Employee retention remains a top employer concern in 2021, with many CEOs worried about losing their top talent. That’s despite 76% of CEOs predicting hiring will return to – or even exceed – pre-pandemic levels this year, according to a new report.
Employers are anxious about losing their top talent this year, with 39% suspecting that at least one in five employees are currently looking for new jobs at other companies, according to the 2021 Future of Recruiting Study, published by social recruiting solutions firm CareerArc.
Over half (53%) of job seekers cite poor or diminishing employer brand and reputation as one of the reasons for leaving a previous job. In fact, 20% say it was the main reason why they left. While the majority of job seekers hope to find new jobs this year, 88% are concerned about the lack of jobs in their field, two-thirds (68%) of whom attribute the lack of jobs to the continued impact of Covid-19 on the economy. That said, half of Americans are optimistic about the overall job market, with 51% expecting job growth to increase under the Biden presidency.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION ‘A PRIORITY’
The survey revealed several other trends that will help organisations to hold on to their talent. For starters, one in four job seekers (26%) say that diversity, equity and inclusion messages published by employers would make them more likely to apply to that company. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of job seekers say they check social media for employee and consumer comments about workforce diversity, or lack thereof, at a company. Diversity hiring also continues to be a priority for employers, reveals the study. Launching or expanding diversity hiring programmes is among the top three hiring programmes and initiatives for 2021,
Work-life balance is also more important than pay and business stability for today’s job seekers. Over half (53%) of job seekers say discovering evidence that a prospective employer would offer poor or less work-life balance would immediately dissuade them from applying to that company. Poor work-life balance tops the list of job seeker deal-breakers, ranking above other immediate turn-offs including lower salary (50%) and a company’s decreasing profits and lack of stability (48%).
Image credit: Mohamed Hassan, Pixabay
EMPLOYER BRAND & REPUTATION MATTERS
Since the pandemic, job seekers are also prizing employer brand, culture and reputation a lot more when evaluating current and future opportunities. Despite facing and anticipating a tough labour market, job seekers now place positive employer brand, reputation and culture high on their wish list when considering applying to, or even staying at, a company. Approximately 82% consider employer brand and reputation before applying to a job – a 7% increase in the past five years. Over half (53%) of job seekers cite poor or diminishing employer brand and reputation as one of the reasons for leaving a previous job; with 20% saying it was the main reason why they left.
Social media has also increased in importance in today’s job search. Around 61% of job seekers say they increased their social media usage in 2020, nearly half (47%) of whom increased usage by at least one hour per day. Approximately, 86% of job seekers use social media in their job search and have viewed, searched for, applied to, and engaged with job- and employment-related social media content and/or reached out to contacts and recruiters about jobs on social media.
Additionally social media and social recruiting software top the list of recruiting channels and technologies most used by employers. Around 92% of employers use social and professional networks to recruit talent, ranking above employer referrals (87%), job boards (82%) and job ads (72%). In addition, social media and/or social recruiting software top the list of increased and/or continued technology investments in 2021. In 2020, 35% of employers increased their social recruiting efforts.
Nevertheless, employers worldwide are continuing to struggle to find qualified talent despite millions of candidates looking to re-enter the workforce, according to a new talent trends report. Click here to read more.
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