The Great Reset, The Great Resignation, or as the folks at Marketwatch call it – The Great Renegotiation — no matter what it’s called, scores of people are leaving their jobs for better ones, and that number is only growing by the month. A whopping 86% of employees in India will be looking for new jobs in the next 6 months.

According to an Aon India study, attrition rates are at a two-decade high at 21% and this is a cause of concern for most companies. The number of hires have equally exploded, with IT companies alone hiring 3,50,000 people. The primary reason for the shift is the need for a better work-life balance.

Professionals are beginning to seek work opportunities that add meaning to their lives by way of rewarding or challenging work. Trying to retain employees by paying them more isn’t enough anymore. The time is ripe for HR practices that are predicated on understanding their employees’ needs to shine through

The Aftermath

Company and HR executives alike agree that employee engagement, improved job satisfaction, and better work environments are the name of the game. Following The Great Reset, here are 3 key areas for management to focus on in order to retain talent:

Regular Engagement

One of the most important steps for a company is to regularly connect with their employees on various levels. Rewards and team collaboration are key. Management needs to be open to providing bonuses, paid time off, asking for strategic recommendations, and the like. A recent global study has shown that it takes more than a 20% pay rise to lure employees away from a company that engages them.

It’s not just enough to listen to your employees from time to time though. Their voice needs to be heard and valued. An Amazon India study found that 1 in 3 job seekers in India are looking for roles where they can do meaningful work. Other practices like surveys to collect information on the anatomy of a workday and the resulting productivity are also extremely beneficial.

If The Great Reset has shown us one thing, it is the need for better balance. Hybrid workforces are here to stay and tailoring your employee engagement strategies to be inclusive of a remote workforce is crucial.

Appreciation

Appreciation and being valued are key drivers for people, and they apply even in a professional setting.

For example, a culture that fosters the entrepreneurial spirit is highly valued and appreciated. Allowing employees to create and innovate within the corporate setting is one way to show them how valuable they are. However, it’s actually the little things like encouragement during tough days and appreciation for tasks accomplished that have proven to provide the biggest jumps in retention.

The majority of the workforce tends to quit if they feel undervalued, unappreciated, or disrespected. In a global survey, 57% of workers cited being disrespected as one of their main reasons Alldigi SmartConnect | July 2022 04 for quitting. Recognition, be it tangible or verbal, goes a long way in improving employee satisfaction.

Understanding when and how to show appreciation also matters. Verbal appreciation in a public setting or even in your company’s communications can foster a positive culture. The rewards need not necessarily be monetary or material. Increased visibility to your superiors through recognition that directly contributes to growth within the company is also something that fosters employee retention.

Inspiration & Growth

Encouraging growth through opportunity is something organizations must embrace. Employees need to be able to see clear pathways to success. HR teams and professionals must be primed to show existing and prospective employees what their careers can look like a few months or years down the line. Many new employees also seek mentors and need the opportunity to learn, so companies need to balance learning and productivity to provide real value.

Mental health is another hot topic following the pandemic, and companies that portray a sense of flexibility will fare better in the current work climate. A worldwide research study of developers by DigitalOcean, the majority of whom were from the US and India, cited remote work, flexible environments, and better benefits as strong motivations to change jobs. Research has shown that there is indeed an inverse correlation between stress and productivity. The true meaning of work-life balance isn’t to do with how much time off an employee has, but more so with how satisfied and productive they can be at work and in their daily lives simultaneously.

An Employee-Centric Future

At Alldigi, we understand that cultural alignment is crucial to facilitate most of the practices from the get-go. The culture of building trust through feedback, and growth through opportunity must be shaped and will in turn shape a company’s values. HR professionals and business leaders need to work hand in hand to make such goals a reality.

Our systems and expertise let us manage employee interactions at any level. The SmartPay platform is a complete ESS portal as well as a payroll processing engine in one package. Enterprises can input payroll information, track employee attendance, compute taxation, generate payslips and distribute salaries from this cloud-based application. Thanks to our partnership with Quess Corp, SmartPay also comes with add-on features like the ability for companies to run fun contests as well as a space for employees to raise requests for loans and salary advances.

Having such readily-available options is a step toward cultivating a friendly work environment for employees as well as streamline your HR and payroll processes. Free your HR team’s time to focus on achieving all cultural shifts necessary for your organization to thrive.