How to Attract and Retain Talent in a World Gone Mad

Jenny Winspear, COO of groundbreaking wellbeing technology Anova, investigates what employees are looking for in a competitive recruitment market.

Working in recruitment can be tough. It can feel never ending. So many companies have ambitions for growth but are caught in a perpetual cycle of more leavers than joiners. 

This is reflective of my own experience pre-pandemic. Now, the challenges are ten-fold, and we are seeing the following trends: 

• The pandemic has prompted many to reassess what they want from their jobs (evidence suggests 41% of UK employees are now considering switching roles)
• There is a misalignment between employers wanting their workers in the office, and recruits wanting to work from home (“yes, we offer some flexible working, no, you can’t work from the Bahamas”)
• An on-going skills shortage
• An employee’s market… this is the result of lots of vacancies meaning recruits have their pick over several jobs, a price war ensues, and then recruiters have to plug all the extra benefits of their organisation to try and compete (“okay well I suppose you might be able to work from the Bahamas as long as you do one year in Jersey first…”)

If this all sounds relatable, it is time to think about your Employee Value Proposition [EVP]. Research by Gartner[1] concluded; “the EVP for the post pandemic workforce must orient toward employees as people, not workers; provide an exceptional life, not work experience; and focus on the feelings, not just the features that match employee needs.” What this means is that people are looking for more than just a good salary. Organisations that are genuinely taking action to understand their people and care about their needs, will therefore have the edge over competitors in attracting and retaining the best talent on the market time and time again. The EVP has become the crucial differentiator in setting organisations apart. 

So, what do we need to do?

With talent gravitating towards organisations that care about their wellbeing, it’s a good idea to start incorporating wellbeing activity into your EVP attraction and retention efforts. Below are a few ideas on where to get started.

1. Invest in resources. The best way to demonstrate that your company values wellbeing is to get some dedicated resources that you can talk to recruits about. A wellbeing committee, budget, or wellbeing tools can help you demonstrate to new potential talent that your company has invested in the wellbeing of employees and cares about listening to the employee voice (but this is only the first step!)
2. Start to measure wellbeing, so that it is easier to manage. Without knowing where employees feel you are falling short, it is a guessing game as to what wellbeing actions you need to take. Confidential employee surveys offer great insight into the requirements of your existing talent and can provide meaningful direction to help you improve wellbeing. 
3. Follow feedback with meaningful action. It is essential to follow any employee survey with meaningful action, and then tell your team about it. You need to demonstrate to your workforce that you take their feedback on board and will put things in place to make things better.
4. Make wellbeing a core value. Wellbeing should be everyone’s responsibility, not just HR. Your leadership teams need to buy in to the practice of good wellbeing and role model it themselves. It should never be just lip service or thought of as a ‘nice-to-have’. By educating your workforce and leaders on the benefits of good wellbeing, including how it affects things like productivity, engagement, and retention, you can work towards embedding wellbeing into the core of your organisational practice and therefore your EVP.

By taking these steps you can not only better attract and retain talent, but also make your organisation a better place to be in a world gone mad. 

If you wish to talk about wellbeing products and services, visit www.myanova.com or contact Jenny at hello@myanova.com