The full employment labor market has cemented attraction and retention of employees as a critical strategic imperative. Leaders are paying greater attention to the key drivers of what makes people join and stay in organizations.
We mostly all want the same things from our work environments and our employers. Study after study backs up the findings on the work priorities of recent entrants to the workforce.
I have created the Employee Sustainability Model©, which illustrates what is most important in sustaining employees through the entire employee life cycle.
We all want:
To be kept informed. Effective communication from leaders on the organization’s purpose, goals, priorities and values, including effective onboarding and training, are just some of the ways we look to leaders to keep us in the know and equip us to be successful in our roles.
To be recognized. This includes not only competitive compensation but also quality feedback and equal opportunity to be recognized for our contributions.
To be involved. Employee engagement is directly linked to how involved employees feel in the company. Increased involvement will increase engagement.
To have opportunity for growth. This is particularly important to the more recent demographic of entrants into the workplace. However, learning new skills and having the opportunity for career growth is key to the retention and engagement with most employees.
To be connected. Connection not only to the purpose of the organization, but also to supervisors, teammates and the workplace community at large is the secret “sauce” that keeps employees in place even if some of the other areas are weak.
If you, as leaders, focus your practice in these key areas, you will undoubtedly attract and retain employees more successfully. Additionally, the more your organization can communicate and reinforce the quality of the employee experience and showcase the opportunity for skill development, the higher your chances of meeting your attraction goals.
These certainly are challenging times to attract top talent. However, if you redouble your efforts on delivering what employees want, work to upskill and develop team talent and consider redesigning or retargeting your recruitment efforts to focus on workers who are available, over time you will see quality results.