How to Retain Talent in 2023 and Beyond!

It’s more important than ever to create and develop both retention and attraction strategies to suit individual businesses as what works for one will often be different to what works for another. In my role, it’s so interesting to hear new initiatives and ideas on how to improve in areas such as flexible working and how this has changed and evolved since lockdown, like views on wellbeing budgets, holiday allowance and what is no longer seen as important for people heading back to the office on a more regular basis.

If you’ve read my recent article focussing on recruiting during economic uncertainty, you’ll have no doubt realised the importance of attracting and keeping top talent. This applies especially when the financial climate may not be encouraging individuals to take the risk of changing jobs and may even make them question if they are receiving adequate remuneration in light of an increase in living costs.

In this blog discover more insights from some of the most connected and experienced figures in the industry on how to attract and retain your staff heading into 2023 and beyond.

Laura Walters - Board Director, Executive Search 

Darryl Hall  - Head of Marketing

There feels to be a big return to work that has gone on since the Summer. Has anyone noticed traffic getting back to normal after over 2 years of pleasant journeys to the office? I’ve noticed far more ‘on site’ vs. hybrid working coming through too. Up until 6-9 months ago, it was abnormal to see an expectation to be Mon-Fri working from the office for new roles. But now, especially in London, it's the norm in many cases. This may signal hybrid has been and will likely be returning to ‘flexible working arrangements’ negotiated like the past vs. an automatic right in some cases.

Businesses shouldn’t lose all the lessons learnt over these past few years though. Work and life balance is important for many. Especially working parents (and we need them in the economy to support all our futures). A lot of the soft benefits that came through I believe will be less important over time. Employers that introduced pizza Fridays / pool tables / gimmicky inclusions will find their value to incentivise workers back to the office will diminish as employers expect office working as the norm anyway. Think more flexible working, improving holiday entitlement, enhanced sick day provisions, breakfasts and lunch provisions would make people’s lives easier to balance the cost of living and having / raising a family. Let’s not lose too much of the progress in the last few years!

 Tim Hutchinson - User Experience & Product Director

People just need reassurance, certainty and security. It doesn’t matter how much flexibility or benefits you throw at a role, I think candidates are going to be looking for business stability.

 Bethany Bolton – Head of Marketing

I think of each of my colleagues as a customer.  To ensure they take the time to leave a review and a 5 star rating we need to deliver a best in class customer experience.  To do that we need to understand their needs - and not surprisingly each individual is different.  Most have similar basic needs and now there are a plethora of additional minimum expectations (and rightly so) such as flexible working, wellbeing budgets, training budgets, diversity and inclusion, ESG etc.   These need to be genuine claims - always manage customer expectations and then exceed them, you can't just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk too.  Ensure their workload is manageable so they are able to attend training courses or use that extra days holiday you gave them, make sure you remember they have school pick up at 2.30pm on Fridays and don't put meetings in etc.  

Are these elements the things that make people happy in their role though?  From my 'customer research' what most care about more is - being developed, feeling empowered to work autonomously but can ask for support when they need it, ability to grow in their role and progress, enjoying working with their team and wider colleagues, being challenged in their role, feeling able to challenge freely, feeling listened to, being thanked and recognised and being able to be themselves.  Most of these don’t cost a thing, just time and a commitment to the culture top down.  My advice to employers - Treat your colleagues like customers (and also like grown adults trusted to do the job they've been tasked with!), treat them as individuals, listen to them, respect them and be genuine - and PLEASE reward their loyalty and efforts.  Creating this kind of culture will improve not only your retention and attraction it'll improve your commercials and you'll enjoy going to work as you've happy colleagues.

 Kelly Byrne - Co-CEO

Our biggest worry is getting people in, and then letting them go - and then if things go up again, getting people in again! Feels just like a rollercoaster. We just don’t want to take any risks, and even though the business is doing well - given the ups and downs of this year, until we have a solid 6 months of positive high growth we won’t be changing things. We haven't introduced any new initiatives really, although we offer pretty much full flexibility - usually just one day a week in office seems to work for us.

 Adam Moran - Digital Performance Lead, mSix & Partners

Most businesses now seem to be going back to a minimum of two to three days a week, depending on the sector this could be more than this. Connections in industries such as architecture are in and on-site four to five days a week. For us working as part of an embedded team, we are in the two to three days a week, but aim to co-ordinate between both our own internal team and also the client teams. I have heard of other companies moving to mandatory two fixed days a week with one flex. I think a large % of businesses across all sectors will now be hybrid for the foreseeable future and will be part of the reason some will look to move to (or leave) a company. Both working hybrid and having flexibility are key components of a package for people now.

Businesses have dramatically changed in quite a short space of time to focus on employee wellbeing. I have never worked for a company that offer so much to people. WPP Global this year offered a ‘Making Space’ long weekend back in July whereby they granted everyone under WPP an extra Friday and Monday in July for everyone to have a long weekend to help with wellbeing. In addition to this, with Mental Health Awareness week two weeks ago, mSix also granted a free Friday off for Mental Health Awareness. In addition, there was numerous talks and cross company promotion of Mental Health with numerous types of support available across the organization. E.g. Free Mindspace subscription, employee assistance programs, free BUPA medical cover.

David Twigg – Head of Digital Marketing

Since the pandemic there has been a noticeable shift in remote working being a candidates preferred working arrangement - even if the candidate is based in the same city as your company. The pandemic has also improved people's approach to wellbeing and mental health, which has made benefit packages and company culture even more important than before. An enticing and unique benefits package with a remote first working arrangement has become key to attracting and retaining talent. 

 Laura Belshaw - Head of Business, MuscleFood

Flexible/hybrid working is key. Businesses need not fear it, and if they do, they’re just driving the best talent away. On top of this, office culture is vital. From providing regular culture focused events (even little things like monthly payday meals and drinks etc) to ensuring the office is an inspiring environment (space to break out, modern set up, vibrancy and colour), people will want to feel more invested in the company and coming into the office.

But the biggest focus for improving retention should be progression plans. Giving people goal posts to work towards followed by rewards (such as promotions, pay rises, team expansion), is how you keep your talent. If you don’t invest within you might as well forget about bringing new talent in as you will struggle to attract and keep them.

 Will Bennett - National Account Manager

In order to help employers retain staff or even attract new employees, I feel a balance needs to be struck with a decent financial package and flexible working. Following the pandemic and lockdowns, more and more people are wanting to strike a work life balance and simply live more. Nowadays, the hybrid working model is very much the here and now, whereas personally I believe a 4-day week is the future. You could argue a 5-day week isn’t exactly a work life balance. Therefore, I feel employers will require striking this balance to offer a good financial package to support living on top of offering some frills (flexi working/4-day week/increased holidays) in order to differentiate themselves and attract/retain the best talent moving into 2023, whilst also improving productivity.  

Hopefully this has illuminated the ways in which you and your business can attract and hold on to the best candidates in the industry heading into the next year.

If you would like any advice when it comes to building a strong and talented team, please get in touch with us today, we’d be happy to help!

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