During the pandemic, employees between the age group of 30 and 45 had an increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20%. However, it was the reverse for employees in the age group of 20 and 25 as well as 60 and 70.
The difficulty of onboarding new employees through the conventional means of physical training and guidance holds a significant risk factor for companies in this now highly remote working world culture. As a result, it creates a higher demand for mid-career employees and thus provides them greater leverage in securing new roles.
Secondly, many of them have delayed their career transitions due to uncertainty led by the pandemic. This led to much experiencing burnout in some form due to the unusually high workloads dependence, frozen recruitments, and other pressures leading them to reconsider their life priorities. According to Harvard Business Review, compared to the manufacturing and finance industry, there are 3.6% more health care employees who resigned than the last year, and in the technology industry, resignations increased by 4.5%. It is evident for health care and tech employees as they experience higher work demands.
Here we identify the possible four talent predictions in 2022.
1) Employers that provide the most flexibility will win.
A recent study from Manpower Group Solutions found that about 40% of international job candidates stated that schedule flexibility is one of their top three priorities in career decisions. It shows that companies must include workplace flexibility to attract and develop skilled talent.
Workplace flexibility covers working remotely and different types of working arrangements, such as taking breaks, working from home, or caregiving leave. Although not every company can afford to provide all options, it is essential to offer a variety that attracts the talent they are looking for.
This shows in a study from ManpowerGroup Solutions that 26% of the employees find that flexible arrival and departure times are the most important, followed by 22% who can work from home, or anywhere they choose. Flexible scheduling enables employees to work days different from the typical work schedule, such as from 9 to 5. This is attractive to the result-oriented employees with high performance at work, as it allows them to attend to personal matters after completing their tasks or projects.
This goes a long way of showing empathy from the employers to their employees with the new complexity of family circumstances such as child and elderly care as well as occasional illness support.
2) Skills will be in the spotlight.
“Where did you work previously? Which university did you attend? – these are some of the questions that Human Resources (HR) generally ask the candidates previously. However, there is a shift where HR focuses on the skills instead of the roles or jobs. It benefits the employees who continuously upskill or reskill themselves, making them more mobile and employable. Also, it makes their career journey more unique as it emphasises their portfolio of skills instead of the typical corporate ladder.
3) Internal mobility as part of talent management
According to Gartner research, almost two-thirds of HR leaders anticipate a noticeable increase of leadership roles to change within the next five years, and one-third of them cannot forecast how the roles will change. Only 27% of them possess the leaders they require for the future. It illustrates the need of creating agile succession processes which can better adapt to changing leadership skills and roles.
If companies consider that internal mobility depends on having “ready-now” talent, it’s only achievable with an effective career development plan in place. Thus, HR must create an action plan in which employees are aware of future upskilling or reskilling opportunities which allows them to choose, engage and be involved in to be future-ready. Also, leaders must conduct transparent conversations about the business changes and share the growth opportunities available to the employees. Utilising active listening skills and dialogue to understand what keeps employees engaged and within the companies through the planning. New responsibilities and special projects can be an investment in these ambitious employees who are eager for continuous growth and learning.
Ultimately, a well-designed succession plan allows companies to prepare the business for the future while providing development opportunities to retain the high achievers with great potential. Also, it is more affordable to recruit internally, especially for senior leadership roles in companies.
4) Enhancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
A recent Gartner research shows that 35% of HR leaders plan to prioritise DEI this year. On the other hand, Deloitte stated that an inclusive workplace has an easier time hiring millennials who are the group leading the Great Resignation. Thus, HR leaders need to identify the scope of their retention issue by conducting a detailed analysis to determine the actual cause of resignations.
HR can begin with exploring metrics such as compensation, promotion intervals, salary increments, tenure, performance, and upskilling opportunities which helps identify trends and blind spots within the companies. HR can also categorise the workforce by location, function and other demographics to better understand how work experience, as well as retention rates, vary across particular workforce segments.
A DEI-focused approach may be considered once HR discovers that a particular employee level has a higher turnover rate than others. If the gap between promotions correlates with high resignation rates, HR should reconsider its advancement policies. However, more importantly, HR should adopt data-driven retention strategies to track and analyse metrics that will inform the retention efforts.
Once HR understands the root causes of high turnover rates, they will be able to attract top talent, reduce turnover costs, and eventually build a more engaged workforce as well as an environment with increased productivity.
With the above mentioned forecasted talent trends, we hope HR will be able to address the challenges ahead more effectively. For more information on how you can bring out the best from your people during the Great Reshuffle, reach out to our expert team at learn@leaderonomics.com, to help bring you a greater improvement to your company.
References
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Gartner 2021, Succession Planning Steps & Strategy, viewed 10 Jan 2022, <https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/insights/succession-planning>.
Ian Cook 2021, Who Is Driving the Great Resignation? viewed 10 Jan 2022, <https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation>.
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