Only 57% Firms Have Tech Tools To Capture Trends Around Employee Retention and Productivity – Survey

Globally, the pandemic-era phenomenon known as the Great Resignation shows no signs of slowing with senior executives planning to leave their organisations in the next two years, according to a new report released today by KellyOCG, the outsourcing and consulting business of Kelly. The 2022 KellyOCG Global Workforce Report – Re:work uncovers the disconnect between evolving employee expectations and the support firms provide.

The report, a follow-up to the 2021 report, Next-level Agility: The Four Dynamics of a Resilient Workforce, identifies the greatest talent challenges and risks facing organisations as they emerge from the pandemic. It also explores how companies are transforming across four critical dynamics of success: workforce agility; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); employee experience; and adoption of tools and technologies.

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KellyOCG surveyed C-suite leaders, board members, department heads, directors, and managers in 12 countries and 10 industries. In India, the key findings include:

• Hybrid work model faces multiple challenges. While 45% say that their employer promotes flexibility (flexible work hours, hybrid office and remote working), on the other hand, 54% state that within their organisation, in-office employees are perceived as higher performers than remote/hybrid employees. 90% believe that their organisation regularly experiments with new ways of working to see if they improve the employee experience but only 49% believe that their organisation has a definitive plan for whether, when and how to return employees to the physical workplace.  

• Firms are not going far enough or fast enough to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion and support employees’ mental health. While 54% say that their firms have open conversations or forums where senior management discusses issues around DEI with employees, only 42% state that advocacy or employee resource groups across the organisation focus on issues faced by specific groups of employees (such as representation, mental health, discrimination, etc.) are active.

• Holistic experience is important for employees to continue with their firms. While 79% believe that their organisation is successful in providing a competitive remuneration and benefits package only 39% plan to stay with their current employer for at least two years.
• Hiring contingent talent is one of the biggest talent barriers firms face today. More than one in three leaders say their firms struggle to hire the contingent talent they need to remain agile in today’s economy. 48% say that their organisation plans to increase their use of contingent talent by at least 25% in the next five years, but only 24% say that they use contingent talent to enhance the workforce with specialist skills and infuse ideation and innovation into the organisation.
   
• Firms are lagging when it comes to adopting the right tools and technologies required to develop their workforce. Only 57% have data analytics tools that enable them to capture trends around employee retention and productivity – yet 87% of firms who have adopted such technologies say they have been positively received by employees.

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Peter Hamilton, vice president and managing director, APAC, at KellyOCG shared that post pandemic, many employees have been planning to move jobs or switch roles in their teams, and that makes retention and nurturing of current talent critical. “There have been some positive developments in terms of work-style flexibilities, and it is very important that firms continue to invest in technology and holistic development of employees to ensure that they do not drop out,” he added.