WHY YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON RETENTION IN 2021
This year we believe that focusing efforts on turnover and retention is a great strategic move as we enter the post-pandemic hiring phase. We are already seeing a heightened awareness and focus on retention strategies as companies experience an accelerated level of turnover in 2021.
Many candidates say that 2020 made them reevaluate their careers. So, let us step back for a moment and just look at some of the contributing factors that may be setting up a record year of turnover. Much has been written about the many candidates that had to make key decisions and put their careers on hold or press the pause button in 2020 and even into 2021. This really hit two-income family units with kids really hard. The closure of schools and childcare facilities forced them to make tough choices just to get through 2020.
Now that we are seeing an emergence from the pandemic, these family members are starting to look for career opportunities again. Add to that some extraordinary reasons for stable people just resigning and citing a change in career direction but nearly all the reasons have linkage back to what happened in 2020.
The impact on younger candidates cannot be dismissed since many fall into a category of still having student loan debt, we’re just ramping up their earnings only to see a job disappear overnight as companies quickly cut hours or eliminate jobs in big swaths in response to the pandemic. This has had the opposite effect of encouraging loyalty, in fact, many have an even more skeptical view of the workplace going forward.
TURNOVER TSUNAMI - SECOND HALF OF 2021 OR SOONER?
Will there be a Turnover Tsunami like I wrote about last month? I believe that answer is yes, in fact, here is some front-line chatter that we are hearing in our offices across the country. Our office is an affiliate of a network of 300+ MRINETWORK recruiting offices. In addition, I also participate in two recruiting performance groups. What we are seeing, and hearing is nearly universal across our network; our offices are seeing an acceleration in candidate activity leading to a higher than usual client hiring activity.
CANDIDATE DRIVEN MARKET
In fact, the consensus view is that it appears the remainder of 2021 will be a strong candidate-driven market. This means companies will generally not be in the driver’s seat with recruiting and the focus on retention makes sense. Your top employees will be getting outreach and inquiries from internal and 3rd party recruiters like never before. Since my job entails sourcing top talent and finding the elusive or so-called passive candidate every day, I believe I have a front-line perspective to share.
Here are some live examples of recent unusual turnover reasons given to our offices by clients:
Office Operations Manager - resigned wants to travel the U.S. and tour the country while young, Covid made them rethink their priorities. The candidate was performing well, well placed, and with a bright future.
Warehouse Manager - retiring early, Covid was the reason.
District Manager - worked their way up to an amazing job and level, had to stay home take care of kids, ready now to restart their career track. Unemployed and starting over.
VP Operations - resigning and retiring early at 62 rethinking due to Covid.
CFO - retired early was planned in a few years - cited Covid for rethinking their future.
In one of the emails to clients in early 2021 we provided a whitepaper brief titled 21 HIRING TIPS FOR 2021 In this article, we talked about how this year would have market conditions that would create fierce competition for talent.
Here is one of the tips expanded and how companies could center activities around retention in 2021 and beyond.
PRIORITIZE RETENTION
As the company leader and President making recruitment and retention, a top priority in the company will send a clear message from the top. Here are few ways you can easily do this:
Meetings: Place people and staffing on every meeting agenda and discuss it.
Measurement: Measure your turnover rate. If you need help with developing a turnover rate please visit our website and our blog titled PEOPLE METRICS THAT MATTER which provides an overview with a simple formula to measure turnover.
Time to Fill: Fill those empty seats quickly. Another area to focus on includes another metric many owners or leaders may have overlooked until recently. When turnover does occur, there should be a heightened awareness of shortening the “time to fill” time period. By filling that position quickly your company will avert or minimize any impact on top-line sales.
Onboarding: Develop a great onboarding process. Monitor the new hires and assign a mentor. Statistics show that the first two weeks of a new employee's onboarding experience can make or break a new hire. If done well the onboarding process will cement the relationship and the new hire will bond with the people that made them feel welcome. Candidates left to drift and with no focused training process have a 70% higher chance of turning over within one year.
INOCULATE YOUR COMPANY FROM TALENT HUNTERS & RECRUITERS.
When I speak to a candidate for the very first time I can always tell when someone is working for an amazing servant leader Owner, DM, VP, or decision-maker. The smart and strategic executive will always listen to my pitch. I will quickly get a response like “you know I am really glad you called me and I am always open to conversation, however, I am very happy with where I’m at right now. When I drill down further and ask a few more questions I’ll hear more about the Owner or Executive that is leading the company and it becomes obvious that this person (this candidate) is “in the know” and passionate about the company and their leader. In other words, great leadership and vision is your inoculation against talent hunters.
By focusing some attention quickly on prioritizing retention can potentially help you minimize the impact and avert any lost sales revenue from empty seats in 2021.
Want more hiring tips?
Bill O’Malley is President of Connector Team Recruiting a firm headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia specializing in the Furniture | Appliance and Sleep verticals. Connector Team is an affiliate office of MRINETWORK, Philadelphia, PA. Connector Team is a full service Search Firm offering permanent placement recruiting and interim staffing solutions.
Feel free to contact Bill at bill@connectorteamrecruiting.com.