Post-pandemic Talent Exodus: How to Retain Your Top Talent

30th August 2021

According to Personio, 38% of UK office workers have said that they would like to change their jobs in 2021.

According to the Korn Ferry Talent Crunch by 2030 there will be a large-scale talent shortage in the finance and business services; technology, media and telecommunications (TMT); and manufacturing industries worldwide. India is the only country projected to have a talent surplus.

Additionally, the UK could lose up to £20bn in the technology, media and telecommunications sector alone by 2030 due to a disconnect between talent demand and supply.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult for businesses to recruit and retain top talent than ever before. This article will give some pointers on how you can avoid losing your best employees.

The Factors Affecting Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the way people work.

For example, being forced to stay at home for an extended period of time has arguably accelerated the rate at which home and remote working is adopted.

The pandemic has caused many people to rethink many aspects of their lives, including work.

One aspect of this was commuting. Before the pandemic, it was fairly normal to experience stressful commutes to work on sometimes heavily strained transport networks. In fact, the Royal Society of Public Health states that over half of UK commuters say that their daily commute increases their stress levels.

The average daily commute time for UK workers was 59 minutes according to the TUC. This was approximately 5 minutes longer on average than in 2008.

Working remotely helps to eliminate this problem, therefore it’s likely that more employees will now demand to at least have a flexible working arrangement if not being completely remote.

Health, naturally, is another factor that has been more prominent in people’s minds, even before the pandemic. There’s now a push to see employers take the health and wellbeing of their employees more seriously. Mental health in particular is something that has been focused on more due to the psychological effects of the pandemic, e.g. being stuck indoors, unable to exercise, unable to socialise, etc.

If you’re reading this you can probably relate to either if not both of these. The majority of people that either own a business or work in one will rely on the fitness of their mind as well as their body as they are both intrinsically interlinked.

Retaining Top Talent Best Practices

There are a variety of methods of retaining talent.

Individual, empathetic check-ins

It’s no longer just enough to apply a ‘copy and paste’ method to communicating individually with employees. There has to be consideration to the employees and their respective circumstances. Employees need to feel like they are being heard and that they are a part of something.

Not having regular check-ins, or at least having the option to reach out and have their voice heard can be detrimental to the morale of employees. This can mean that small issues, that can end up being large, could be missed resulting in a higher turnover percentage.

Be flexible

Flexibility in the way we work has increased over time. The better technology becomes the easier it is to implement, and it’s become extremely effective in the past couple of years, and will continue to improve. Mental health was already an increasingly important topic in society as a whole. The pandemic has only enhanced the spotlight on the health of the thing that powers our bodies. It’s now possible to check in on someone virtually, as well as that person being able to reach out for help virtually.

Also, flexibility and technology have enabled employees to get ‘in office benefits’ whilst working remotely e.g. having small conversations throughout the day, networking, getting advice from colleagues and managers. This helps to level the playing field for those who work from home/remotely and those who are in a physical office.

Overall, this reduces the excuses that some employers have for not at least looking into flexible working arrangements.

One thing that is sometimes misunderstood is that not everyone likes to do it all the time, but everyone likes the option to be available if they need it.

Flexible working arrangements is something that employers will have to focus on in order to recruit and retain top talent.

Offer pragmatic benefits

Things like ping pong tables, games consoles, and Friday evening drinks are no longer adequate benefits. Employees now want something that can actually benefit their lives holistically, not just something that looks nice. Things such as:

• Flexible working
• Healthcare
• Unlimited annual leave
• Employee engagement solutions, such as ours

These and other benefits are now far better options to choose from.

People want their employer to make their lives easier, much more so than potentially having fun once a week playing a game or drinking alcohol.

Genuine inclusivity

We’ve come a long way as a society with regards to being inclusive and reducing discrimination, which is great to see. Unfortunately, as recent events have shown across the world, we still have a long way to go.

Employers can no longer sit on the fence when it comes to social issues. As well as taking a stand externally, employees will want to see things improve internally with regards to ensuring that equality and fair treatment is something that is ingrained into the culture.

Environmental responsibility

The condition of the earth’s climate and how some of our behaviour has affected it is getting harder to ignore. There is now more pressure from employees to make sure that at the bare minimum their employers don’t do anything to worsen the situation. At best, they want their employer to take decisive action and contribute to feasible solutions. Even starting with small initiatives can go a long way in the eyes of your employees.

Recruit and Retain Your Best Employees

An employee engagement platform can help you to recruit and retain top talent throughout the pandemic period and beyond. With our platform, you can enable your employees to voice concerns, give feedback and communicate with each other better. This will help you to create and maintain a welcoming, productive working environment, which can contribute to positive financial results.

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