Are You Making the Most of Your Talent Pool? Three Strategies that Can Help

The first quarter of 2023 has been defined by companies seeking to tighten their belt, reign in spending and evaluate personnel numbers. Mark Zuckerberg is an example of a business leader making these changes boldly, touting the ‘year of efficiency’ amid massive layoffs at Meta. He’s not alone. Companies in a variety of industries have been letting employees go by the thousands, and data shows we can expect more of the same this year.

Don’t let the gloom-and-doom headlines fool you. A quick evaluation of the job market shows there are still more jobs to be found than there are people looking. That means we’re still in a job-seeker market, where potential employees hold the upper hand. While the market isn’t as desperate as it was for talent a few years ago, there are still enough opportunities available, allowing individuals to feel they can be selective. Salary and job security still rank at the top of any list of would-be employee preferences, but they no longer stand alone. Employees also want a strong work-life balance, an environment where they can thrive, and a culture of diversity and inclusion.

With resources stretched more than ever, companies need to be strategic about talent acquisition and retention. Not only are organizations cutting out the kinds of extraneous perks previously used to lure new talent, but the high cost of finding new talent, interviewing, onboarding, and training them is proving highly prohibitive, especially when an employee doesn’t stay with the company for long.

For these reasons, it’s become business critical to consider how you are seeking and selecting talent and how you are utilizing your team within your organization. It’s a fine balance between optimizing each position in your company and overburdening those positions, and employees are pushing back. While the rush of ‘quiet quitting’ may be taking a backseat, the principles behind it are alive and well, so much so that even the US Surgeon General’s Office issued a framework for encouraging better communication between employees and managers and respecting boundaries between work and personal life.

So how do companies balance the realities of this complex labor environment to bring in new talent and keep employees happy without taxing their bottom lines? Here are a few suggestions:

Prioritize different skills

The skills gap – or the difference between what skills a company needs and what skills an employee possesses – continues to widen. Eighty-seven percent of organizations around the world say they are already experiencing this skills gap, or they expect to within the next couple of years. Technology is, once again, widening the gap. This time it’s artificial intelligence and other workplace automation technology creating the chasm.

Meanwhile, nearly 40% of jobseekers believe employers have unrealistic or overly specific requirements, causing many to not apply for the job at all, or, for those that do, a belief that they are overlooked before they even have a chance to make their case.

While certain ‘hard’ skills are simply a requirement of the job, in today’s labor market companies must think about the value of what have been traditionally considered ‘soft’ skills – a person’s attitude, personality traits and behaviors that help determine if they are a strong fit within the culture of the organization. The ability to lead a team, communicate effectively to both managers and subordinates, adapt quickly, demonstrate creativity and handle stressful situations well are skills that may prove far more valuable. Many hard skills can be taught – some soft skills are simply intrinsic to an individual. Seeking out the soft skills that your organization most needs may prove to be far more beneficial in the long run.

Speaking of skills…

Employees today are looking for ways to expand their careers and expertise. In fact, 77% of workers say they are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain, and they are comfortable quitting and finding a new job if their current position is not affording them those opportunities.  

This is why it’s imperative for companies to give employees the chance to upskill. According to recent data from Deloitte, only 34% of workers feel supported by their organization’s skill development opportunities.

Companies can be pivotal in helping employees to either upskill or reskill, to the benefit of their own organization. Though technology is often considered detrimental to humans as it becomes sophisticated enough to do their jobs for them, what is often overlooked is how technology enables humans to be more strategic in their own jobs and cultivate higher level skills. Technology also makes it possible (and often cost effective) for employers to invest in upskilling and/or reskilling programs. These not only benefit the organization by creating a workforce with new and varied skills, they empower employees to feel as though they are future-proofing their careers. When employees feel satisfied, they often deliver greater productivity and demonstrate increased loyalty. 

Find flexibility in tracking progress

Following the pandemic and the increase in individuals working from home, companies started to grow concerned about productivity, in some cases seeking out rigid rules for tracking employee productivity that felt more ‘big brother’ than ‘big support.’ While productivity is always going to be important, a study found that 86% of employees prefer to work for an organization that rewards outcomes over outputs. 

Employees value collaboration in determining what looks like success for their department and their individual role. There are a number of ways of tracking productivity—ROI, KPIs, OKRs, etc.—and each serve a purpose. However, these metrics often don’t tell the full story and relying too heavily on them can create frustration and dissatisfaction among your team.

One of the benefits we hear often from clients that use StrategyBlocks is how valuable the visibility of the platform is for seeing how metrics are coming along. Getting a real-time, visual-based snapshot of how various initiatives and strategies are coming together provides valuable feedback for employees and managers alike. It also opens the door to making adjustments that are more realistic and to recognizing hard work along the way. Employees want to feel valued, and prioritizing outcomes over output can be a way that rewards a variety of work styles.

How you attract and retain team members is a highly strategic undertaking and one that must be reevaluated in light of today’s shifting job climate. Consider the value that each individual team member plays and how their personal strengths can be leveraged to support both their own career growth and the success of the company. Tightening budgets creates a lot of worry among employees, but if you effectively communicate and leverage the strengths of your team, you can weather market changes and build long lasting loyalty.