The recruitment and retention of top talent is one of the only true sustainable competitive advantages in modern business. But what's the best way to build that advantage, and what happens if a company tries to cut corners to keep their best employees?
In an effort to keep their talent, companies have cut corners by entering into “no poach” or “no solicitation” deals with their competitors, which means they agree not to hire or solicit each other's talent. This type of tactic is misguided because it treats the poaching as the problem, rather than the existing employer's ability to earn the loyalty and satisfaction of its top performers.
In fact, this tactic is not just bad business, but is now the subject of potential criminal prosecution. In 2016, the DOJ Antitrust Division announced that agreements between companies not to hire or recruit each other’s employees could be prosecuted criminally. The announcement followed civil actions against Big Tech companies and others for entering into agreements not to solicit their respective engineers.
The DOJ followed through on its warning shot earlier this year when it indicted Surgical Care Affiliates for colluding with two companies not to solicit senior level employees between the companies. The conspiracy allegedly consisted of phone and email conversations between HR professionals, instructions to executives not to solicit certain employees, and monitoring of employees to ensure adherence to the agreement.
In other words, making agreements regarding hiring and recruitment with competitors are exactly how not to win the talent war. These agreements actually dodge the real challenge, which is to proactively improve job features and satisfaction to keep your best employees. The DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission published a set of guidelines for HR professionals that inform how companies can setup training, as well as recruiting and retention practices to avoid competition pitfalls.
Backing up a step, the core purpose of antitrust laws in the US is to promote (or one might say mandate) competition between companies for market share, sales, or other business metrics. The idea is that when companies are forced to compete, consumers benefit by receiving goods and services that had to be good enough - and priced well enough - to beat out competitive offerings. This is why the law prevents companies from agreeing to fix prices or from engaging in collaborations that harm rather than benefit consumers (discussed in my last post).
Since 2016, the DOJ has treated corporate competition for the sale of goods and services the same way as the competition for talent. As the DOJ states in its guidance, “just as competition among sellers in an open marketplace gives consumers the benefits of lower prices, higher quality products and services, more choices, and greater innovation, competition among employers helps actual and potential employees through higher wages, better benefits, or other terms of employment." In other words, if you agree not to recruit employees from your competitors, that is just as bad as agreeing to fix prices with your competitor (and go to jail).
So how does one win the war for talent for good? By creating a magnetic culture, offering benefits that are meaningful to its employees, and measuring their progress on a number of dimensions. Every company's culture is unique, and each corporate mission, ethos and business model will attract talent who value different environments and perks, but some popular benefits choices today revolve around flexibility and equitable parental benefits.
In the age of COVID-19, flexible work schedules - meaning both when one works and where - are likely to be a key ingredient of success. Companies such as Glassdoor and Virgin Group have long offered unlimited time off rather than a “use it or lose it” policy.
Others, such as Salesforce, have recently announced that they will offer employees the option to work remotely indefinitely. While perhaps counter-intuitive, the former could incentivize employees to take time off when it is most efficient and appropriate to achieve business goals and the latter allows a company to hire the best talent regardless of where they live.
Companies have also offered flexible leave and benefits for life events and personal growth. For example, Deloitte offers a month of unpaid leave taken for any reason, and a three-to-six month leave to pursue professional or personal growth at 40% pay.
Reddit offers 16 weeks of paid leave for birth, adoptive, or foster parents, and birth mothers receive an additional four months of fully paid disability leave so they can physically recover. Others have also offered on site benefits such as pet-friendly workplaces, complementary meals, on-site fitness centers, and negotiated discounts with corporate memberships.
According to a recently released survey by Harvard Business Review and Alight Solutions of 465 business executives, 87% of business leaders confirm that workforce well-being is a competitive advantage for companies, and they further encourage companies to use data to measure their success. The study highlights a number of sources of data that companies can and should use to gauge satisfaction and performance: HR data, finance data, well-being data, customer relationship management data, and enterprise resource planning data.
According to the survey, however, 36% of survey respondents said that a lack of prioritization by leadership is the biggest reason why employee data is not being used to its full potential. Thirty-two percent of respondents said data silos/fragmentation are also hindering their organization’s ability to derive insights from employee data, which can have an adverse impact on employee engagement, productivity and retention.
Cari Wilkins, Vice President of Analytics at Alight, stated that “the power of data lies in making it actionable so it can help employers positively impact the health, wealth, wellbeing and careers of their employees, which drives better business outcomes.” The report makes a series of recommendations for leaders to (i) make sure the c-suite understands the value of data-driven employee insights, (ii) set an agenda for how the data can be used to achieve company objectives, and (iii) use data beyond those collected by HR, such as well-being and finance data, to gain a complete picture of performance and more nuanced insights.
There is no standard solution to recruiting and retaining the best talent, but if one uses data analytics and other options available to determine what makes both your company and its employees tick, the results will likely show in the marketplace.
"lose" - Google News
March 28, 2021 at 04:00PM
https://ift.tt/3tYlsrC
Winning The Talent War: A Can't-Lose Battle For Competitive Success - Forbes
"lose" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3fa3ADu https://ift.tt/2VWImBB
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Winning The Talent War: A Can't-Lose Battle For Competitive Success - Forbes"
Post a Comment