Article

Is it time to shift your strategy for attracting and retaining talent?

With current macroeconomic conditions and the impacts of the pandemic, many organisations are needing to rethink their talent and retention strategy in order to deliver their business objectives.

By Andrew Lafontaine ,

Strategy and Growth Leader, Mercer Career

17/10/2021 · 3 minute read

With current macroeconomic conditions driving our unemployment rate to 4%, and the significant impacts of the pandemic on our labour market such as lower immigration, the “Great Resignation” and restricted international mobility, the perfect storm has arrived for a talent shortage in Australia and has brought the phrase the “war for talent” to new heights. Many organisations across all industries are working through the critical question – “Is our talent and retention strategy going to deliver our business strategy in the years to come?”

Unsurprisingly, Mercer Marsh Benefits’ recent The Five Pillars of People Risk Report highlighted that Talent Attraction and Retention was rated as the second highest people risk by the HR function. Interestingly however, when asked who was ultimately responsible for managing this risk, responses highlighted that organisations held various views in relation to where this accountability laid, including:

HR 37%,
Executive leadership team 19.7%,
Risk function 16.7%,
OH&S 12.9%,
Individual line manager 10.6%,
The board 1.5% and;
No single responsibility 1.5%.

What can organisations learn from this?

The “no single responsibility” response provides an insight about the paradigm shift that organisations need to make in relation to attracting and retaining talent. Many organisations still see the accountability for attracting and retaining talent sitting with either a specific function and/or an individual (with only 1.5% of respondents seeing it as ‘no single responsibility’). However, attracting and retaining talent needs to be a core organisational capability that every function and everyone in the organisation is accountable for.

There also needs to be a greater understanding of the talent attraction and retention problem an organisation is trying to solve. This will help strengthen that core organisational capability as the issue of attracting and retaining employees is becoming increasingly broad. While organisations still need to solve for competitive pay, a compelling employee value proposition, cultural fit and other “traditional areas”, the past 18 months have highlighted the need for organisations to also focus on mental health, work-life balance, remote working, total rewards & benefits, skills development and career management as part of their talent and attraction strategy. These areas are now critical to attracting and retaining talent and therefore, delivering the business strategy.

Has attracting and retaining talent become more difficult? Or is this just a moment in time where Talent has won the war? One thing is for sure - the seismic shifts in attracting and retaining talent that has happened over the last 18 months is still ongoing and will continue to evolve over the next few years.

Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) can work with various stakeholders across organisations to complement and extend the people risk management capabilities our clients already have. If you would like to learn more, speak to your broker at MMB or contact us here.

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