What To Keep in Mind When Hiring Post, the Great Resignation?

The workplace of today is witnessing a change in terms of talent, work culture, different models of work, and so on. The ‘alternate reality’ post the pandemic has proved that a different dimension of work can exist thereby breaking the historical template of a workplace. With this came two sets of the workforce—the one that worked accommodating this change and the one that set out to seek this change!

When one worker left a job for another, it wasn’t a big deal. However, a spike in resignations signalled trouble for the employers as it involved a war for talent. With the recent trend, things are a bit different as the focus is not just on who pays more, but on the work-life balance and flexibility above everything else. 

The workforce of today thrives in an environment that is challenging, and one with a clear vision and focus on employee well-being. This ‘new reality’ is encouraging organizations to approach talent acquisition differently and one definite start is by seeking feedback and actually implementing it at the workplace. The two years since 2020 is an experience employees do not want to give up and as per a McKinsey report, employees are happy to change career paths and relocate in exchange for a job that gives them flexibility and empowerment.

“The workforce of today thrives in an environment that is challenging, and one with a clear vision and focus on employee well-being. This ‘new reality’ is encouraging organizations to approach talent acquisition differently and one definite start is by seeking feedback and actually implementing it at the workplace.”

At Granicus, the current recruitment practices have gone through changes which ensure talent is engaged formally and informally a dozen times. Candidates get to meet the entire ecosystem of their future workplace through leadership connects to enable their knowledge about the organization and people. The company wants to reassure them that it values the person and the skills they bring to Granicus, assuring a great future where their ideas can grow, be recognized, and be rewarded.

Also read: From The Great Resignation To Great Reshuffle – What Changed? Disprz CEO Explains

The situation now

The workplace of today is defined by a ‘concept’. It has become more global, digital, inclusive, and not to mention the different digital generations coming together. Skills get an upper hand when the filters are applied. With distributed teams and the employees knowing what they do actually matters, the recipe for a healthy workplace is ready. The stigma associated with showing gaps in the CV no longer exists as employers ‘understand’ prioritizing family for work, health, education, and so on. Despite all of this, employers still struggle to find the right talent.

The current recruitment practice at Granicus includes mandatory cognitive & personality assessments and coding assessments followed by team interviews. Through this practice, the company believes in hiring the right skills and learning potential to have the right talent onboard. However, we do recognize getting the right skills is challenging and time-consuming.

Why the quick fix strategy may not work anymore!

Mass hiring and firing, quick-fix strategies, policies existing on paper and not in practice, and redundant measures in talent acquisition are only quick fixes. An employee may be excited about an offer and is soon going to consider quitting if the role doesn’t deliver the opportunities it promised during the hiring process. Therefore, HR leaders need to discard the traditional practices of hiring as the talent of today is not just looking for a job but a culture that they fit in.

In line with this, along with technology innovation, Granicus emphasizes organizational innovation to foster collaboration, satisfaction, and put people above everything else. Our core values at Granicus inspire our people to look at their jobs much more than writing lines of Code.  As part of our commitment to cultural inclusivity & engagement, we conduct a quarterly eNPS survey to collect anonymous feedback on what’s going well & what could be improved.

Along with technical excellence, it is the passion, energy, and goodwill that drive our core values of ‘Code as a Craft’ and ‘Humanity of Developers’.

‘Code as a Craft‘ – enabling us to provide the best possible products to our customers and;

‘Humanity of Developers’ – unified generously their time, energy, and goodwill to deliver products that connect ‘Citizens with Government’ through digitalization and transparency.  

Also read: Borrow, Build, Buy: Ericsson’s Talent Acquisition Strategy For 5G Workforce

The need for a long-term hiring strategy

The new generation of talent is vocal. They have opinions about the environment, inclusivity, discrimination, and so on. HR leaders need to define and implement this ecosystem for talent to thrive. The workplace should enable learning, upskilling, and reskilling with clearly defined goals and foster an environment that promotes inclusivity, and development. There must be innovative ways of hiring that include structured training that helps nourish the talent from within rather than outsourcing it. The experience from hiring to exit is a non-negotiable factor and it is important that exit interviews are given the same attention as hiring interviews. 

Hence all stakeholders must jointly take ownership to enrich the candidate and employee experience. Companies must invest in building “sticky” workplaces—listening to employees, implementing “stay” interviews, anticipating and addressing any concerns, fostering psychological safety and a sense of community, and measuring outcomes. 

A more real-time measure of Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) will contribute majorly to a more acceptable, open, and trust-based partnership and act on the feedback to showcase visible implementation changes on a real-time basis. Through this, we need to transform into an employee-first approach. With significant shifts in workforce preference and employee mobility, policies that have been drawn in the past may not be relevant anymore. 

Also read: We Substantially Increased Hiring by 75% From 2020 Till This Year: Anju Sansoa, Swiss Re GBS India

Key benefits that employees are looking for in a post-pandemic workplace include better insurance coverage, wellness support, flexible working locations, flex time, and monetary bonuses. Employee wellness has become even more imperative for employers to focus and dig deeper for developing effective programs that can help realize the benefits of well-being – strengthening culture, reduced burnout, and attrition. 

At Granicus, the benefits are crafted with the understanding that our employees’ mental and physical well-being is paramount. Through our Wellbeing Wednesday initiative, we make an effort to reduce work fatigue and give employees time to recharge with 1x global Unplug Day per quarter and 2x No Meeting Days per quarter. 

Group Mediclaim Insurance for parents, Accident & Life Insurance, Annual Health checkups, access to premium health care membership like Headspace for meditation and mindfulness practice, Ginger App which is on-demand mental health support 24/7 with unlimited access to behavioral health coaching via text-based chat and skill building exercises at no cost to employees and their families, are just a few of the health benefits covered by our benefits program.

Through our annual wellness allowance, employees can subscribe through various memberships that include gym, yoga, personal trainers, group classes, home exercise equipment, and more.

Role of leadership

Good leaders are critical differentiators in a competitive environment. Building a leadership pipeline entails a series of continuous long-drawn activities and timelines. The importance of continuous feedback and recognition at the workplace in keeping employees engaged and the role of leaders in ensuring recognition must be continuous and timely. Every employee at Granicus has access to an online recognition platform – KazooHR through which they can make someone’s day by awarding reward points to thank their colleagues.  In order to foster professional and personal connections, our employees also have access to global leaders through ongoing coffee sessions and formal & informal slack channels.

Organizations must reinvent themselves to align with an entirely new set of expectations to fit the ever-changing dynamics of modern business. Through Granicus Social, we celebrate festivals, team-building activities, diversity programs, awards programs, and employee success. Our learning & development function includes unlimited access to learning tools, women leadership development, and managerial development.

In this current talent war, implementing unique and unconventional strategies to stay ahead of the curve and competition in strengthening talent acquisition practices, training and development while continuing to focus on the employee-employer relationship will be imperative.

About the Author:Brijesh is a senior professional with more than 18 years of HR experience across industries primarily in Technology, Banking & IT Services.