Recruitment and Employee Retention in 2017

With the continued growth in the workforce in Ireland and the corresponding reduction in the number of people on the Live Register to pre-recession levels, the availability of talent in the jobs market is becoming more critical with each passing month.

It has become a challenge for many major organisations both in holding on to existing experienced staff and in parallel being able to attract new staff. In this scenario, the role of HR and talent acquisition becomes most critical to the business.

Retention

We are seeing many organisations working hard on employee retention initiatives, becoming more open to flexible working arrangements, facilitating flexible working hours / working from home, reduced hours, additional benefits etc.

While these arrangements may cause some inconvenience for the employers – they must measure this against the cost of losing that experience and recruitment of a replacement.

Speed of engagement

However, what we are not seeing is the same urgency and imagination being applied to the recruitment process.

Many hiring managers appear to be removed from the reality of the current labour market, not understanding that if a strong candidate is on the market – he/ she will most likely have multiple options available to them.

A concise interview process and speed to offer is what will focus the candidate to your organisation.

Organisations need to develop systematic processes for recruitment and hiring managers need to be more open minded.

So much emphasis is placed on finding the right candidate with the right skill set for a position, that all too often, candidates with transferable skills, who would actually be a better fit for your organisation over the long term, are overlooked.

Multiple interviews over sometimes a few months is giving ample time for another organisation with a leaner recruitment process to snap them up available talent.

In the words of Cato; “He who hesitates is lost” is certainly ringing true for talent acquisition in today’s market.