The Not So ‘Great Resignation’ and Recruitment Solutions

Recruitment is one of the most crucial processes that a company must undertake efficiently. However, it is not an easy task to attract and or yet choose the best candidates for the role. You might wonder about the recruitment solutions for your company and whether they need to evolve. This article will help you in this regard.

 

In this article, we discussed the ‘Great Resignation’ and outlined crucial steps of the recruitment process, as well as some other information that might be helpful for you.

 

The Great Resignation – Oversensationalised or not

The Great Resignation is an economic phenomenon that began in 2021, predominantly in the U.S., wherein employees willingly left their jobs in massive numbers. This topic is of more relevance for the U.S. and UK, however, is it oversensationalised in Australia? We think it has and here is why – the latest data leading up to February 2021 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, do not indicate a great resignation but a downward trend in the proportion of people switching jobs with a low of 7.6 percent as illustrated by the graph below.

 

 

The Australian job market and its individual conditions are different from these of the U.S. and UK and the nuances do not lead to a like for like comparison. Sure, there have been some significant turnover in some industries but there are also more jobs than pre-pandemic times and fewer international workers within the Australian labour workforce. These changes have led to a job market that is favorable to job seekers and increased the options available for them.

 

Whilst it would be misguided to rush out and make drastic changes to your HR plan, there is however an opportunity to acknowledge that employee attitudes have been shifting since the pandemic and that work needs to be undertaken on employee value propositions, workplace culture, and leadership development. Incremental emphasis needs to be placed on how to better the whole employee experience instead of focusing on aspects of the employee value proposition such as attraction and onboarding solely.

 

Furthermore, companies cannot afford to ignore that these changes have been occurring for some time now and that their efforts need to evolve with the labour market in order to stay relevant with the times.

 

Another reason why we think that the ‘Great Resignation’ is oversensationalized at this point in time in Australia is based on the Gartner Global Market Survey which indicates that on a net balance we are observing a similar percentage of employees actively/passively looking for new roles as illustrated by the table below.

 

 

Whilst there were several reasons behind the great resignation in the U.S. and the UK, the major contributing factors have been low salaries, limited career opportunities, and lack of appreciation by management. Burnout has no doubt also fueled the ‘Great Resignation’ to a considerable extent. However, other factors such as the transition to work-from-home and the ambition to transfer towards a more secure job have also played a role.

 

Moreover, toxic company culture plays a significant role in turnover. Typically, companies that have a good company culture benefit from higher job satisfaction and in turn have a greater chance at retention.

 

Aside from the above reasons, a lack of effective pandemic measures is also a major factor in the widespread resignation. Analysing these trends and implementing strategies to counter them, can aid us to get out ahead of them.

 

Recruitment Solutions for Staff Shortages

The war for talent is well and alive, and it is crucial that employers present themselves as attractive propositions to prospective candidates. After all, recruitment is not only an assessment of the candidate’s suitability for the role and culture; the candidates are also assessing the organisation for fit. Should the ‘Great Resignation’ eventuate later in 2022, some of the recruitment steps below will prove helpful when partnered with digital platforms.

 

1. Start with the end in mind

First and foremost, it is important to establish what skills and experience you are looking for as part of the recruitment process. From there you need to create a link to what your ideal candidates are looking for as well. There needs to be a connection between what you want and what your candidates also want. Your job advertisement then needs to be reflective of that, after all in many cases this will be the first time some candidates have heard of your organisation, and you need to capture their attention and keep it in order to receive an application. It is also a good idea to figure out what are the essentials versus the nice-to-have, in order to keep the advertisement succinct.

 

2. Highlight the why

Explain why candidates would want to work for your company. Sounds simple enough, but this is often overlooked or not well articulated to entice prospective candidates. Reflect on what would make a candidate apply and incorporate it in your why. For example, some candidates want flexible working practices, learning and development opportunities, job security, autonomy, whereas others might place a higher intrinsic value on diversity and inclusion. Ensure you convey these key benefits in a succinct and attention-catching way.

 

3. Branding is key

Building on the other two points, branding is key, as prospective employees associate with companies that share a common value or vision and mission. Explain what you do that goes well beyond the bottom line, and how it extends to inclusion, wellbeing, environmental and social agendas. Also, knowing your audience and how to communicate with them is helpful. For example, casual language might be the preference within certain industries or roles but that’s not always the case, so tailor your tone of voice to suit your audience.

 

4. Explore potential

Having established essentials versus nice-to-have in step 1, you might be able to consider candidates that demonstrate potential if you find yourself in a talent short market. Recruit based on the absolute essentials but explore whether there is an aptitude to be trained in the nice-to-have. Equipped with an appropriate training and development strategy, new team members can flourish and grow into the role but be sure to thoroughly explore their aptitude to learn new skills and put them into practice.

 

5. Remuneration and benefits

There are conflicting views on whether remuneration and benefits should be advertised on job boards. Most prefer to advertise within a range and leave the actual salary range out of sight due to fear of current employees coming across that information. It is however worth noting that according to Toggl, including a monetary salary attracts 30% more applications.

 

6. Be proactive – Headhunt

Considering that the Australian labour market is largely a passive job-seeking market with 25-30% engaging in active job searching activities according to HRM online, it is critical that you take some proactive steps to recruitment and not rely on just job posting. Headhunting should account for a significant amount of your recruitment efforts and you should engage with prospective candidates to increase your potential talent pool. As an example, utilise different digital platforms such as LinkedIn talent and SEEK talent search to expand your headhunting capabilities. There are numerous other digital platforms that might be relevant depending on your industry and role.

 

The bottom line

Whilst we are of the opinion that we haven’t experienced the effects of the ‘Great Resignation’ to the extent observed in the U.S. and UK, it is worthwhile ensuring that you are prepared for staff shortages irrespective of your industry as employees that were thinking of resigning in 2020 or 2021 might well still decide to do so soon, as that the market is primed for job seekers.

 

At HR Expertise, we provide different recruitment solutions to help businesses throughout the recruitment process. We work with the clients from beginning to end, providing a robust recruitment solution. We use various recruitment tactics and marketing channels to locate and entice the best and most competent candidates for the position. So, if you are planning to recruit, don’t forget to contact HR Expertise. We would love to work with you.