Tag: Talent

Keys to Retaining Talent

Global trends  say ,when it comes to talent and hiring point that there is a shortage of talent. Correction: there is a shortage of talent that stays. As discussed in one of our earlier articles about candidate experience, the new generation of employees and job-seekers have their expectations set, and are not afraid to walk away from an offer they do not like. Companies and organisations are facing challenges in retaining talent.

One part of the challenge is to find skilful talent. Often ignored, the next part faced by employers, and by extension recruiters is to find talent that stays, as we already mentioned in the earlier article(link).

Let us quickly take a look at what one can do as employer, or ‘talent-finder’ to retain talent.

Combat Quiet-Quitting:

Late in 2022, this buzzword came about. It is a phenomenon where employees are becoming increasingly disengaged with their jobs, and are doing just the bare minimum.  The term thus refers to how employees are so disengaged that it feels like they are quietly drifting away, quietly quitting. Burnout, stress, low levels of motivation are often been attributed to it.

At some point, burnout and low motivation are bound to make the employee finally quit. At some point, the talent might walk away. Or a new talent hired might drift into these patterns. Low motivation doesn’t just mean a lack of motivation to work, it also means a lack of motivation to find ways to prevent stress and burnout.

To prevent this, the organisation and the employee need a little realignment to ensure the motivation levels remain optimal.

It is important companies take necessary steps. As an article by People Matters puts it:

‘…employers must shift with it and understand that if their employees’ goals align with company objectives, engagement and productivity will follow. If this isn’t accomplished, companies will have to get used to facing a low return on their investment when it comes to hiring staff. Retention levels will plateau or continue to fall, and collaboration and engagement will become something to strive for rather than a cultural baseline.’

So, what concrete steps can be taken to ensure these motivation levels remain high?

Make them feel heard:

The same article by People Matters continues how companies can be more ‘listening’ in their approach. Sometimes, employees might be going through events in their lives that demand that the company extends some flexibility to them. Having company policies is necessary but if a little tweaking can improve someone’s productivity, maybe it’s not a bad idea to consider it without changing entire policies.

 In other words, companies can make sure that the individual needs of employees are being met so that family situations, life emergencies etc do not become the reason that an employee becomes demotivated, or can only manage to do the bare minimum.

So many times, good candidates might get away due to location issues, or/and employees might quit because of aforementioned reasons. So many women and new mothers might quit the jobs they loved because of lack of flexibility and options. Truly, a little flexibility can go a long way in retaining talent.

One-on-one meetings, time-to-time company-wide surveys, and just general wellness check-ins are some steps to gauge individual situations pertaining to company policies.

Of course, there’s only so much a company do about flexibility. What are some other ways companies can ensure motivation levels remain high and talent stays?

Combat stagnation, provide opportunities:

One of the major reasons companies are unable to retain talent is because at some point an employee can feel stagnated in their career. They might be looking for new challenges.

New candidates might be hesitant to apply if they think there won’t be much professional growth in future.

To combat both these scenarios, organisations can offer various upskilling and reskilling opportunities so their employees don’t have to look elsewhere unnecessarily. Options galore, based on the scale and capacity of the organisations. Right from sponsoring further education, to offering certificate courses, organising seminars, and other L&D workshops. Many large companies like have set up initiatives to sponsor college fees, and many apprenticeships have also been set up.

On a similar tangent, companies can also offer more opportunities for internal mobility.

As mentioned earlier, top talent sometimes cannot be retained for the simple reason that they jump ships for ‘better opportunities.’ It is the fear of stagnation. This fear can be combated when the employees know that there will be opportunities within the organisation to grow. Opportunities within the organisation means instead of jumping ships, the employee can continue to climb the ladder within. Isn’t that a great source of motivation?

In this era of the Great Resignation and Quiet-Quitting, companies and organisations need to look beyond the hiring process and think long-term. Thinking long-term means companies think how they can retain the talent they hire. Talent will be retained when their levels of motivation continue to remain as high as they were when they first joined. Long-term thinking ensuring opportunities for growth and a sense of being heard could be major leaps into retaining talent.

Benefits of Hiring a Candidate with Limited or No Experience

Is hiring a candidate with less or no experience a good idea? Amidst the pandemic induced talent -crunch one could argue that hiring a candidate who can knows how to handle the pressure, the workload, in other words, a candidate who has some experience sounds like a good idea. After all, it takes some wisdom of experience to cultivate that adaptability, that attitude of anything-can-be-figured-out. On the other hand, the talent-crunch also means that companies could be looking for people desperately and amidst it all, hiring a candidate with no or limited experience might be one of the few options they have and could feel like a gamble. Companies, managers might be hiring such candidates reluctantly, and/or might be having major doubts about their competence, preparing themselves for the worst.

Turns out, companies can heave a sigh of relief, because hiring candidates who have limited or no experience has its own set of benefits, as these two articles by CiivSoft and Millennial Magazine point out. Let us quickly have a look!

A Blank Slate:

Candidates with no or limited experience are much more receptive to new ideas. Their lack of experience means they will be eager to learn and get some of that experience. They could prove to be excellent persons to be mentored. Be it learning a new skill, or cultivating a certain work ethic, they are the ones who could be the starting points of the establishing a company-culture you desire as a manager, or as team-leaders.

They are determined to prove themselves, and hence are likely to be much more proactive and hard-working.

Best of Both Worlds:

Some of the candidates with limited experience may have done internships. Or they may have a good hold on the ‘theory’, for example, they might have recently finished their education, leading to a freshness of relevant concepts in their minds. In other words, they would have acquired the relevant skills and knowledge and they would be itching to apply those to practical, real-world use. What’s more, their skills and knowledge might actually be more updated when compared to those of the older more experienced candidates.

The combination of fresh skills and knowledge, coupled with an eagerness to apply is a recipe for getting fresh perspectives and approaches.

Practical Considerations:

Beyond all the considerations about skills, competence, fresh perspectives and approaches, lie the practicality of hiring a candidate with limited or no experience. A candidate with more experience will demand more salary, because they will have the credentials to do so and naturally, the cost of hiring them would be more.

A candidate with less or no experience would be motivated by finding a job in the first place, and they might actually not demand a high salary. Their motivation is to learn and gain experience; the motivation of an experienced candidate is to get a better job, a better pay. (We will go into the nuances of this in our coming articles. Watch this space!)

Of course, it is to be noted that this does not mean that companies should use that as an excuse to exploit the lack of experience through unfair compensation.

What does this mean for the candidate with no or limited experience?

 Well, apply! Apply without worrying whether you have the necessary experience or not. As long as one is willing to learn, adapt, it is never a bad idea to dream big!

Hiring a candidate with limited or no experience can work well for the company in terms of offering fresh perspectives, of moulding the company- culture in the desired direction, of mentoring the workforce of and for the future. Hiring a determined young lad now could prove to be a springboard for a future leader.

Talent Crunch? Silver-Medal Candidates to the Rescue!

Companies have been facing challenges when it comes to finding and hiring talent. Post the pandemic and the WFH scenario, coupled with the Great Resignation, many people, especially the younger generation, often referred to as the Millennials and Gen-Z, have chosen to not ‘go back’ to the office. They prefer jobs which offer options to work remotely and/or have flexible working hours. Moreover, the Great Resignation also saw people resigning as a way to pursue what they really wanted to do. Such factors have resulted in companies facing acute shortages of talent.

What does this mean for companies and people who are actually looking for jobs? It means a massive opportunity for and from the silver-medal candidate.

Let us quickly have a look at what this means.

Who is a silver-medal candidate?

Silver-medal candidates are the ones who made through the various rounds of interviews but didn’t land the final job. They are the ones who just didn’t make it due to a variety of reasons.

Why to think about a silver-medal candidate?

In a culture of cut-throat competition, one often forgets about the second place. A second preference, a second opinion is sometimes reduced in value and hence ignored completely. An attitude like that could actually go against finding and retaining talent. Based on what an article by Business Chief points out, let us have a look at why silver-medal candidates shouldn’t be forgotten about, and that it is necessary to optimise the ATS to keep their records handy. Whether it is keeping the silver-medal candidates in touch via emails about relevant openings for them, to simply keeping them engaged in any other way, not ignoring silver-medal candidates goes a long way. Let us see how.

  • Saves Time: One reason why companies should not ignore silver-medal candidates is the interest and already established engagement. The fact that they had applied earlier means that they were interested in the company at some point and they could be still interested. This means the talent-finding process need not be started from the scratch and one can just simply scan the ATS again and find the required resume and details. This obviously can save a lot of time and resources that goes with creating and advertising job postings. This takes us to the next point.
  • Familiarity: Silver-medal candidates are already familiar with what the company has to offer, they have already done their research, they already know the process. They could also have had established a certain rapport with the interviewing panel and the HR. They are also more likely to respond. All they need to know is what the new opportunity is and one might speed up to the negotiation process instead of trying to figure out if the candidate is actually interested in the job or are they simply appearing for the interview for the ‘experience.’
  • They Might Have Got Better Now: A silver-medal candidate almost landed the job earlier, which means they were the runners-up. A look at the Olympic podiums shows that even though gold is considered the best, the silver and the bronze very much mean that the athlete is at a high skill-level, almost as good as the gold, as an article by Herefish points it out.

The silver-medal candidate had the skills and the competence already and they just about didn’t stand first earlier but that there are skills and competence is a given. Chances are that over the period from the previous job opening to what we have now, the silver-medal candidate might have in fact improved on their skills and qualifications.

  • Reflects Well on the Organisation: Companies often tell once the process is over that they will reach out to the candidates if a new opportunity arises, but they rarely do. By actually reaching out to silver-medal candidates, companies can improve what the article by Business Insider calls ‘employer brand’ in a more positive manner. Even if the candidate may not be interested at the moment, the fact that the company remembered them and reached out to them stands out, and at the very least is likely to make them feel valued and recognised. This is in turn likely to create  ‘positive buzz’ around the company, a good word of mouth, attracting talent.

What does this mean for the candidate?

For the candidates, it means one important thing- do not lose hope if you didn’t get that job! Whether one gets the job or not, a cordial parting ‘thank you’ email, letting the company know that they’d be interested in any other new opportunities could go a long way. Going through the interview process but not getting hired is not time wasted. There are multiple reasons why one might not have got the job, but that doesn’t mean one should stop learning new skills, improving on what they have and give up on the idea of unexpected opportunities!

Amidst the Great Resignation, the emerging post-pandemic work culture and the resulting talent shortages, companies could benefit a great deal from keeping the communication-lines open with those silver-medal candidates who had the skills and the competence but just about didn’t make the final. It saves time and resources for the company, and it could be a beacon of hope for someone in need!