Many companies may feel that employee retention and recruitment efforts are becoming increasingly difficult. What is it that employees want in 2022, and how do you find and recruit the best talent available? These are questions that are not as simple as they used to be to answer.
People’s expectations and motivations for working have drastically changed over the last few years, and not just because of the pandemic. This means keeping hold of the best talent is becoming a bigger challenge, whilst recruiting new talent that is just as skilled is not straightforward.
At Ventrica, we know that the customer experience (CX) is highly impacted when the employee experience (EX) is not the best it can be. We work with global brands helping to improve CX and provide BPO services that ensure that if recruitment is an issue, we can help with our extensive resources. If brands struggle to hire the best talent, they will struggle to offer the best service. The reason many employees worldwide are joining the ‘great resignation’ is that their values have evolved, and many companies are struggling to keep up.
If a company can no longer offer what employees are seeking when it comes to their careers, the knock-on effect through their business will start to become very apparent. The relationship between the customer experience and recruitment is delicate, so how do brands turn the tide to balance retention and recruitment to ensure CX is not impacted?
Challenges Recruiters Face
Finding and successfully hiring the best talent has never been a given, so recruiters know that continuing to do so in the current climate post-pandemic has made this more challenging. With 2020 pushing companies to provide remote working opportunities due to ongoing public health concerns, those that have now requested workers to return to offices may have discovered an issue – many people enjoyed the freedom remote work gave them and want to continue doing so. This along with other issues has created many challenges.
Remote/Hybrid Work – Many people are seeking remote or at least hybrid roles that provide flexibility, helping improve their work-life balance. A reported 58% of employees want to continue to be full-time remote workers, whilst 39% want a hybrid environment. This means recruiters looking to fill office-based roles without this flexibility will struggle.
Skills shortage – The skills gap is also becoming apparent, with recruiters struggling to find the talent they need. Post-pandemic, many people have considered a change of direction and moving into a different career outside of their current field, with a reported 85% of job seekers looking for a big change .This could mean previously talented individuals leaving your brand’s field of work completely to experience something new and more aligned with their needs. 29% of recruiters agree the skills gap has increased compared to a year ago, but 70% are willing to train the right candidate to counter this.
Higher wages – many jobseekers now are motivated by finding higher-paid roles, even if they have recently moved jobs. According to Indeed, as many as 60% of employees are still actively looking for a new job even after having changed jobs twice in the last 19 months, with 49% of those doing so because they want more money.
Aligned brand values – employees want to know that a company’s brand values are aligned with their own and that they take corporate social responsibility seriously. If jobseekers cannot match with a brand in this way, it will influence whether they want to apply for the role. 56% of jobseekers would not consider a job at a company if they did not agree with their values.
Customer Experience and Recruitment – The Impact
Recruitment can influence the customer experience in two ways; not having enough staff to maintain and fulfil a better CX, and hiring staff that are not the right fit for your company. It can be a double-edged sword, as while recruiters want to fill positions to address staff shortages, if they do so with the wrong candidates, it will only add to higher turnover and poor customer experiences. As much as 80% of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions, not matching the right candidate with the right role, so getting this right will save time and resources.
It will also ensure your customers continue to receive the best service possible from engaged employees that are settled in their roles. Companies with actively engaged employees report customer loyalty rates that are 233% higher than those with disengaged staff so ensuring that your CX can continuously be delivered to a high standard despite any ongoing recruitment issues is vital.
What Can Brands Do to Improve Recruitment?
There is plenty that brands can do to ensure they can hire quickly and find the right candidates in the current climate, and having a ‘human’ approach will do wonders for showing jobseekers, and also your current employees, you care about their needs.
Offer Flexibility – look into ways you can accommodate the flexibility needs of jobseekers, whether they want a remote-only role or will consider a hybrid position. This will help to attract more applications and improve interest in a role.
Promote Company Benefits – brands should be showing jobseekers the advantages of working for them, so the best way to do so is to showcase what you can provide alongside compensation details.This will help to improve the attractiveness of the role and make it easier for candidates to compare job postings before applying.
Reassess Skills You Need – if you are looking for a specific skillset for a role, consider broadening your search by looking for transferable skills. There could be many more suitable candidates that have skills very close to what you are looking for, so with further training, they could be exactly the right fit.
Provide career development – if there is no clear path for new employees to progress in their careers, they may quickly move on. This means jobseekers are seeking the same, so by clearly showing them what career development looks like at your company, they will be more encouraged to apply and feel you are the right fit for them.
Promote from Within – many companies may already have the right talent with transferable skills in other roles. By considering existing employees and whether they can successfully change roles, you will save time and resources that can go into their development.
Diversity and Inclusion – showing potential new staff your brand values and ensuring this is a crucial part of the process can no longer be an afterthought. Candidates want to know about your diversity and inclusion initiatives and understand your company’s position on social responsibility. Highlighting this for them to see is the best way forward for transparency and credibility.
