Acquisition and Retention Strategies for 2023

As the new year approaches, now is a good time to re-evaluate how your company is attracting and retaining talent.

Employees come and go. According to Gartner, the employee annual voluntary turnover rate is expected to increase by 20% for 2022, from a prepandemic annual average of 31.9 million employees quitting their jobs to 37.4 million. With such a high turnover rate, it’s important that your company is able to attract top talent when replacing employees. Here are four strategies for the new year.

1. Broaden your outreach to find new employees.

Every person has a preferred method for job searches, and the best fit may not be where your organization typically looks. As an HR department, you should be trying to reach the broadest possible demographic, so branch out to other job search methods. Posting job listings across several websites will help you reach the largest audience, and social media is a must. According to CareerArc, 86% of job seekers use social media in their job search. Reaching a large audience is important, but so is reaching a diverse audience. Attending job fairs and posting classified ads are a couple of ways to reach applicants who may not use social media often.Use technology and embrace the digital transformation in HR.  When a job opening is posted using various methods and on a wide variety of job search websites, the amount of applications may become overwhelming, so utilizing technology is key to efficiently and effectively sort through candidates. There are several software options that utilize automation and artificial intelligence to screen applicants. This can help weed out unqualified or repeat applicants and can even automatically schedule interviews with the most qualified candidates. Data analysis can also reveal biases and help you avoid them when it comes to the final hiring decision.

2. Beyond job postings and finding the best candidates...

HR is experiencing a digital transformation as defined as the conversion of processes, documents, and other organizational information into a digital format through the use of digital technology. The key drivers in the digital revolution in HR are self-service and automation. Nearly 90% of companies reported exploring additional technology for HR while over 90% of respondents are expanding the use of existing technology and optimizing HR processes using technology, according to a recent survey by McLean.

While the use of technology in optimizing the role and functions of HR within an organization is clear, what is less clear is the path to implementation. Over half of companies responding reported significant challenges or obstacles when implementing the digital transformation. The highest number of respondents reported that issues with legacy systems and processes are hindering the implementation of technology followed by lack of funding and a lack of a digital HR strategy. It seems that organizations with a clearly defined digital HR strategy are over twice as likely as those without to be in the maturation stage of the digital transformation for HR.

3. Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is an underused tool.

While the details of the job like salary range, benefit packages, qualifications and location are important in a job listing, it’s also important to portray the culture of your workplace in the listing. As an HR representative, you know the workplace culture the best, so use that knowledge to portray to prospective employees what makes your company different and a good place to work. In a competitive job market, standing out is vital. The McLean survey found that only 22% of companies have a EVP so having a well-established and communicated EVP could be a decisive advantage over competitors. Over half of respondents that were considered high performing when it comes to hiring top talent had an EVP.

• Identify the key factors which differentiate your company from competitors
• Convey the unique experiences lived by associates
• Reiterate the EVP through communication channels and everyday practices
• Differentiate and segment the EVP in order to maximize effectiveness

4. Work to close the skills gaps of current employees.

Even with all the available tools for finding applicants, there’s no better replacement than keeping your best employees. While employee turnover is inevitable, too high of a turnover rate results in lost productivity and a less vibrant workplace culture. Offering competitive benefits packages, organizing team building activities and checking in with employees often can help keep your best employees on the job.

A high employee retention rate is great but it is not good enough to simply retain your best employees. Companies must look at ways to close the skill gaps that currently exist in their organization. While recruiting new talent is always an option yet another way to close the gap is through providing additional resources for current associates.

• Internal training and development opportunities
• Foster internal mobility
• Encourage knowledge transfer between associates
• Create curated learning paths
• Provide financial resources towards external training and development

Broadening your outreach, embracing the digital transformation, optimizing and utilizing your organization’s EVP, and closing the skills gap for current associates are all effective ways to improve your organization’s ability to attract and retain top talent in 2023. Each strategy when executed well can be a differentiating factor between your company and your competitors that not only has a positive impact on employee satisfaction and corporate culture but overall performance of the entire organization.