Plus, your four-part strategy for attracting new talent
As we move out of the pandemic and into a new normal, how people are navigating the changes has become headline news. Much has been written about their state of mind. Are people quietly quitting, sitting back at their desks (or kitchen tables) and taking a salary, while doing the bare minimum?
What about the great resignation; have people re-evaluated their working lives and decided to quit en masse, to retrain, change career, or press pause?
Real world data from WTW suggests that the true story is more nuanced than these headlines suggest.
Let’s start with quiet quitting. At WTW, we run employee listening programmes with employers across the globe and aggregate the data over time. We see no evidence of quiet quitting.
The real challenge employers are facing is huge drops in recruiting and retaining the most talented people and having sufficient employees to handle the workload. Employees want to go the extra mile, but just don’t have the bandwidth.
Employers’ reward programmes also receive lower scores. This is no great surprise; with companies bracing themselves for a recession, many are taking a cautious approach to pay and benefits.
The Great Resignation has had a lot of airtime over last 12-18 months. A more accurate descriptor might be the Great Migration. Globally, more people were hired in 2021 than quit their jobs. People were moving swiftly into new jobs, rather than resigning and re-evaluating.
However, this reframe does not change the difficult situation many employers are facing. We are seeing drops in talent at entry and senior levels. Meanwhile, in the war for talent, employees are in a strong position when it comes to negotiating pay and benefits.
In 2023, the tide could turn. With an economic downturn imminent, employees may opt to stay with their employers, prioritising job security over their desire for a pay rise or a fresh challenge. Only 29% of people are currently looking to move jobs, WTW data shows.1
In the longer term, we suspect talent shortages will continue. People in the younger workforce are less loyal and are prepared to move for pay progression and experience.
The best employers are taking a two-pronged approach, which we call talent offence and talent defence.
If you are focused on anything in these areas, you will get good return on your time.
When it comes to attracting talent in this intensely competitive environment, think about it like a marketeer.
01
What is the critical talent that you need in your business today? Think less about roles, and more about skills.
02
Understand where the talent you need currently sits. Who are your talent competitors? Increasingly, the people you need may not work for your revenue competitors.
03
Know your business’s worth. Formulate a compelling value proposition and articulate that clearly to prospective talent.
04
Despite advances in the field of AI, the best marketing channel remains word of mouth. Leverage your alumni network and use them as a talent pool. Review your leaving experience, taking on board lessons from leaving interviews, for instance. Ensure you part ways with talented leavers on good terms: make it clear that the door would be open if they want to walk back in.
We are all working in challenging times. To thrive as a company, you must take a step back and work out what makes your business unique. Going on the talent offensive will put your business in the best possible position to not just survive, but grow and prosper, in uncertain times. Of course there is also a need to know that where other organisations are going on the offensive, you need to play the defensive game too.
1 2022 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey
