Attracting and retaining talent in a competitive jobs market

Over the past two years we have seen a fundamental shift in the labour market that is transforming the way employers think about skills and talent. The effects of Brexit and Covid have impacted not only our economy but also how people look at work and what they want from their employers. Organisations that are managing to stay on top of retaining and attracting skills have been quick to adapt, but it is hard work.

Bailes Partners Consulting works with businesses across a range of sectors to enhance leadership effectiveness and get the most from change programs, business growth, and strategic HR. We see countless organisations struggling to keep up with the change in labour market demand. Ultimately, they are too slow to adjust their practices and employee offer. They fail to recognise the full consequences of a dramatic shift in the balance of power when it comes to talent. It has become a lot harder to recruit and retain a talented workforce with skills that will deliver your business objectives.

The first consideration is to try to get your talented people to stay. The offers other employers will make to your colleagues make it a fiercely competitive market. How can you keep talent within your business and make sure they are happy where they are? This is not a straightforward question and solutions need to evolve from one day to the next.

Secondly, how can you attract talent and the skills you need when so many companies are competing over limited resources? We see inflated pay across several professions, and multiple failed recruitment campaigns when fierce counteroffers have been made at the last minute baffling recruiting managers who don’t know what to do next. Identifying what makes your organisation different and investing in the design of a candidate experience, in the same way you would your customer experience, will get you better results. These results are likely to be achieved by experts who can deftly communicate your organization’s story and know tactics to reach different parts of the labour market. This is no longer an environment in which your recruiting middle manager and generalist HR advisor are going to have all the answers.

Lastly, the situation is not going to change any time soon. There are numerous pressures on our labour market, a fundamental shift in how people think about work, and we are living in an era of the greatest workplace experiment in history. I’m looking forward to talking about these challenges at the CIH South West conference and the sorts of things that employers can be doing to retain, grow and attract skills now and for the future.