Employee Retention: Hire The Right Talents And Keep Them
Why is it that a high percentage of qualified employees exit their organisations at higher rates today than in the not very distant past? This is a pain point for many organisations and HR professionals today as they seek to understand the underlying issues surrounding hiring and retention strategies in the company.
One key lesson that has emerged through recent developments was that hiring managers were overly-focused on employees' hard skills at the expense of their soft and less tangible skills. They tend to put excessive focus on aspects such as experience, educational qualifications, and to some extent, their personal and professional affiliations to certain bodies and educational institutions.
The resultant effect is often an unhappy employee delivering lack-luster performance which can be traced back to the mismatch between their personal attributes and the demands of the role. The burning question is thus, what are these intangible attributes which companies should be paying more attention to in candidates? And after they are onboard, what are the main workplace issues that can negatively impact employee motivation and hence sabotage retention rates?
Soft skills versus hard skills
It is often a rule-of-thumb for hiring managers to recruit the best-suited candidate in terms of qualifications and technical skills. And as mentioned above, this mistake is also often a key contributor to low retention rates. Despite its relevance to the job, an over-emphasis on hard skills as predictors of job success often leads to disappointment for both the employee and the company.
It is common today to find highly qualified but unhappy employees, often characterised by a lack of motivation and soft skills. Hard skills such as typing, writing, and budgeting though are relevant and crucial for getting the job done, but a lack of soft skills such as communication, critical thinking or conflict handling can prove to be detrimental to workplace productivity and team performance.
Thus, it is imperative for companies and recruiters today to spend more time hunting down candidates who can communicate effectively, are patient and resourceful in solving business challenges and workplace-related issues, and who can exercise critical thinking such as the ability to ask constructive questions or devising creative solutions.
Behavior versus Skills and Knowledge
Most, if not all, candidates will go to great lengths to present and demonstrate their skills and experience for the role. Not surprisingly, according to HR practitioners, there are often no lack of applicants who come across as well qualified - on paper - for the role in question.
However, it will be in the company's interests for hiring managers to avoid making any premature judgement at this point, and keep in mind that qualifications alone isn’t enough to cut it. A quick check on the common reasons for non-performing employees across different industries suggests behavioral and personality issues in areas such as :
Lack of leadership qualities
Inability to collaborate with team members
Personal indiscretions and ethics at the workplace
Insubordination, integrity issues, and in more serious cases, criminal inclinations
While some may argue that personal traits are secondary to one's abilities to get their primary job done, a lack in ethics and soft skills will likely result in an unhappy employee, and may even put the company's reputation in jeopardy. Furthermore, unlike traits and personality, a lack in knowledge or skills can be readily picked up through on the job trainings and skills upgrade programmes.
Afterall, based on data drawn from the Laws of Attraction (LOA) portal by JobStreet, a high proportion of workers in both Gen Z and Gen X are very open to having "On The Job" training for career development.
Interact with this dataset here
Finding and hiring that highly qualified employee - with the right soft skills, personal values and work ethics - is only half the battle won. Keeping great talents within the company has gotten increasingly challenging in today's highly globalised workforce. Hence, the crucial task of retaining and keeping top talents happy should not be taken lightly. While there are no standard templates for keeping employees happy and rooted in a company, it will do companies good to be acutely aware of some common factors that cause good employees to throw in the towel.
Lack of Professionalism and Respect - Bosses and managers should always engage subordinates in a professional manner, according them with due respect and a certain level of autonomy in executing their work. On one hand, it creates room for individuals to exercise their creativity and bring out the full potential in their talents, while on the other hand, it helps companies avoid one of the biggest reasons great employees leave - lack of respect.
Lack of employee recognition and appreciation - Employees come with varying strengths in different areas, and the same for performance levels. All companies should have an efficient system in place to track employee performance and duly recognise the contributions of deserving workers. Afterall, feelings of being undervalued and unappreciated are one of the most common reasons for great employees to seek out alternatives.
As we can see from the LOA data below, both professionalism and a sense of being respected and recognised for good work, ranks top on both Gen Z and Gen X candidates' minds when they are considering companies to work at.
Interact with this dataset here
Workplace boredom - Besides ensuring job scopes and responsibilities are challenging enough to keep employees motivated, workplace managers should also try to inject some mood-lifting elements of fun and inspiration at the working environment. By keeping boredom and dullness away, employees are in a better state of mind to tackle business challenges and excel in their careers. This will also mean that the chances of workers leaving due to boredom and lack of motivation is reduced.
Excessive or inappropriate rules - While rules and regulations are important for an orderly and efficient organisation, too much of them may be stifling and counter-productive. It is worthwhile to constantly engage employees to find out which are the rules that are going down well with the staff and whether there is any that needs reviewing. A rule, for example, that mandates all ladies to turn up in high heels might hurt not only people's feet but the company's employee retention rates as well.
Other push factors include a lack of engagement, favoritism, and tolerating mediocrity. These matters, if promptly addressed and properly handled, will not only result in a more productive workplace - it will also help the company retain great employees and attract more talents!
Data used in article are drawn from Data Lab - the interactive exploration tool at JobStreet's Laws of Attraction portal - based on a comprehensive study of more than 7,000 candidates across 20 industries in Singapore.
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