Just two years ago, there was a bout of panic as economists announced that the U.S. workforce was at its lowest rate since 1978. This was in part due to the down economy and the lack of jobs, but it was also due to a larger number of baby boomers retiring from the workforce and a smaller number of millennials entering the workforce.
With the end of the recession, the panic is gone, but the fact remains that baby boomers are still retiring at a faster rate than millennials are entering the workforce. Immigration rates have slowed as well, so the number of new employees entering the workforce is altogether still lower than in the past. To protect your company from suffering a talent dearth, there are a number of steps that you can take.
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Make Your Company Attractive
If your company is known for being a great place to work, it stands to reason that you will attract more and better employees. While this plan is not fool proof, it can’t hurt to create a wonderful company culture and inspire a workplace where the employees really enjoy their jobs. By focusing on making the employee experience as pleasant as possible, your company will gain a competitive advantage over other companies in your industry when it comes to attracting top talent.
Provide Competitive Compensation
While a great company culture may attract some great employees, everyone still has to eat. Your company does not have to offer the top of the pay range for your industry, but you also cannot skimp on compensation and expect to retain top workers. Do your research and make sure that you are offering competitive wages and benefits for your industry.
Prioritize Retention
Attracting great employees only works to your advantage if you can keep those employees in position. By offering competitive wages and working to perpetuate a pleasant company culture, you are already doing something to prioritize retention, but you must also put tools in place to try to understand whether employees will continue to stay. Periodic employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews can help you to optimize your retention strategy.
Analytics may also be a valuable tool for understanding the patterns behind your company’s retention versus turnover. Are college graduates leaving your company within five years due to a lack of promotional opportunities or are new parents leaving due to inflexibility in job scheduling? By analyzing turnover statistics and cross referencing with other factors, you may get a better idea of how to improve your employee retention rates.
Recruit Outside the Box
There is no simple one-size-fits-all strategy for recruitment. To keep up with the trends you must think outside the box when it comes to recruitment. Depending on the structure and size of your company, you may wish to integrate applicant tracking systems or recruitment software into your recruiting strategy, work with a staffing firm, and/or take steps to recruit remotely.
By taking steps to attract top talent, make it easy for employee candidates to find and apply to your company, and keep those employees once they have been hired, you may insulate yourself against workforce shortages.
