The rate of young professionals choosing to job-hop remains at a high. HR professionals then face the important task of adapting quickly to changing situations and ensuring that the company manages its resources wisely. We give you some insights into the things that HR professionals can do to retain and recruit best talent.
The annual job hop: a yearly migration which sees employees from various industries switching employers or even careers, seeking better remuneration, work-life balance or to start afresh in a new field. Industries which usually experience high staff turnovers include information and Communications (3.5%), Real Estate (4.1%), Accommodation and Food Services (4.8%) and the highest being Administrative and Support Services (4.9%)
Staff turnover is especially prevalent in job-abundant Singapore as employment rate remains at a yearly high of 33,400, with new jobs openings growing at a steady rate of 1.42% (MOM Yearly Market 3Q 2014). This gives employees their pick of attractive job offers.
Apart from affecting an organisation’s productivity, job-hopping also poses a challenge to HR departments. HR professionals are left to deal with a sudden shortage of staff, and the task of onboarding new staff with the right skills to fill the gaps in their organisation.
However, HR professionals can tackle this challenge by creating a positive office culture which promotes internal growth and lateral movement. This ensures that staff are constantly challenged and able to develop their full potential. In addition, back-end recruitment solutions are also needed to ensure that the company has access to a ready pool of candidates, should the need to hire arise.
Step 1: Success From Within
The day-to-day experience of working in a company is crucial and employers need to recognise that the company’s culture is one of its key selling points. Top performing companies all have work cultures with traits such as transparency, multiple channels of communication, ownership mentality, employee engagement and achievement recognition. These help to create an environment where employees take ownership of their tasks and know what it takes for themselves and their teams to achieve success.
Another hallmark of a successful company is their encouragement of internal mobility programmes. Instead of looking at the external job market, HR departments can engage with existing employees to ensure that they know about internal advancement schemes. HR professionals can also take the initiative to build programmes where promising staff are recognised and moved within the organisation to gain new experiences, build networks and be exposed to new disciplines. These internal solutions ensure that existing staff are not overlooked but given the opportunity to explore and realise their full potential.
Step 2: Solutions to Lend a Helping Hand
Another tool in a HR professional’s arsenal is integrated talent tracking and recruitment Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) software which aid in the creation of talent pipelines and improving recruitment efforts. As employees start looking for new career opportunities, they tend to post their resumes on various job boards and look through recruitment advertorials online. A SaaS solution not only tracks these views for future reference but also builds a database of potential candidates based on their qualifications.
CareerBuilder’s Talent Network is one such solution which can be incorporated into a company’s recruitment ecosystem, giving HR professionals better visibility of the local workforce and streamlining applicant tracking. Talent Network works by employing data analytics to capture both active and passive candidates; this information will then be stored so that HR departments can pick out quality candidates for current and future positions.
While job-hopping is unavoidable in Singapore’s active market, HR departments can learn from past experiences and implement practices which help curb attrition. Creating a positive workplace culture ensures that employees are constantly engaged and challenged, while back-end SaaS solutions maintain a pipeline of talented candidates should there be a need for future recruitment.
For more information on CareerBuilder Singapore's recruitment solutions, click here or drop us a message here.
