With roller coaster unemployment levels and an uncertain economy, attracting and retaining talent should be easy, right? Yes, and no, says Towers Watson. While many Canadian companies are finding it relatively painless to attract and retain staff, they’re also finding it difficult to attract the ones they want the most: critical-skill employees.
According to the Towers Watson Talent Management and Rewards Survey, 57% of Canadian companies are experiencing problems attracting critical-skill employees—compared to 20% for their workforce overall, while 43% are having difficulty attracting top-performing employees. And 39% are experiencing challenges retaining critical-skill employees.
“Although hiring rates have increased moderately since 2009, employers are still experiencing difficulties finding and recruiting employees with critical skills,” says Ofelia Isabel, Canadian talent management and rewards leader for Towers Watson. “Organizations are taking longer to fill these positions, and more of them are open. There is clearly a greater-than-normal mismatch between the skills employers seek and those that are available in the marketplace. In short, organizations need a more appealing offering to attract critical-skill employees.”
And therein lies the problem, it seems. Since the recession, many employers have increased hours and cut back on perks, which makes it difficult to attract critical performers who may have better options elsewhere.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they expect their employees to work more hours now than they did prior to the recession and see this trend continuing for some time. Overall, 60% of respondents said employees have been working more hours over the past three years, and 47% expect this trend to continue for the next three years. A quarter (25%) of the employers surveyed said their employees have been using less vacation and personal time over the past three years.
Yet, despite the long hours, the majority of respondents also said they’re concerned about how the organizational changes they’ve made in response to the recession have impacted employees’ work/life balance and productivity.
Almost half (48%) of respondents expressed concern about the long-term effects of such changes on their employees’ ability to maintain a healthy balance—and with good reason. Employees, who were surveyed separately, consistently ranked work-related stress as the top reason they would leave an organization.
Simply put, employers who insist on long hours can’t have their cake and eat it, too.
“In the short-run, having employees work extra hours can increase productivity, but in the long-run, extended hours can negatively affect employee well-being and retention,” says Julie Naismith, a senior rewards consultant at Towers Watson. “Employees at many organizations are already suffering from change fatigue. As a result, when the labour market does recover, employers can expect a sharp increase in voluntary turnover, especially if they do not address employee concerns and deliver reward and talent management programs more effectively.”