We’re big believers in a holistic approach to talent management. If you can’t retain staff, no amount of acquisition will ensure long-term success.
While employees are swaying towards stability amid economic uncertainty, the number of employees planning to move roles remains historically high. Meanwhile, increased demands for transparency from candidates and through regulatory measures are making it ever more critical that businesses assess the competitiveness of their offer.
A 2023 Randstad survey found that 26% of employees plan to switch jobs in the next 6 months, down from 41% in 2022 during the peak of what was dubbed ‘The Great Resignation’. The 2023 Retention Report by the Work Institute provides a view of the US economy and reports over fifty million voluntary departures in 2022. In context, this meant a third of the US workforce changed jobs in that year. Around 15% of workers still fear losing their jobs, a number which is consistent year on year, suggesting the factors influencing switching roles lie elsewhere.
The two biggest attraction factors continue to be work-life balance and remuneration, with career progression in third. It’s no surprise that the youngest demographic is most open to changing their role, with those later in their career more likely to prefer stability.
Research by Oxford Economics and Unum shows that the average cost of employee turnover is £30,614, which can substantially increase if you hire and train for a specialist role in your organisation. This means if you were to lose four employees in a year, it would ultimately cost the business over £120,000 to replace lost staff and bring those new to the role up to speed.
So, what can you do to combat this? How can you attract and retain employees who want to stay and grow with your organisation? With 35% of staff leaving organisations within their first year, a retention strategy is vital.
There are several ways to approach this, including by ensuring you have a robust wellness programme and are ahead of the curve when it comes to Diversity and inclusion. However, to make a real impact on attrition rates, you must confront the most significant factors in voluntary attrition: remuneration and career advancement.
At the heart of this is a competitive compensation package, which includes competitive rewards and benefits and a clear programme for learning and development.
So, how do you ensure what you offer is competitive? The truth is that it’s impossible to judge without looking at what similar businesses are doing, and this is no easy task. With salaries being well-kept secrets on job advertisements and competitors being tight-lipped about their offerings, it can be hard to understand where you’re going right or wrong as a business.
The most common type of benchmarking concerns salaries. Salary benchmarking uses primary and secondary data sources to accurately benchmark salaries of specific roles within an industry.
Data is collected through job advertisements, third-party labour market data platforms and, most importantly, conversations with relevant post-holders in competitor organisations.
Salary benchmarking is helpful at all levels of an organisation, from junior staff to C-suite leaders.
Whether providing spot salaries or helping to define or update salary bands and pay grades, our salary benchmarking solution provides tailored results that ensure your company stays competitive.
Source: US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
Benchmarking can also be applied to diversity. This approach is gaining popularity as companies seek to increase transparency, track the progress of their diversity programmes, and find ways to improve.
Whether related to gender, sexuality, or cultural background, it is a great tool to help inform strategic decision-making at the executive level.
Diversity benchmarking can influence workforce planning, recruitment practices, and overall corporate strategy to widen the talent pool and ensure fairness throughout the recruitment process.
By understanding where diversity may be lacking, plans and tools can be tailored to your needs and allow your company to develop plans aimed directly at tackling these issues.
We gather insight into diversity in a similar way to salary benchmarking. We speak with appropriate candidates in comparative organisations, map the talent pool, perform data analysis, and determine through additional secondary data sources where industries may need to catch up on affirmative action and diversity planning.
Recent research by LinkedIn found a clear link between a lack of learning and development opportunities and attrition. Put simply, employees who can’t see a route to advance or learn new skills are more likely to leave.
A robust Learning and Development programme helps guard against this exodus whilst providing numerous benefits beyond loyalty. These programmes can help train new skills, update current skills and identify succession paths for star employees.
An L&D benchmark uses a combination of primary and secondary research methods to examine your competition and reveal the programs they offer. This may include relevant technology partners, company initiatives, partnerships, and certifications.
