a slack labour market for the better part of the past 50 years) is far more than just a temporary pandemic blip.
This will be music to a lot of people’s ears on the jobhunting side of things, but it also means those recruitment headaches are not going anywhere anytime soon.
But what managers, HR departments and recruiters often miss when they focus on the talent walking out the door is that many employees would actually prefer to stay, given the right opportunity.
Microsoft’s annual work index found that 76 per cent of employees say they would stay with their current firm if they were given more opportunities to develop, yet companies have been laser focused throughout much of the last two years on struggles to attract.
“There is a clear connection between learning and retention,” Microsoft’s Liz Leigh-Bowler told Worklife. “If you prioritize learning and development support, employees will be more likely to stay with your company.”
Because employee turnover can be costly, some experts suggest that companies should double down on re-recruiting their existing talent — with raises, new responsibilities and better opportunities — rather than trying to compete in a labour market that no longer favours employers the way it once did.
“We spend a ton of money and energy looking for the right person. We pay lots of money to identify and attract top candidates. There are entire industries built around talent recruitment,” said Cornerstone’s Stephen Graves. “But then, once a new employee arrives, it’s as if we assume the job is done. We find someone great and persuade them to join us, and then we just walk off and assume they will stick and be productive and valuable and engaged and with us through every turn in the company and the market forever.”
“Don’t just let people go,” Graves stressed. “Re-recruit”
Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.