How to Excel During The Great Resignation

In April 2021 alone, it is estimated that 4 million Americans quit their jobs. By the third quarter of the year, 2.8% of the workforce had resigned. This is a full percentage point higher than the total for 2020. Let’s explore why so many workers are quitting their jobs, how much money these vacancies are costing businesses and how you can transform the “Great Resignation”, as it’s been dubbed, into your next great hire.

Why are workers leaving?

According to the Wall Street Journal, employees in the U.S. are quitting their jobs in record numbers right now, at the highest rate that has been seen in over twenty years.

Some have attributed this mass exodus to the pandemic, which allowed employees to reevaluate their careers and priorities. For a lot of people, this self-reflection shifted their career goals. Their new professional focus could be for more purpose in their work, higher salary, or more inspiring leadership and support.

The isolation in pandemic times gave us an opportunity to look inward, which has brought real priorities into light.

Regarding work, the pandemic revealed some of the key ingredients to what makes us feel more satisfied with our day to day: flexible schedule, work that reflects similar values, learning and growth opportunities, competitive salary, improved remote work options, and a focus on health. Millennials in general have a reputation for valuing meaning in work over salary or material benefits, which has been highlighted during current events.

The shift in focus to the meaning of work is advantageous because it helps us to be truer to ourselves by taking meaningful action. The most loyal and hardworking employees are the ones who care about what they do. We can only make better choices about where and how we work after taking the time to get to know our own values.

We all want the same thing

Employers and employees alike are looking for something different post-pandemic.

For employers, they may be seeking more candidates who display high levels of empathy, technological savvy, and strong teamwork skills. They also need to find talent that aligns with the company mission, and clearly define what that mission is. A team with a clear vision who can work well together is a recipe for success.

Employees are also looking for that kind of work environment. A unified vision and team of coworkers who share that vision and support you along the way? That’s the ideal working condition for many jobseekers today.

How do you achieve goal alignment with new candidates?

1. Have your current team members actively involved in the hiring process, ensuring that whoever is hired will be a good fit, and at the same time, boosting your current team’s confidence. Using their input for hiring decisions helps them know they are valued and respected.
2. Don’t forget that those employees who are in leadership positions greatly affect the culture of the teams they manage. Choose wisely when promoting or hiring for leadership positions, with an emphasis on honesty, empathy, and people skills. Your leaders need to help bring your company into the future in a way that promotes a positive work environment and attracts more candidates into the pipeline.
3. Invest in improving your culture by providing resources and access to your employees. Some examples of these are making room for more commonplace conversations between managers and their teams, programs for mental health, or training opportunities for lateral shifts within an organization. Employees respond and engage well when employees actively invest in both their personal and professional development. This means you will attract more candidates to your company while also retaining your best talent.

Employees are especially motivated when it is clear they can move up from inside an organization, imagining a fulfilling career. Shadowing and mentoring, learning opportunities outside of someone’s main responsibilities, or invitations to new projects are exciting for current employees and help them to stay engaged and motivated.

What does it all mean?

Bringing meaning, purpose, and values to the forefront of work is not just a fad. This mindset is likely here to stay. The more we are willing to talk about these topics and dig deeper, the happier employers and employees will be in the long run.

It is no easy task to nail these things down. That’s why it’s not just up to employees or employers, but instead should be a collaboration. Asking “why” is an important step in clarifying priorities and reevaluating goals. Once employees can find purpose in their work, they are more able to fully own it. This brings balance in the workplace, renewed motivation, and a better employer-employee relationship.

Companies with employees who have a strong sense of identity and purpose are stronger for it.

Though it may be disheartening to see so many leaving the workplace, take this time to reevaluate what you’re looking for in candidates and why those qualities will help your organization in the long run. Seek out candidates who will align with your goals and strive for strong growth in the future. As the workforce shifts, and employees move to roles that better suit them, determine what you are looking for and how you can build a “new normal” that sets your team up for success.

A workplace culture is only as positive as its employees. Work to make your employees happy, and they will in turn be more productive, efficient, and inspired.

The Cost of Vacancies

The Great Resignation has spurred a mass exodus of workers, leaving employers to fill these vacancies. For many hard-to-fill jobs these positions can stay open for several weeks, leading to an increase in both calculable and incalculable costs.

A quick internet search can reveal one article after another about why recruiting is important. One thing that doesn’t get talked about often enough is how much not recruiting and hiring in a timely manner can cost a company. Leaving a position unfilled for an extended period inevitably causes issues both internally and externally.

How much does it really cost?

A simple formula can be used to assign a basic dollar amount to an unfilled position. By using this formula, you can see how much leaving positions open can cost a company.

R = Annual Company Revenue
E = Number of Employees

1. Calculate revenue by employee:
R / E = Revenue per Employee
2. Determine daily revenue per employee:
Revenue per Employee / 250 days (365 – weekends)

As an example, a company that brings in $500 million in revenue, with 1,000 employees would cost almost $2000 per day (with 250 working days) in lost revenue. A study recently found that, on average, it takes 70 – 90 days to fill hard-to-hire positions, resulting in a potential loss of $180,000 in revenue for a single vacancy.

The Hidden Costs

The cost of unfilled vacancies can be quantified in both tangible and intangible ways. Lost productivity, overtime paid to existing employees and lost sales are some of the more calculable costs incurred by leaving positions unfilled. These costs have price tags associated with them and it is easy to see how long-term vacancies can add up quickly.

The hidden cost of having unfilled vacancies can fall onto team morale, company branding, and growth. These costs also have ripple effects that can be far reaching, causing disruptions in planning, scheduling, and new business growth. Other intangible costs associated with leaving positions vacant are:

• Customer frustrations
• Loss of market share
• Overworked employees – leading to more workplace accidents, burnout, and a decline in retention rates
• Tougher recruiting

Best Practices for Talent Acquisition

The world of work has changed a lot over the years. Employers and employees alike have had to adapt to the changing surroundings to be successful. Employees have cultivated their talent and skills to their advantage, making themselves valuable assets to any organization. But how do companies get these talented candidates hired?

Understanding talent acquisition best practices and how to use them is key!

What is Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition is slightly different than recruitment, for a few reasons. While they both involve finding candidates to fill open positions, recruitment’s focus is using various methods to get the role filled.

Talent acquisition has a more long-term goal of finding talented candidates who will improve the company or organization over time. Talent acquisition uses a strategic approach to find specialists, executives, leaders, and hard-to-find talent in any industry to employ on a long-term basis to help companies thrive.

Planning will help you to prioritize which positions need this strategic approach to recruitment and identify which roles dramatically affect your workplace.

Some Helpful Stats

• AI (Artificial Intelligence) will be important in talent acquisition, according to 50% of employees in a survey by HR.com.
• Reputation makes a difference! 84% of employees said they’d be more likely to leave their current position for a company with a better reputation.
• Over 79% of candidates seek out a company’s mission statement when thinking about applying.
• Constructive feedback makes potential hires 4x more likely to consider your offer!
• Almost 70% of your potential “perfect fits” are passive jobseekers, not yet actively looking for a job.
• Don’t forget that salary, learning opportunities, and a focus on work-life balance are key factors when candidates accept a job offer.

The Process

Talent acquisition requires patience and planning. It’s a process that can take many months. There are a few steps that will help you as you seek out these invaluable candidates.

1. Lead generation and marketing

• Employer branding and marketing are a key ingredient in a successful talent acquisition strategy. First you need an engaging and eye-catching marketing campaign to make it known that your company is a diverse and inclusive place to work.
• Focus on finding someone who is not only qualified, but also a good fit and aligns with your company’s priorities. Networking through professional events or software platforms within your niche builds relationships and strengthens your brand so that passive and active candidates will think of you when they are ready for new opportunities.
• Strategic advertising can provide a pool of candidates in your niche field. This streamlines the recruitment process moving forward and builds a strong pipeline based on your marketing efforts.

2. Stand out from the crowd with strong brand and culture

• The next step in your marketing efforts gets into the nitty gritty. Think about what makes your company unique and a great place to work. What are your benefits offerings, and what can you promote about your company culture that would make someone want to work there?
• Focus on what you have to offer candidates and solidify your employer brand by giving candidates and current employees a positive experience.
• Be sure to follow up with candidates even if it’s just to keep a connection alive until you need to recruit again. This will promote a positive reputation and make candidates more likely to follow through.

3. Interviews, interviews, interviews

• After you’ve narrowed down your pipeline to the most talented candidates, it’s time to think about the interview process. Reach out to candidates who you think are a potential fit to set up an interview, and then prepare by making a list of questions you’ll ask and information you want to provide to them. Your questions need to address the most important parts of the role they would be filling.
• Candidates who answer these questions well and make a strong connection throughout the interview process will be more likely to be a long-term fit. In addition to expertise in your niche field, you also want to look for problem-solving, flexibility, and adaptability.
• Another great way to build candidate confidence is through constructive criticism and positive feedback.

4. Pick the best fit

• After the interviews are done, it’s time to decide who will be the best fit for the job. Who has stood out? Who has experience and skills that go above and beyond?
• Remember you’re looking for leaders as well as someone with technical skills. Think about a candidate’s potential future and how they might shape the company moving forward.
• Once you’ve decided on the perfect candidate, it’s time to officially recruit them! Give them the offer along with any necessary information about the organization. Let them know what to expect on their first day so they can get prepared.

5. All aboard!

• Your last step is one of the most important in talent acquisition: onboarding. Onboarding plays a crucial role in making new employees feel like they’ve made the right fit in joining your company and helps to set both you and them up for success.
• Onboarding should help new employers learn about the company culture and your long-term goals, in addition to getting them comfortable with the day-to-day responsibilities of their new role. This is the most important part in building a solid relationship between your new employee and the company itself, helping to ensure they stay.
• Make your onboarding process simple and smooth so that your newfound talent can enjoy the transition and feel welcome. First impressions can make or break an employer/employee relationship, which is why having a fresh and hassle-free experience is so crucial.

Talent Acquisition Best Practices

• Get your priorities straight

If you don’t know what your priorities in hiring are or your company values, it won’t matter how many candidates you reach out to. Put the areas front and center to determine who to reach out to. Which skills or knowledge bases are a must for this position? Your recruitment targets should be within this niche.

• Get familiar with your talent pipeline

You know the candidate that was great for the position you were filling last month, but it wasn’t the right time for you or them, or you just went with someone else for whatever reason? Keep them on your list! All your short-listed potential hires should be in a special folder for quick reference, with updated info. Reach out to them with updates and loop them into roles that might work for them. This saves you time and money, so you don’t have to start from scratch every time you need to hire. Let the pipeline work for you.

• Plan to plan ahead!

In talent acquisition, you’re playing a long game. This means that you must start planning and set aside time and resources to build your pipeline, rather than jumping from one hire to the next. One way to do this is to build an internal pipeline in addition to your outside resources. Internal role-shifts or promotions within a company are a great way to build company loyalty and ensure your hires are already a good fit within the company culture. Hard-to-find talent can be right under your nose; you just have to look.

• All hands-on deck

In addition to sourcing candidates internally, you can also think outside of the HR team box when thinking about who should be involved in recruitment efforts. Make sure current employees know what roles need to be filled, what skills and expertise you’re looking for, and why this role is important. Employee referral programs can be another way to build loyalty and motivate current employees to reach out to someone they know who might be a great candidate.

• Invest in management

Talent acquisition doesn’t stop after your candidate is chosen and hired. Managing their transition after recruitment includes setting them up with stellar training and skills development programs, which will help them become a more competent and confident employee. This improves morale and engagement with the job, which also increases productivity.

Talent acquisition and recruitment is not easy, but a proactive approach will set you up for success.

Even when you plan, sometimes you’ll miss out on the perfect fit or that hard-to-find candidate chooses to go somewhere else. You can’t win them all, but you can do the best you can to get ahead of the game and build a strong pipeline of talented candidates whose skills, personality, and expertise would be a strong addition to your company’s longevity.

Implementing talent acquisition best practices means taking the initiative to hunt for candidates who you can target for key roles in the future, setting yourself and your company up for success.

YM Careers Network Can Help

At the YM Careers Network we understand the importance of making good hires and lowering attrition rates. Many niche and hard-to-fill roles can stay vacant for a long time, which can have devastating consequences for a company.

We use sophisticated matching technology to target jobs to the right professionals, driving high-quality candidates into the talent pipeline for a faster, more efficient recruiting process.

Reach out today to speak to a recruitment specialist. Our team of professionals will discuss your recruitment objectives and create a customized package to fill your talent pipeline with high quality candidates.