Why money won’t solve your talent retention problems
The Great Resignation has swept across the globe, with a surge of people leaving their jobs in the post-pandemic era.
This was caused by employees being unhappy or unfulfilled in the workplace.
Employers are desperately trying to defend their businesses against this trend, but many are failing to do so because they don’t fully understand their employees’ needs.
While many companies think the best way to retain talent is simply to offer them more money, the new world of work has actually seen employees prioritise remote and hybrid working opportunities over salary.
In fact, even before the pandemic, a survey by specialist hiring company Andrew Sykes and market research firm Atomik Research showed that 14% of workers would be willing to sacrifice 5,000 pounds (R100,448) of their annual salary in exchange for a flexible working schedule.
A further 16% would be willing to forego 500 pounds (R10,044), and 15% would sacrifice their bonus entirely – all just to work from home on certain days.
Sage research has also found that almost 50% of workers want to be more mobile at work, and when you limit the age group to 16-44 years old, this rises to 70%.
Importance of mental health
Employees want hybrid work schedules as they believe it will significantly improve their mental health.
This was echoed by the Harvard Business Review, which found that more employees would choose to stay in their current jobs if their employers showed more concern for their mental health.
Certain business owners, like Phumzile Skosana of Balleo Engineering, are learning this through their own experiences.
“I have learned the hard way that if I’m not in good shape mentally and physically, then my business suffers,” said Skosana.
Flexible working is a great way to help your employees improve their mental health by encouraging a healthy work-life balance.
There is evidence to back this up. For example, Google increased its paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks in 2007, and this resulted in a massive 50% increase in the retention rate of new mothers.
This shows that catering to your employees’ needs is a great way to boost morale and retain valuable talent.
How HR technology helps
Company culture is fundamental to an organisation’s productivity and profitability, employee experience and satisfaction, and workplace stability.
With cloud-based HR management solutions, HR professionals can automate and streamline mundane tasks and handle strategic responsibilities. Used correctly, the resulting employee experience will be worth the time and effort.
Conducting virtual interviews, for example, will go beyond a standard online meeting to become an immersive experience where candidates complete aptitude tests and simulate tasks that form part of the job.
To avoid losing talent, HR professionals should follow these six easy steps
- Watch for signs of churn in your People data and analytics
- Ask employees what they want from their workplace
- Encourage a healthy work-life balance
- Provide plenty of development opportunities
- Benchmark your benefits against other organisations
- Carefully consider your policies around ways of working
Sage empowers your business to make data-driven HR decisions through its powerful range of products that provide you with the ability to capture HR data and use it to improve your HR processes, resulting in superior staff retention.
Click here to find out more about how Sage can help your business.
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