Ross Seychell
Chief People Officer, Personio
The “Great Resignation” is neither a blip on the radar nor a one-time emergency for organisations looking to hire. From where we stand, it’s the beginning of an entirely new era: one entitled ‘attraction plus.’
While businesses have had plenty to contend with throughout the pandemic, a fundamental shift has occurred – employees have gained accelerated influence over their working environment. These raised expectations are not influencing the conversation but redefining it completely.
New laws of talent attraction are needed. Employees are far more open than ever to move jobs for professional development and increased purpose. Among SMEs, the challenge is particularly acute. Old talent models simply are not cutting it.
New laws of attraction
Businesses need to understand that the laws of talent attraction have changed. Chances are they already know that they will have to work extra hard to attract increasingly scarce new talent. What they also need to realise is that talent attraction is far from over when a candidate becomes an employee.
It’s time to ditch the negative language and mindset of talent retention. Instead, HR and business leaders need to adopt the mindset of “attraction plus.” The onus on businesses to attract talent is not over when a hire has been made. To get to this stage, however, employers need to understand why the old models of talent attraction and retention are broken.
It’s time to ditch the negative language and mindset of talent retention.
Costs of a failed talent strategy
In our 2022 Personio survey, 90% of HR decision makers said their business suffers from skills shortages, retention or hiring issues. It is clear that businesses need to change their focus from one of short-term survival to a winning long-term talent strategy as economies recover from the pandemic.
Disrupting old talent models
Talent attraction has, until recently, been seen as an external strategy, in which the perception of a business is seen as the main driver through which to attract candidates. We see this in the way many employers talk about Employer Value Propositions (EVP) when recruiting, but less so once recruitment is over.
These new laws of talent attraction are blurring the lines between internal and external, attraction and retention. Businesses need to move from concepts of attraction and retention towards a model of what we now know as attraction plus.
