The new year began amid mass layoffs, inflation, and economic uncertainty. These are ongoing problems adding to the existing challenges facing many HR departments, of which employee engagement, onboarding, and retainer of employees remain predominant concerns. In recent months, renewed challenges continue to impact HR departments across industries. Let’s explore all in detail below.
Table of Contents
Reworking the Employee Value Proposition
The working dynamics have evolved significantly in recent years. Trends of remote and hybrid working have become popular, and employees perceive them as major benefits of a job. But employees also prefer a good salary, suitable benefits, a sense of belonging, company culture, and investment in building their skills. All this leads to better job satisfaction. Considering all these factors, the HR departments need to rework the employee value proposition of their respective companies.
Attracting Top Talent
With the job market getting more competitive, attracting top talent continues to be a major challenge for companies. It is high time for businesses to test different recruitment models or tweak their existing strategies for better results. Since more companies are often looking to hire the same candidate, improving a candidate’s experience and engaging them throughout the process has become important. It is the key to winning what many HR personnel are calling “the talent wars”. Things like keeping in contact with the candidates and updating them about their position in the hiring process can help businesses onboard only the best.
Salary, benefits, and WFH flexibility continue to be major attractions for talent. Mentioning the salary ranges and benefits on job posts may help HR personnel get a bigger pool of candidate profiles to parse at later hiring stages.
Improving Quality of Hires
In addition to following standard talent acquisition initiatives, it is crucial to onboard the right talent. Skills and degrees on profiles often do not guarantee a candidate to be an ideal hire. Also, the candidate’s values should align with those of the company for long-term retention. The responsibility of a candidate’s skill and personality screening falls on the shoulders of HR and hiring managers. Therefore, it is crucial for them to follow the best practices and not let any biases get in the way.
Countering Disengagement
Disengagement or “quiet quitting” is a problem in which employees do the bare minimum of their job responsibilities. It is a major issue because it counters productivity and can impact a team’s morale. Extended frustrations among team members may even result in the cases of an insubordinate employee.
Taking counteractive measures like balancing the workload and ensuring a better work-life balance can help resolve such problems. Employee engagement activities can further motivate employees to perform their best.
Retaining Top Performers
Retaining top talent is more affordable than onboarding and training someone new. The time required for filling the vacant position can cost business in productivity. With more employment opportunities for top performers, businesses need to take the right steps for employee retention.
Offering competitive salaries and lucrative benefits to existing employees can keep the turnover in control. Adding generous bonuses after the performance appraisal process and growth opportunities within the company may help boost retention rates.
Earning Employees’ Trust
Mass layoffs from tech giants have impacted the morale and trust of many employees. It is impacting the mental well-being of employees and making them question their job security. HR has to step in and take measures to handle the situation. There is a need to take a proactive approach in listening to the employees’ concerns and earn their trust vocally and through actions.
Promote Mental Health Awareness
The number of people who complain of mental health issues like stress and depression has increased significantly since the pandemic. Consequently, professionals experience frequent burnouts and spells of anxiety.
Organization-wide awareness about employee well-being is necessary. Many companies are adding benefits focused on improving work-life balance to overcome wellness issues. Taking such steps at an organization can reward in terms of higher productivity and job satisfaction.
Conclusion
Multiple factors are making 2024 a demanding year for HR departments across organizations. Market trends, ongoing employee crisis, and changing work dynamics require more proactive strategies to face every challenge. However, taking the right steps early on can reap companies a multitude of benefits.
