Nurturing the talent in a changing recruitment market

The last few years have been a complex time for both individuals and businesses alike. Some individuals have found the pandemic a time to reflect and refocus giving them new opportunities and goals,?others have been met with unimaginable struggles. The same goes for most businesses,?for some crisis has brought opportunity and for others, it has brought hardship.

One significant area of business that has been in turmoil is recruitment. No one could have predicted the series of events?that have?occurred over the last few years, and certainly, no one could have predicted the impact on recruitment following Brexit,?covid and Ukraine. These three factors in particular?have all led to a significant lack of available talent in the recruitment market. But beyond that, they have also caused a shift in the attitudes of those looking for new roles.

Where once it was the job of the potential candidate to sell themselves to the business or interviewer, the roles have now been reserved with many businesses having to market themselves to potential candidates.?

People are no longer simply looking for any old job as long as it pays the bills.?More and more,?we are seeing people looking for a job?that?fulfils them. It is not enough in today’s job market to be a nice company with a decent salary or career progression on offer. Businesses now need to demonstrate how they can support their employees to have a well-balanced and fulfilled working life. People now want more than a good career and a decent salary:?they want to fit in and belong. They want to find an employer who matches their values and helps them to develop both personally and professionally. They are standing up for what they want:?to be listened to, have a purpose, and be nourished mentally.

Why is it important to ensure your employees are fulfilled and content??

I think most businesses would agree that their employees are their greatest asset. It is an old business adage, but it is true that for most businesses things would grind to a halt without their employees, particularly those long-term employees who have grown with the business.?

Employees don’t simply work within a business.?Their drive and passion push the business to grow, their attitude and pride in their work sets?the business up for success and quality, and their ideas help shape the future of the business. The knowledge base held by employees keeps?businesses running,?especially during times of crisis and change as we have seen over recent years. But all of this only works if employees are motivated, supported and encouraged. If employees become demotivated,?the business can become fragile and is more likely to face hardship in times of crisis and change.?

Keeping employees motivated isn’t as?simple as giving them incentives and hoping for the best.??You need to listen to your team and to individual employees to best understand what motivates them and what actions can cause demotivation. From this, you can develop strategies to better support your whole team and reduce staff turnover.?

I was recently working with a client who was employed by a blue-chip company. Their position was in HR and they ran a team responsible for employee engagement. The company allocated money each month to motivate the staff with incentives:?fun days and so on.?

Despite the engagement team advising management that some of the decisions they were making were demotivational, the directors continued with their strategy. The result was a huge turnover in staff and two of the key engagement team leaving, one being my client.

Rather than listening and finding out how they could better support the team on a personalised basis, they continued to ignore clear requests from the team. By cutting corners and not understanding what the issues were,?the cost to the business was huge.?

According to research by Oxford Economics and Unum, the average cost of turnover per employee (earning ï¿¡25,000 a year or more) is ï¿¡30,614.

Consider some of your key employees;?if they left,?what costs would your business incur????????????There are advertising costs, onboarding costs, and the loss of productivity, to name just a few factors. Yes, you can try to shop around for cheaper advertising or agency costs,?but the rest will remain the same.

The most cost-effective way to reduce the cost of staff turnover is to make sure your valued or long-term staff don’t leave. To do this,?you need to understand how best to motivate them and how to spot issues before they develop into big problems. It is unusual for a long-term employee to leave a business they are loyal to without a significant loss of trust or a level of disenfranchisement which has been built over a long period. So, by learning to spot issues early you can adapt your processes to avoid demotivation and reduce staff turnover.?

Not all employees want to same things – different parts of the big picture

We are all motivated by different factors and we all value different forms of reward or incentive differently. This can mean that what motivates one employee will have little or no impact on another. We also all want different things from our roles.?Therefore,?as an employer,?the best thing you can do is to take the time to learn what each employee wants from their role and to understand what motivates each employee. Then,?where possible,?you need to ensure that?each?one is getting the nourishment from their role that they need to thrive.

There are lots of motivation models and tools available;?however, one of the simplest ways to better understand the motivations of your employees is to have them complete a Motivational Map??A Motivational Map??is an ISO accredited tool that gives a clear picture of not just what motivates your staff, but?also?how well they are currently motivated and strategies to help you increase their motivation. We would recommend completing a map for each employee.

Then,?the manager should work with the employees to create a team map which can give you, as the employer, a helicopter view of the whole team. This can help you to consider what is happening currently within the team and where there is the potential for conflict to fester.?It is also a great tool for succession planning,?which can further reduce business recruitment costs in the future.?

If you would like to find out how Motivational Maps??can help your organisation, then please contact me and I will go through one of the case studies

https://linktr.ee/WendiMclean

https://calendly.com/wendimclean-/discovery-call