blogs / 18 JUL 2022
Solving the Great Resignation with Talent Management Considerations – Part 3
According to a recent Cartus survey, "2022 Remote Work Landscape Report—Executive Summary," 80% of our respondents said that offering remote work had a positive impact on their recruitment and retention, and 70% felt the impact on employee engagement would be positive. Moreover, remote employment widens your candidate pool, which can be priceless for hard-to-fill positions.
The “Great Resignation” is now a familiar term to hiring managers and has become the catalyst for many organizations to reimagine work and provide employees with greater flexibility by shifting to remote or hybrid roles. The pandemic certainly accelerated this trend, but will the number of remote workers slowly return to pre-COVID numbers? Most importantly, is a remote or hybrid workforce the best solution for your organization? In the third part of this Great Resignation blog series, I explore some of the issues that HR professionals need to be mindful of when exploring remote work options.
The concept is not a new one. Global Workplace Analytics research conducted by the Census bureau before 2020 noted that work-at-home employees have grown by 173% since 2005—11% faster than the rest of the workforce. As people adapted to the pandemic, the trend continued to grow (and at a much faster rate). Now, as the working environment begins to return to one similar to that of pre-pandemic normality, HR professionals are tasked with defining what this newer version of normal will look like. While not all job roles are suited to remote work, there are several benefits to working from home.
Reduced Real Estate Costs
A reduced onsite workforce allows you to be strategic in the real estate you do have. You could choose to spend your money on a smaller space that meets your company’s new needs now that you have a hybrid or remote workforce.
Talent Management Considerations in a New World
What else should an organization consider regarding the impact of remote or hybrid work? According to research by Gartners, there is a risk that employees who work remotely may feel disconnected from their company’s culture. To combat this, Gartners’ findings suggest HR professionals should:
Reshape culture and leadership for a sustainable hybrid workplace
Repair the lack of connection to the organization’s culture that many employees now feel
Build a roadmap with immediate 90-day, and 12-month actions steps to:
Intentionally reinforce greater and more impactful ways for people to connect with your company’s culture—both emotionally and through their day-to-day work and experiences
Ensure leaders take a more human (authentic, empathetic, and adaptive) approach to oversee people and work
How Do We Implement These Action Steps?
Prevent remote employee isolation:
Remote work is such an expanding phenomenon that managers must find ways to connect with employees as if they are physically present during a workday. This is not a huge stretch as many managers are not physically available to employees if they are in meetings and away from the office. Employees just want a connection, and this can be accomplished virtually through vital one-on-one time.
Integrate new hires with colleagues:
Part of the onboarding process should be more than filling out paperwork. This is an opportunity for work teams to get together and explore the company’s culture. This may also be an excellent time to assign mentors to any new hires.
Cross-team social interaction:
Even through virtual meetings, managers can schedule social events such as virtual happy hours and ad hoc activities that are meaningful to employees.
Maintain and evolve company culture remotely:
As companies are celebrating diversity, equity, and inclusion, plan events that are geared towards cultural interactions. It is one thing for employees to take training and quite another for employees to be immersed in activities and games with other cultures in their company, including members outside of their immediate work teams.
The Final Word
Working remotely can foster more innovative ways of working but does risk isolation. To combat this, companies should look to create fun work activities around what is most important to their employees. Organizations can flourish when they retain key talent. This can be achieved by offering more flexible work solutions such as remote or hybrid environments but also by allowing employees to grow through engagement activities.
Have you read the other blog posts in this series?
Word count: 446
Karen Wilks
