Hiring is one of the most critical jobs for all companies across sectors and indeed one of the key success factors. It not only requires companies to invest money to hire and train a talent but spend sufficient time to onboard the employee and help him/ her settle in. With technology innovation, a shift in labour demographics, new workforce models, and pandemic around, companies have been re-enforced to assess the role of L&D and how employees should be trained in a shorter period.
 
According to the SHRM’s skills gap research, 83% of HR professionals reported difficulty obtaining suitable candidates. 75% of respondents believed that there was a shortage of suitable persons for job openings. Because corporations are unable to find the talent they require, they must look within and develop it.

According to industry reports and experts, employers can convert the ‘Great Attrition’ to the ‘Great Attraction’ if they make a deliberate effort to understand why employees are leaving and take effective steps to retain them.  If leaders show deeper empathy for what their people are going through, as well as the compassion—and determination—to act and change because of that empathy. The employees must be valued for who they are and what they bring to the table, and leadership must ensure that this happens.

Another reason for high attrition rates is the lack of people’s alignment with the corporate vision. Businesses often fail to communicate the impact or value their product or services are creating with their employees. Great organizations almost always keep their people informed on goals they are chasing and how their employees play a key role in helping achieve those targets and add value in the lifecycle of their customers.

The secret to creating a motivated & high-performing workplace is to promote ownership culture. It promotes innovation, responsibility, and accountability and helps people expand beyond their individual roles and develop a leadership spirit.

Another way of increasing the employee’s satisfaction level is by enhancing the employer-employee connection, helping them grow within the company, and increase their productivity. To achieve this, companies should focus on providing greater career possibilities to employees, prioritizing work culture, and connection, taking better care of employees and their families, and improving workplace flexibility.

Some of these initiatives that organisations can /have adopted have been listed below:

Executive workshops: Companies organise workshops and skill sessions to assess the level of learning and growth employees need. They also study and identify employees who have skills to get a certain set of jobs done with minimum guidance for internal elevation.

Employee survey: To understand the strong and weak points of their employees, companies do annual surveys to gain a more detailed perspective about the skills set of their employees. Such surveys can help employers with valuable suggestions on what can be done better to keep employees motivated.

Upskilling the employees: Set ‘learning time’ for the old employees and help them close the biggest skill gaps that they have and grow.

Reskilling programs at an early stage: Re-skilling programs are important and usually have higher or equal business impact as compared to the investments the firms usually make. Such programs help employees improve performance in key indicators including employee satisfaction.

Work with new teams: Companies should align employees to train in a cohort of employees with similar experience to being a team member and different ways of doing a single task. They should be given enough opportunities to apply their skills and practice while they learn.

Aside from the disruption caused by the epidemic, every company must deal with change, both good and bad. It is inevitable that some people will leave the company for a better future or growth. But on the other hand, employee initiatives can give them a chance to rethink before putting their papers down. And last but not the least, there is only one key to converting “the great resignation” into “the great attraction”- a culture that reflects that people matter.