Resources and Context: A Challenging Market
As the
great recruitment challenges posed by Covid have begun to oh-so-slowly recede,
recruiters and hiring managers are facing a new normal that is proving
difficult to navigate. Retention is an
issue for all companies, not just those who are attempting to bring unwilling
remote employees back into the office space.
A vast majority of workers are still reassessing their options and
trying to ensure they are well placed in what has truly become a candidate’s
market. Everyone is being
recruited, and so most the focus of most hiring managers is not just on finding
new talent, they are also struggling with making a compelling case and
providing the right cultural and professional environment to retain the strong
talent they already have.
As a seasoned
recruiter with a decade of experience under my belt, I find every year brings
new opportunities and new challenges.
The past two years have brought more than their share of change, and I
am constantly asked for advice on how to navigate these somewhat choppy
waters. I read about and research this
market constantly to stay vigilant and current with my own recruitment methods,
and I’ve complied a number of resources and articles I have found interesting
and helpful in shaping my current outreach and advice. I’m summarizing key points with links to
entire articles below. Feel free to find
your own particular current challenge and do a deeper dive or simply skim the toplines. Hopefully either path will lead you to
helpful information to guide your way.
The Great Resignation Continues
Nearly
4.3 million people quit their jobs in January, a slight monthly decline but
still near the record level set in November, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
The elevated level in early 2022 comes off a year in which almost 48 million
people quit their jobs, an annual record.
“The
Great Resignation is still in full swing, even if quits are moderating
somewhat,” Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at career site Glassdoor, said in a tweet.
Job
resignations are still up 23% above pre-pandemic levels, he said.
The
takeaway here would be that your recruitment efforts should be
two-pronged: while you look for new
workers for your open roles, make sure you are doing all you can do to keep
current valued employees happy right where they are. These times require renewed efforts at
listening and responding to employee needs and concerns, as statistics say that
nearly one half of all currently employed workers … are thinking about or
looking for a new job elsewhere. Beyond
an inflation-driven quest for higher salaries, employees are looking for
meaning in their roles. They are
interested in diversity and inclusion.
They are worried about the planet.
They seek environments where they can continue to learn and to
grow. Way too many of them are still “on
the move”.
Full
Article: The
Great Resignation shows no sign of slowing down (cnbc.com)
How Historic Was the 2021 Great
Resignation?
The
Bureau of Labor Statistics began to chart and to report the number of US
workers who quit their jobs in December of 2000. The 2021 number of “quits” is 47.8 million
workers, nearly four million workers a month.
See the 20 year history and full chart below:
Interactive Chart: How Historic
Has the Great Resignation Been? (shrm.org)
Renewed Focus on Company Culture and
Retention
Recruiters and HR teams are spread very thinly as they
navigate the Wild West of remote vs hybrid vs in-office employment in what
could also be called The Great Return To Work.
Things that we all took for granted pre-Covid (a safe and healthy work
environment, for one, and reliable schooling and childcare for another) simply
vanished overnight. This left all of us
wondering, at moments, about the very meaning of our lives as we pondered an
existence where so many things were simply out of our control. After the fear of the unknown began to
subside, a changed national psyche (still being dissected and yet to be fully
understood) emerged. What do people now
most want?
One theme is very common.
As a recent Forbes article posits:
“There is a renewed focus on culture and values that puts employee
needs front and center. Workers are expecting more in the way of flexibility,
training and compensation — or they are happy to jump ship to another job.
There’s also still work to be done to unlock certain labor demographics, bring
their talents back to the jobs market and then hold onto them.”
Full Article: The
Three Biggest Staffing Challenges For 2022 (forbes.com)
The Rise of the Empathic Leader
Inc.
recently published a thoughtful piece about the reasons behind The Great
Resignation which resonated with me from the hundreds of candidate interviews
I’ve conducted over the past couple of years.
It seems there are many years when recruitment progresses at a fairly
predictable rate and the challenges that present are understandable and
surmountable. But there are moments in
time (9/11 was one of those, Covid a more recent one) when a monumental shakeup
forces people to rethink their goals. As
people were forced to go home and to stay there, isolating, for large stretches
of time (often while juggling work, children, parents, roommates, or complete
isolation), they had plenty of time to think.
And one of the things they thought about was the environments in which
they had been (and would be again someday) working. Not all those work environments measured up.
From the
article: Bolstering the notion that the unrest is far from
over, YPulse surveyed 1,450 Millennials in mid-December and found
that 29 percent anticipate starting a new job in 2022, with a whopping 81
percent now saying that having a "meaningful career" is
somewhat to very important to them. Employees today, across all age
groups, want to be treated with dignity and respect. They want to be recognized
for their contributions and treated fairly when they fail. They want to feel
like they are part of something bigger than themselves and to work for people
who strive to make their lives better. They are leaving companies in droves
right now in search of these leaders. And they will keep leaving until they
find them.
Many of you already have empathetic and amazing
leaders. Make sure you give them great
internal visibility to existing and returning staff and make sure your recruitment
outreach emphasizes your company’s focus on things that matter.
Full article:
What
the Latest Data Tells Us About the Great Resignation | Inc.com
What’s Next?
One of my new
favorite resources for insight into the experience of employees and employers
is Glassdoor, where they have gotten very adept at drawing insights from a rich
database of millions of employee reviews, salaries, conversations. With all that data, they can help the rest of
us to better understand how employees are feeling and acting. A recent report by Daniel Zhao called
“Glassdoor Workplace Trends for 2022” highlights emerging trends that they are
seeing in a job market and workplace that is undergoing unprecedented
change.
Trend
1: Hiring won’t be easy in 2022
Labor
shortages defined the 2021 job market. As customer demand roared back to life,
employers faced acute hiring challenges as workers trickled back into the labor
force. The increased competition for workers has made it exceptionally
difficult to both hire and retain employees. Employers may be ready to write
off the tight 2021 labor market as a pandemic-era anomaly, but they shouldn’t.
Instead, 2021 should be a template for what to expect in 2022.
Trend
2: Remote work will boost access to top talent, but at a higher price point
While the consequences of a new emphasis on remote
work will take time to play out as remote work spreads, two tangible
implications should start to show up in 2022: First, more employers (especially
in tech) will walk back or reduce location-based pay adjustments as they
compete against other employers for top talent. Second, local employers are
likely to see rising competition for workers in jobs that can be done remotely,
as far-flung employers compete more aggressively for local workers.
Trend 3: Employers will prioritize DE&I
action and accountability
A desire for more transparency is shared by employees and job
seekers. A September 2020 Glassdoor survey shows that
more than 3 in 4 employees and job seekers (76%) report a diverse workforce is
an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. Companies that
don’t invest in DE&I thus risk losing out to competitors—both in terms of
failing to communicate commitments on DE&I to employees and job seekers and
in developing their ability to meaningfully engage in conversations on
solutions. Ultimately, company investments in DE&I efforts are both a
social good and a critical part of a company’s workforce management strategy—a
particularly salient consideration at a time when finding and retaining talent
is so difficult.
Trend 4: Workplace community will expand beyond
company walls
The employee-employer bond has intensified over the
last decade. Employers increasingly compete for talent by emphasizing employee
engagement and workplace experience. The pandemic, however, has made staying
connected with increasingly dispersed coworkers and peers more difficult. Many
companies previously leaned on the physical office to facilitate this sense of
community, offering attractive in-office perks. But what employees miss now is
not the office. At a time when the flexibility offered by remote work is
valuable for employees, maintaining and enhancing employee connection and
community requires special attention from employers.