How CPOs can retain talent in 2022
Leaders understand how to better engage with their people and overcome any challenges they might be facing before it’s too late.
Reading the news these days, it seems there are endless headlines decrying The Great Resignation. While it’s true workers across industries are leaving their jobs in unprecedented numbers, I believe it’s more constructive to consider this moment as The Great Migration. That’s because, with some exceptions, these workers are going to other companies, not leaving the world of work altogether. That distinction is important, as it signals to organizations that they still have a chance at retaining their talent.
So how can employers keep employees from migrating to another company?
Related: Compensation or mobility: Which matters more during the Great Resignation?
Best-in-class benefits and competitive salaries aren’t all it takes to retain talent in the current job market. Retention comes down to how organizations position their people for success, which depends on the environment in which their people are challenged, learning, growing, heard, and seen. With that in mind, here’s how our organization intends to retain talent in 2022 and beyond.
Expanding management enablement is a key retention tactic
To keep their workforces healthy, employers need to focus more on cultivating managers that lead with a people-first mindset. People stay at jobs where feel seen, heard, and are appreciated. The reality is, not every manager inherently understands how to lead with a people first mindset. Consequently, their team members may feel unseen, unheard, and unappreciated and look toward greener pastures. Manager development is, therefore, an essential component of any organization’s retention strategy so that leaders understand how to better engage with their people and overcome any challenges those individuals might be facing before it’s too late.
To this end, managers should connect regularly with their people, not just during scheduled quarterly reviews. As a matter of fact, every interaction is a moment to see, hear, and appreciate. Regular check-ins allow managers to understand what uniquely motivates their team members so that they can co-create an environment that unleashes the positive while mitigating the negative. Likewise, during these conversations, managers can flag concerns that may lead to bigger issues.
While this type of approach should be obvious, companies don’t often spend the time necessary to nurture these skills among managers—but doing so can make a massive difference in in the people experience resulting in healthy retention. It’s an employee’s marketplace; if workers have even a moment of unhappiness, they might consider switching to a “better” organization. It’s also critical to expand management enablement to diverse employee populations as there is often a slowing of advance through the leadership pipeline.
By proactively taking the time to understand how to create a more positive work experience for their teams, managers reduce the chances of employees feeling compelled to quit. Likewise, showing people that there is a long-term trajectory for them at the company will empower them to better envision their future there.
Give employees opportunities to grow as well
Having the framework and support to grow and develop their career can be a major incentive for employees to stay with an organization, which is why managers aren’t the only ones whose development should be nurtured.
Employees will naturally need to upskill at some point to meet emerging industry demands—better yet if they can receive that upskilling and development from their employers. Many employees are already leveraging the competitive advantage development opportunities offered to them in today’s job market.
In a 2022 UiPath survey of how U.S. business executives were combatting the Great Resignation, the challenges they reported their companies are experiencing due to the labor shortage include struggling to attract new talent to take on necessary tasks (74%), losing skilled people to manage necessary tasks (69%), and disrupting workflows due to higher rates of onboarding and offboarding (58%).
Most shared that they believe employee job performance—and therefore job retention—can be improved through opportunities to learn new skills on the job (60%) and opportunities to improve existing skills on the job (53%). In the war for talent, it will be organizations like these that prioritize their existing teams that come out on top.
Additionally, employees welcome opportunities to diversify their skillsets. In UiPath’s 2021 Global Office Worker Survey, 73% of those surveyed said they would be more willing to continue working at a company that offers them training opportunities to learn new skills or further enhance their current ones. With the employee desire and industry necessity there, it’s only logical that employers invest in their current talent and facilitate these upskilling opportunities.
Employee churn isn’t as inevitable as the news makes it out to be; employers only need a mindset shift. As employers consider how they can slow the talent migration, investing further in their current employees will be the most fruitful strategy. Instead of thinking how to attract prospects who are leaving other organizations, companies need to prioritize supporting the employees they already have. By nurturing stronger and diverse leaders and bolstering employees’ capabilities at every level of the business, organizations can build a team that sticks together in the long term.
Bettina Koblick is chief people officer at UiPath.
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