Today, there are more open positions than available workers, thanks to the Great Resignation. This talent shortage — driven by the mass quit rates at every level of the workforce — is projected to have a continued and significant impact on corporate growth and employee satisfaction into 2022. To address these challenges, employers need to be strategic and creative to attract and retain high-value employees.
And, naturally, boosting employee engagement is an important part of this strategy
Human resources and hiring managers are putting together action plans to slow employee turnover and rebuild the workforce into a sustainable hybrid model that includes flexible in-office and remote work options. Those plans include investments in human resources, office experience, and employee engagement technologies to help manage remote workers and foster deeper personal connections in and out of the office.
How the Great Resignation is Impacting Company Performance and Growth
More than 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021. That exodus was initially called the Great Resignation, but after analyzing the workforce data, many workplace experts renamed the phenomenon the Great Reshuffle. That minor difference reflects a more nuanced understanding. Workers aren’t simply quitting and leaving the workforce — they are leaving their current job for new positions that offer better benefits, higher pay, and greater work-life balance.
This shift in employee demand has made employee retention an enterprise-wide concern. No longer is this a siloed issue for human resources. The C-suite, including CFOs, are now paying close attention to employee hiring and retention stats. According to PwC, 83% of CFOs indicate that hiring and retaining talent is very important to growth. The consensus among CFOs is that the talent shortage will severely impact company growth and profitability in 2022 and beyond.
How to Recruit and Retain Talent in a Hybrid Work Workplace
To mitigate staffing challenges, employers are enacting holistic workplace solutions that bridge the gap between what employees want versus what organizations previously offered. One of the biggest employer takeaways from the last two years is that employee experience matters as much as salary, and more than highly-touted perks like a beer fridge in the kitchen.
“Companies will need to find ways to retain talent by making the workplace attractive. That might mean paying higher wages, making the workplace more enjoyable, or offering better benefits or flexibility,” said Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn’s chief economist, in a recent interview.
The future of work is a hybrid, flexible workplace, and companies are using several strategies to engage with employees across multiple time zones and locations. They are:
- Investing in professional development programs. High-performing employees feel more valued if they know their employers are helping them achieve long-term career goals. Employers benefit from a higher-skilled and more productive workforce.
- Seeking employee feedback. When employers demonstrate they value feedback, the workforce responds positively and feels more invested in the company’s overall success. Use employee survey tools or take pulse surveys to gather feedback and then use that feedback to make well-informed decisions.
- Enacting employee engagement programs. Employee engagement correlates strongly to employee retention. A Gallup poll found that 74% of employees who identified as “actively disengaged” were looking for a new job. One way to increase employee engagement is to offer more comprehensive or personalized experiences, providing employees better work-life balance.
How Technology Helps Engage Current Employees and Attract New Ones
The role of HR is expanding in the hybrid work world. Human resource and office experience teams are tasked with a myriad of responsibilities that include enhancing the employee experience, driving talent retention and acquisitions, and creating a productive and enjoyable hybrid workplace across time zones.
Disjointed communication methods like emails or Slack messages are not effective at reaching employees where they are. However, an employee Experience app that can reach every worker — whether they are in or out of the physical office — is more effective in fostering a strong connection to the workplace while lessening the burden on HR.
Employee experience apps that are part of a larger workplace experience platform give HR the tools they need to gather real-time feedback and enhance employee communication. In addition, these tools offer employees the benefit of an all-in-one workplace app — letting them order food and wellnesses services, or book a conference room or hot desk.
Want to learn more about how HqO can help you engage and retain employees? Schedule a demo today.
