This year, retention and attract should be top of everyone employer’s priority list. Working closely with many businesses, we see what employer do right and where businesses can improve. With that in mind, a key pillar of any talent strategy is retention.

This year, we will be sharing many ideas on what you can do to ensure your company has the best-in-class talent strategy for 2022!

Every role you recruit in 2022 will be challenging. Almost every candidate will have multiple offers, with salaries increasing to meet demand. 

Focusing on your internal culture, employee engagement and internal development will go a long way to retain the people you have in place, which is a very strong first step in supporting your growth in 2022. 

How? 

1. Circulate a quarterly confidential employee engagement survey to gauge employee feedback and ensure you have a sense check on internal culture. You can even go one step further and look at accreditation with Great Place to Work. Lotus People just received our accreditation and it’s a straightforward and rewarding process
   
2. Invest in learning and development – this doesn’t need to be big budget. There are free valuable courses available on LinkedIn Learning, HubSpot Academy and many more. Creating an environment focussed on employee growth and development which is led from the top can only have a positive impact on culture and on individuals.
3. Create and communicate clear progression plans. The main reason candidates come to us when considering their next move is perceived lack of progression. The best businesses and leaders have ongoing conversations regarding progression in order for individuals to know what they are working towards and where they are heading in their career.
4. Commit to regular 1 to 1s, face-to-face feedback and catch-ups to ensure a consistent flow of communication. Everyone is different – some people are extremely future-focused, others prefer to settle in a role and perfect it before moving on. Having a fixed time every week as a space for communication can mean that trust is built and ongoing conversations around job satisfaction and frustrations can happen.
5. Build a strategy around internal mobility to give candidates the opportunity to move roles within the business. I have seen this in businesses of 12 and businesses of thousands – if you can retain good talent by progressing them into a different team, you don’t lose the IP that can only come with tenure. Our first ever Lotus People employee held five roles over four years before moving onto her next adventure. Be flexible and open to what this can look like for your business.
6. Plan team social events and team bonding activities. This is a given and it’s an easy one but we are seeing this slip a lot given where we are at with the pandemic. Whether it’s remote or in person, ensure that your team have the opportunity to socialise, connect and come together. Again, budgets can vary but the value of in-person connection can make a huge difference in employee engagement.
7. Place a focus on employee mental health and nurture a supportive culture. This could be number one on this list as it is perhaps one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic. Candidates are making decisions about their next move based on employer values and how focused a leader or organisation is on its people. The BlackDog Institute offer free mental health training for employers and employees and those businesses which focus on treating valuing the work/ life blend, and managing in a holistic way, will stand out from the crowd.

To find out more about what you can to do position yourself for success this year, join our upcoming webinar on talent strategies for 2022; how to attract and retain your best people. Our co-founder, Sinead Connolly, will be joined by Kate Jolly from rapidly growing tech business, Employment Hero, and we’ll be speaking about the market and the changes we’re seeing from both an internal talent and external agency perspective.

Register today before slots run out by clicking here: Register now!

See you there!