As the Great Resignation is looming, the war for talent retention will intensify among businesses. The key to winning lies in HR leaders, as the front-liners in this battle, to be more strategic in attracting new candidates and retaining employees. In the era of COVID-19, this could not be done conventionally. Most companies have shifted to the hybrid model, some even stated that they would let their employees work from home full time. Talent retention will go beyond face-to-face interaction, instead, it will rely on how much hospitality the company could offer through technology.
“In a remote working environment you’re not going to say, ‘He started at nine and ended at five’ … It’s about looking at the data more from a performance and goal-driven angle.” –Mahendra Bodduluri, a managing director for iqDynamics
Dashboard Design
In an interview with HR Direction, HRi stresses the fact that with hybrid working, not only does data need to be accessible anywhere at any time, but also digestible for everyone. The top priority is to have a hospitable dashboard that supports your employees’ workflow. According to Mahendra, businesses should start looking beyond purely operational information to talent retention and recruitment and instead focus on result-driven performance. Thus, dashboard design has to show information straightforwardly and be built in a targeted way so that everyone could make sense of what is being displayed.
“With remote working, this becomes more important because you are no longer talking to each other in the office. And if I want to know more, the tools must allow me to drill down for extra information,” Mahendra added.
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Informative Workflow
Onboarding matters a lot for talent retention, especially in a remote setting. HR leaders have to make sure that the information being delivered is clear and sufficient to help employees feel connected and sure of their role from day one. Teo Ho, iqDynamics’ co-founder, explained, “First impressions matter a lot, and it’s hard to retain an employee if you can’t get it right in the first three months. So the onboarding experience is key.”
A system for onboarding has to include deliberate step-by-step workflow, administrative task lists, and other orientation courses. Because this will be executed virtually, e-orientation will no longer be solely HR’s responsibility, but needs to be a collaborative effort between managers, HR, and IT people.
Employee Engagement
Technology is constantly changing, hence an effective adjustment is imminent. For HR leaders, surveys and questionnaires are two meaningful tools to be a “listening ear” to what employees are thinking. Questions could also be used to improve tech tools and learning methods used by managers to narrow skills gaps caused by remote working. Surveys done well will be a powerful insight for HR leaders to measure the employee experience.
However, Mahendra says this information gathering can be a double-edged sword. “With surveys, you have to know what you are going to ask for; be prepared for what you’re going to get and to take action. If you ignore the results, you might be causing more problems than by not surveying in the first place.” That being said, leaders need to be responsive and responsible with their surveys alike, by assuming the role as the leader with one mission; to see through every personalia problem. Even when things get out of hand, it is important for HR leaders to show their employees that they have the mind and good intention to improve the situation.
Technology challenges for talent retention require collaborative efforts from different functions. With less or even zero human interaction, onboarding projects have to be effective and efficient in their communications so unnecessary problems caused by remote working could be minimized. One way to practice effective communication is by adopting the BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) method, which you can learn by clicking here.
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