Surviving and Thriving Through the Great Resignation

The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit or the Great Reshuffle, is the economic trend in which employees are voluntarily resigning from their jobs en masse.

Beginning primarily in the US in early 2021, this trend has continued well into 2022. While many factors have led to the historic resignation levels including the ongoing pandemic, vaccine mandates and a strong candidate market, the largest exodus of employees this century shows no signs of slowing down.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

According to Willis Towers Watson’s 2022 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, 44% of employees are currently looking for a new job or planning to look soon. It is no surprise that this pandemic-era phenomenon is taking its toll on employers already engaged in the Global War on Talent.

In order to thrive, employers will need to not only improve employee retention, but also build an efficient recruiting machine. In today's candidate-led market, that means building the best candidate experience possible.

Improve Employee Retention

Of course the first thing employers should do is work to improve employee retention. Strategies such as promoting from within, investing in employee education, offering flexible work arrangements, providing child care support benefits and improving recognition and reward programs can go a long way to slowing employee attrition.

The additional benefit of improving employee retention is the impact those programs will have in attracting new talent. Candidates are looking far beyond just the work they will do and how they are compensated; they want to know if the work environment and company culture support their lifestyle and career ambitions. So building a workplace that is attractive to talent is fast becoming non-negotiable.

Changing the Candidate Experience

Despite the best efforts of many organizations to improve employee retention, people are continuing to leave in larger numbers.

This leaves little choice other than dramatically improving your recruiting game. An effective recruiting machine has several key components:

• Investigation: the candidate experience starts with browsing your career site and evaluating you as a potential employer and their possible role in your company. They may also look to third-party sites such as GlassDoor to get objective reviews of working at your company.

• Application: the application process enables the candidate to see if they meet the basic requirements for the job and evaluate your company based on the ease, efficiency and seamlessness of your process.

• Screening: although your company is motivated to assess whether candidates are qualified to interview and to tactfully filter out unqualified candidates, the candidate is evaluating how your company interacts with them in their continued evaluation of you as a potential employer.

• Interview: at this stage you are evaluating candidates to assess if they can both excel in the role and fit well with your culture. The candidate continues to evaluate how they are treated through this stage of the process as well as their potential relationship with future colleagues.

• Offer: now it is time to reap the benefits of your hard work and secure the best available candidates at the right compensation level. Candidates now must make a choice if your company is where they can enjoy the best current and future opportunities based on their experience, capabilities and ambitions.

In the global war on talent, it is important for employers to see how they can create a positive experience for candidates at every step of the process - or at the very least, to minimize friction and address pain-points. You cannot afford for the top candidates to drop out of the process or reject your offer because of avoidable problems with the candidate experience.

Surviving and Thriving Through the Great Resignation

Creating a candidate experience that enables your company to survive and thrive through the Great Resignation and win the Global War on Talent requires both a clear candidate experience strategy and some hard work to implement and maintain the desired experience.

Inevitably, you will need to embrace various forms of HR technology that enable your company to create easy, efficient and seamless processes for your candidates, as well as your recruiting team.

At HireQuotient, our AI-powered business skills assessments help you hire better and faster. We are part of a seamless candidate experience , and also increase the efficiency (lower resource intensity) and effectiveness (better quality outcomes) of your hiring process.

Our chatbot-powered skill assessments are built around realistic work scenarios, ensuring candidates answer structured questions based on data provided and generating insights into each candidate’s job-specific skills and business competencies.

Learn more about how HireQuotient can help your organization survive and thrive through the Great Resignation. Just visit https://hirequotient.com to schedule a demo today!