The changes over the last 2 years due to the pandemic has shifted the way people view their positions and their employers which has led to the predicament that businesses face in attracting and retaining talent. This combined with record number of job openings and high demand has not only made it hard to find good employees but made it even harder to keep them around.
The current unemployment rate has just ticked up to 3.5% (as of September 16th 2022 ), but it’s still significantly low. More data from the ABS also shows employment rose by 33,500 to 13,592,100. According to the National Skills Commission Internet Vacancy Index (August 2022), “job advertisements increased by 2.6% (or 7,700 advertisements) in August 2022 to stand at 301,100, resuming the growth trend observed prior to the decline recorded in July 2022.” What this means is, not only is there a tight talent pool, but plenty of opportunities available for employees – leading to struggles with acquisitions, losing employees or both.
According to Mckinsey’s 2022 Great Attrition, Great Attraction 2.0 survey, out of all the Australian respondents 41% still expressed their desire to leave their current roles in the next 3-6 months. To add to it, only 35% of global respondents for this survey who changed jobs in the last 2 years stayed in the same industry, meaning hiring managers aren’t just competing within their own sectors but across industries also.
Companies are scrambling to attract traditional workers but there isn’t enough of them to fill the gap. These are generally full-time workers who are found using standard recruitment methods and who can be enticed with promotions and higher salaries. But even when employers do successfully secure talent from competing industries, they’re just contributing to the wage rise (McKinsey, 2022). The same report identifies non-traditionalist workers as untapped potential. There are people out there with different priorities to traditionalist workers who can still be attracted back to traditional roles.
To address this issue, Mckinsey provide 4 recommendations:
- Improve your traditionalist EVP, which focuses on title, career paths, compensation, benefits, having good management and the overall company brand
- Create a non-traditional EVP, focusing on flexibility, well-being, health, strong company culture and alternate career progression paths
- Broaden your normal sourcing scope to appeal to a greater pool of talent
- Make people feel they belong, help them develop stronger ties to their team and their peers
Before re-assessing any value proposition however, it’s important for hiring managers to truly understand their competition and the talent market. One way to be able to do this is through a market mapping process – where you can access real-time data through candidates with highly desired skill sets. This will help you re-assess your EVP to support staff retention and acquisition. If you’re basing your decisions on outdated information, then you will always lose out to your competition.
Written by Stephanie Martinez, Partner
