4 surprising talent optimization ideas

Feeling stressed about talent? You’re not alone. Talent optimization, including all the activities needed to acquire and retain top talent, is particularly challenging for businesses right now, U.S. executives say.

For instance, in The Conference Board’s C-Suite Outlook 2023, CEOs surveyed ranked labor shortages as one of the top six external factors or issues that would have a high impact on their businesses in 2023.^{Disclosure 1} Similarly, respondents in Protiviti and North Carolina State University’s Executive Perspectives on Top Risks for 2023 and 2032 named the tightening talent market as limiting their ability to reach their operational goals in 2023.^{Disclosure 2}

That’s the challenging news. The inspiring news is that rapid shifts in the work environment, digital transformation strategies, and even well-timed expansion moves all give you an opening to rethink and revitalize your talent strategies.

Idea 1: Assess your internal processes.

First, work with your HR team to create a comprehensive analysis of your current processes for recruiting, onboarding, developing, and engaging your employees. Gather the data on the time and money you’re putting into these activities, and what the results are. What’s your turnover rate? Is it similar to or different from the businesses you’re competing against for talent?

Be sure to include feedback from current employees. They’re acutely aware of challenges and can provide valuable insight into the root cause of high turnover, low productivity, and similar issues. One way to get this feedback is through a validated engagement or employee experience study.

Or hold conversations with employees that you frame as “stay interviews.” Your current employees are a better source of insight than your departing ones, counsels Will Sutton, president and director of Truist Leadership Institute. “A lot of employers no longer even do exit interviews because they don’t typically produce very good information or actionable feedback. Most employees don’t want to burn bridges should their new employment opportunity not work out.”

Idea 2: Infuse a sense of purpose into your organization.

Providing a better work environment is a competitive advantage when hiring new employees and keeping valued existing ones.

“We’ve entered a forever labor shortage.^{Disclosure 3} As baby boomers retire, there just aren’t enough younger workers to apply for those openings,” says Sutton. “Once you get the right people in the door, work really hard to create a place that’s special—where they want to stay. Backfilling them is just going to get more and more difficult and more and more expensive.”

Many business leaders believe that all they need to outperform their competitors when it comes to hiring is to offer an enticing salary and benefits package. While modern workers do place a significant focus on compensation, they also want more from their workplace.

A study by research and consulting firm Gartner discovered that employees crave a deep connection and a sense of purpose within their organization. In fact, 82% of respondents said they wanted to be seen as an individual by their company.^{Disclosure 4} But fewer than half said their organizations treated them that way.

Research from Truist Leadership Institute also emphasizes the importance of purpose. Of approximately 1,300 U.S. employees Truist Leadership Institute surveyed, 59% said purpose should be at least as important as profit to their employer. In addition, up to 78% agreed or strongly agreed that they often think about their purpose in life.^{Disclosure 5}

Leaders can activate organizational purpose in their own business with these key steps from Truist Leadership Institute:
 

• Be clear on what your organization’s purpose is and how it fits with your mission or vision statement.
• Identify key people to help effectively communicate purpose throughout the enterprise.
  
• Create a safe space for everyone in the organization to explore and share their purpose.
  
• Discuss with others how purpose factors into your daily work, behavior, and decisions so that others can look to you for guidance on putting purpose into practice.

Idea 3: Invest in development.

Spending on training and development may be a different line item than costs for acquisition and retention, but it’s all connected, explains Cheryl Flink, director of research at Truist Leadership Institute. “Various research indicates that investing in employee growth and development has become a critical acquisition and retention tool for both new and existing employees,” she says.