Being transparent with candidates and new employees about the workplace from the interview and beyond is crucial to creating a lasting, healthy employer-to-employee relationship. It is more beneficial to have an honest conversation about what new recruits should expect when accepting job offers than managing the fallout of having enticed them with false positives about the workplace.
Permission to Be Candid Is Granted
Managing expectations is a valuable tactic and honesty is imperative for a long-lasting work relationship forged from mutual respect. It is never a good thing when an employee says to a colleague, ‘I wish they had been candid with me during the interview/onboarding processes.’ This is usually a sign that the disgruntled employee is going to walk out the door. Avoid this at all costs.
But retaining your talent acquisitions is much easier with the right foundations, of which honesty and transparency are cornerstones. Build on these and you can avoid the Great Resignation.
Is the Great Resignation Even a Thing?
The Pandemic gave people an opportunity to reconsider their career options, but the statistics may be slightly flawed if you think about why people left their jobs. Amid COVID-19, many people were made redundant, put on furlough, became ‘inactive’, moved away from the UK, retired early, and some quit their jobs to concentrate on their health and wellbeing, among other reasons.
Job vacancies dropped for obvious reasons, especially in hospitality and retail, and active job seeking halted. But this doesn’t prove the Great Resignation.
In fact, according to data from CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook, statistically, the workforce is largely retaining their jobs in what has been dubbed the ‘Great Retention’. Why? After the pandemic subsided, job vacancies increased and job movement made a comeback, but the numbers indicate most people are staying put.
Statistics show:
- unemployment (at the time of the Outlook) is at a ratio of 1.1 (unemployed to job vacancies) and redundancy is at an all-time low
- job seeking has dropped from pre-pandemic levels from upwards of 5.5% to approximately 4.8%
- two areas that might be skewing the numbers are immigrants exiting the workforce and 565,000 UK nationals choosing to remain economically inactive (ONS, Worker movements and inactivity in the UK 2018 to 2022).
Try These Cultural Positives for Employee Retention
The right foundations for creating a positive and all-inclusive culture are:
- Give a welcoming and informative induction (don’t just show them where the toilets and emergency exits are)
- Introduce them around the team and take them out to lunch (it’s the little things)
- Incentivise with good ethical values, upskilling opportunities, and flexible working
- Focus on health, wellbeing and work/life balance with internal resources and signposts to external resources
- Acknowledge the negatives, but accentuate the positives and appreciate the wins
- Offer exit interviews when people choose to leave (and learn from them).
These things show workers you value them, trust them with autonomy and gives you the opportunity to practice the benefits you promoted during the interview.
The most crucial positive cultural practice to implement is candid, contributory conversations where speaking up is encouraged and welcomed. This can be done in meetings, through surveys, 1:1s and by having a ‘please enter’ policy, not just an open door. Make it known that you are trustworthy and will provide a safe space and a listening ear. Employees can come to you about anything work-related, or personal if they feel comfortable.
A Non-Positive to Know So You Can Avoid It
Don’t let people leave who have a wealth of knowledge in the industry and of your company because you failed to utilise their talents and recognise their worth.
Villanova University points out some of the other negatives to losing a talented hire, including loss of revenue, time, employee morale, and diversity in the workplace in an HR blog. But we want to focus on the positives and showcase the right way to attract top talent, win them over and keep them through job satisfaction.
A PwC Saratoga benchmarking study demonstrates ways organisations are addressing the churn and burn rates in the workplace. Efforts commonly made are:
- Pay reviews – 86%
- Wellbeing programmes – 78%
- Learning and skills – 75%
- Career and development – 69%.
Which of these positives might you consider cultivating to manage with transparency for employee retention?
Summary
Transparency is the key to creating a healthy employer-to-employee relationship that is built to last because it shows you are putting employees on the same playing field as yourself and you only expect from them what you demonstrate yourself. You foster trust with transparency by keeping people in the loop about business strategy, why decisions are made, what they aim to achieve and, most importantly, how their roles contribute to the bigger picture.
It is also important to deliver on the benefits you mention to draw in candidates for interview so that what they sign on for is what they can expect.
At Red10 Recruitment, we wouldn’t ask anything of you we don’t expect of ourselves. Our values include being straightforward and honest with our clients. In our view, transparency is always the best policy, and it is the foundation of all our relationships from the very beginning.
Contact us now.