The war for talent is fierce. As employers find it increasingly difficult to source the people and the skills they need, getting ahead of the competition requires innovation and creativity. So, whilst pay is no longer the driving force for many employees, businesses are recognising they must evolve with changing employee priorities; flexible and modern workplaces, collaborative office environments, opportunities for growth, and inspiring leadership. That is also why the most savvy employers are adopting a mixed approach of attracting new diverse talent and upskilling existing staff, with much more effort being placed on attracting and retaining older workers and women returning to work from having children.
Yet there is a lot more that employers can be doing to get themselves ahead. Research by NGA Human Resources found that more than three quarters (77%) of CEOs want more insight from their HR teams upon which to base key business decisions. Employee metrics including retention, career progression, absence and attendance, and recruitment are often the most overlooked, and CEOs say they need improved timeliness of such reporting.
Richard Shinton, business intelligence and analytics product manager at NGA HR, commented that HR and CEOs need to take joint responsibility for ensuring their organisation has the right tools in place to track metrics. “If you’re not measuring metrics, it becomes very difficult to understand your organisation,” he told HR Magazine. “The CEOs polled recognised the value that HR bring to the workplace, so they need to make sure that HR have the right tools in place.”
Wendy Murphy, senior director HR EMEA at LinkedIn, warned that failing to track employee metrics could result in organisations ‘missing out’ on talent. “In today’s climate, employee insights are a superpower. We’ve moved away from passive HR and recruiting into an era of talent intelligence, in which insights on the workforce are key to retaining quality talent and beating the competition.” “Employers need to be savvy about the way they are finding, hiring and retaining the right talent. It’ll be actionable insights based on accurate data that make the difference.”
At DJS Research, we work with our clients to demonstrate how their own internal employee engagement activities are impacting on key business metrics such as absenteeism rates, retention and turnover, customer satisfaction, incidents and sales/productivity. This is a critical tool in motivating and empowering leaders and managers to drive forwards change and improvement.
To find out more, contact:
Jenna Allen, Research Director (Employee Engagement Research)
jallen@djsresearch.com / 01663 767857