Today more than ever, employees are asking themselves if the work they are doing matters. Questions such as, is it worth putting up with a boss that is miserable to work with? Is it worth not being there when my kids get back from school? And is the commute to work really worth my time? are being asked by disengaged employees as well as top performers around the world.
Research shows that UK businesses were hit by rising numbers of workers leaving their jobs voluntarily during 2021 and also going into 2022. This was a trend that followed the millions of employees primarily in the United States resigning, causing the phenomenon to be termed the ’Great Resignation’ or the ‘Big Quit’.
The contributing factors to the ‘Great Resignation’ are complex, but it is not a coincidence that it has followed on the tail of the pandemic.1 Research conducted by the Chartered Management Institute revealed that almost nine in 10 managers (89%) said their business currently has vacancies, and more than half (55%) said finding new staff is harder now than before the pandemic hit.
Flint Helps Clients Navigate the New World of Work
Fortunately, the network Flint developed over the years with exceptional candidates coupled with our service delivery has helped us consistently deliver talent, assist our customers navigate the change in working habits, and bridge the need for talent by providing managed service and staff augmentation solutions.
A trend that we are seeing is the demand for more permanent hires. Recently, we have been approached by one of UK’s biggest communications and IT companies to help expand their in-house talent pool.
Supporting Talent and Encourage Employee Retention
Flint Associates
Flint associates are what other companies might call contractors or temporary workers. We see all our associates as part of the Flint Team, our partners in business.
We know our Flint associates are what sets us apart from the competition. It gives us great pleasure to be able to help them be successful in their careers and to support them in their current and future roles.
To help us be better at taking care of our associates and nurture our candidate relationships, our recruitment team is complimented by an Associate Engagement Specialist (a role we would warmly recommend), who is our associates’ first point of contact should there be any problems or issues and most importantly acts as a positive and warm entrance point into the Flint organisation.
Three Employee Retention Takeaways
With more than 20 years in the business and countless success stories, our clients often ask us for advice on retaining employees and keeping teams motivated. Our recruitment specialists are always happy to support companies with their knowledge and our best practices.
We have, through the years, identified many recurring themes that influence employee retention. So, here are three of our main takeaways that will help contribute to an engaged workforce.
- Do your employees feel like what they do is part of building something bigger? Create a mission that belongs to everyone. It’s not just about what employees do on a day-to-day basis but how that connects with the overall purpose of the enterprise.
Here is a great story that illustrates this. Two men working in a rock quarry were working hard when a passer-by asked about what type of work they were doing. One of the men said his job was breaking rocks. The other said he was building a church. - Management matters – “People don’t quit companies, they quit managers.” Managers often focus on the bottom-line results and overlook the fact that results are best achieved through developing and inspiring others to achieve them. Managers need to have the ability to be coachable and develop the capacity to coach and uplift their teams.
- Empathy
McKinsey and Company states in a recent study that almost 50 percent of respondents rated an empathic approach to workload balancing as a top factor in how favourably they viewed their organisations during the pandemic. The article continues to say that “Numerous studies show that in a business-as-usual environment, compassionate leaders perform better and foster more loyalty and engagement by their teams”.2
This is consistent with our experience at Flint and our understanding that the right leadership matters and is not about being in charge but taking care of those in your charge. We are convinced that creating a culture that is nurturing and supportive is going to be the differentiator for companies seeking to attract and retain talent in the future.
Having the right recruitment partner is one of the most important decisions a business can take. Get it right and you can make a substantial impact on your hiring processes, improve not only the quality of hires, but also maximise your retention of new employees. Get it wrong and the costs both to your business and culture can be devasting. The ideal recruitment partner will understand today’s needs and anticipate tomorrow’s challenges providing you with leadership and support throughout the journey.
Interested in how Flint can support your company or looking for a new job opportunity? Contact us!
Sources:
1 Vanrath. Should UK Firms be bracing for a Great British Resignation in 2022?, Dec 2021. https://www.vanrath.com/blog/2022/01/should-uk-firms-be-bracing-for-a-great-british-resignation-in-2022
2 Chen Nielsen, N., G. D’Auria, and S. Zolley. Tuning in, turning outward: Cultivating compassionate leadership in a crisis. McKinsey & Company, 1 May 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/tuning-in-turning-outward-cultivating-compassionate-leadership-in-a-crisis
