This Article Is Authored By MSI Global Talent Solutions
Just as companies build resiliency for their business, so too are workers building resiliency for their careers.
Today’ssignificant focus on talent retention is a direct result of the Great Resignation, yet retention has remained a key focus for HR years prior to the pandemic. Re-skilling, upskilling, flexible work schedules, and work from anywhere are concurrent themes pervading HR and executive leadership strategies, as the workforce is laser sharp on increasing job opportunities to broaden and stabilize their careers. The ‘workforce revolution’ is challenging each layer of corporate infrastructure. Juxtaposed with supply chain skewing (with little end in sight), inflation increasing at unprecedented levels, and costs of childcare, automobiles, and goods and services rising, there is little wonder that workers are looking for better opportunities wherever they can find them. While this level of disparity can be uncomfortable, variability across all aspects of work can be a good thing.
Take a Cue from the Past as You Move into the Future
If your talent retention strategy is strong, your workers will look internally, finding the right job, at the right time, at the right price, at the right home.
Isn’tthis the way it used to be? In some ways, yes. Workers remained with the same company for years. But they remained in the same job function, moving up a career ladder with little possibility of branching out. Companies felt secure, as did their workforce, with keeping employees in siloed functions, increasing technical expertise, and providing promotions, and salary increases.
Nowadays, retaining top talent means offering full transparency to available jobs. Opening jobs to internal talent allows them to broaden their skills and career potential. This is an important first step in building talent resiliency within your company. What better way to sustain your company’s history and knowledge to build your future? Providing cross-functional opportunities increases loyalty from those you trust the most.
Who will be Investing in Your Talent?
Top talent, regardless of the company, thrives on increasing their value by developing new skills, not only for themselves but for the company. By offering available roles to home-grown talent, you deepen the strategic health of your business. Without providing job opportunities to your existing talent, they will leave to find a company that will provide the value they thrive on. Your external recruiting efforts become a high-cost reality. The Great Resignation is in now full play as your talent walks out the door to find a company that will be more than happy to provide the development they are in search of, at your cost because you have lost them.
Worker Resiliency
As your company focuses on building business resiliency, so too is your workforce focused on building career resiliency. Increasing and broadening their skills base provides the ability to weather more employment storms and unexpected business surprises in today’s geopolitical environment and pandemic realities. The ability of a company to offer internal mobility stabilizes your workforce and your company. Communicating open job availability will allow workers flexibility and choices they seek and need.
Your future depends on the growth and development of your workforce. Investing in your talent lets them know their worth. The deeper and broader skills they gain over time reinvest in the talent development of your company. Why give opportunities to external talent when your talent is ready now?
Leveraging Technology
The world is rapidly changing, mostly due to AI. If you optimize your workforce now, you will be prepared for the significant changes to jobs over the next five years. Your talent can remain firmly cemented in the organization using a flexible job model, and your company is not fighting a war for talent. Worker resiliency equals company resiliency over time.
Todo this, you must use AI wisely. Invest in technology to support your internal talent mobility decisions. Keeping a record of your workers’ skills development and mobility movement will help with the ebb and flow of your business strategy initiatives and people deployment goals. Technology systems with an extraordinary capacity to house every form of your workforce’s HR data. Reports and analytics are available at a moment’s notice. Having a system of record that is consistent and dependable is not only prudent but mandatory for both internal and external data. HR and Management, together with your workforce, can now align to best match an individualized career path to suit everyone’s goals.
Collaboration and Consistent Communication
Take a step back and objectively view your organization. How well does it communicate and collaborate with its workers? Is there full transparency at the corporate, business, HR, Talent Management, Total Rewards, Benefits, Operations, and co-worker levels? Workers are seeking flexibility, stability, and collaboration. While there are certain laws and regulations you need to be mindful of in terms of communications, consistency is appreciated and respected. Openness counts and builds trust, particularly when your workers see that you are living up to your internal mobility career goals with them.
The Future of Work
Understanding the importance of your worker's need for resiliency will help solidify your business resiliency. Introducing an internal mobility program into your HR strategy allows your talent to seek new opportunities and gain valuable experiences while remaining ‘at home, 'keeping the Great Resignation at bay. Utilizing a strong technology-enabled platform will strengthen your ability to benefit from workforce retention at the value/cost ratio you want to achieve.
OUR EXPERTISE:
MSI’s agile workforce optimization experts can help design and implement a technology-enabled internal talent mobility program to optimize your mission-critical workforce and develop long-range strategies for success.
For more information, please contact MSI – at info@msigts.com
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