War for ta­lent: How em­ploy­ers win the batt­le for the best em­ployees

To stay – or not to stay? That is the ques­ti­on here

Two peo­p­le find each other, fall in love and start spen­ding more and more time tog­e­ther. They have in­iti­al­ly de­ci­ded on each other. The big ques­ti­on: does the deep com­mit­ment come af­ter the in­fa­tua­ti­on – or does it fail to ma­te­ria­li­ze and you lea­ve? The ques­ti­on is si­mi­lar­ly im­portant in today’s job mar­ket. Be­cau­se a „deeper bond“ bet­ween com­pa­ny and em­ployee is more im­portant than ever and is the­r­e­fo­re com­pa­ra­ble to a part­ner­ship.

Why is em­ployee re­ten­ti­on so im­portant?

In times of a shorta­ge of skil­led workers, the batt­le for qua­li­fied ta­lent is fier­ce. Tho­se who find sui­ta­ble can­di­da­tes must the­r­e­fo­re not only be able to win them over, but abo­ve all re­tain them. At the end of 2021, the Fe­de­ral Em­ploy­ment Agen­cy an­noun­ced that the­re was a shorta­ge of around 1.2 mil­li­on workers in Ger­ma­ny. This af­fects around 70 pro­fes­si­ons. The warforta­lent is the­r­e­fo­re fier­ce. If ap­pli­cants de­ci­de to join a com­pa­ny, they soon have to ask them­sel­ves the ques­ti­on: Do I stay? Or should I go to the com­pe­ti­ti­on?

What in­fluen­ces em­ployees‘ de­cis­i­ons?

In war and in love, as is well known, „ever­y­thing“ is per­mit­ted. At least that is what Na­po­lé­on Bo­na­par­te is said to have be­lie­ved. At the mo­ment, va­rious me­ans of re­tai­ning em­ployees are not only per­mit­ted, but ur­gen­tly re­qui­red. In the batt­le for sui­ta­ble young ta­lent and qua­li­fied spe­cia­lists, com­pa­nies can­not sit back and re­lax. They have to fight and get stuck in. But what is re­al­ly im­portant here and what me­ans are sui­ta­ble for ma­king a po­si­ti­on at­trac­ti­ve en­ough to re­tain the right staff?

The fol­lo­wing fac­tors, among others, play a role in em­ployee re­ten­ti­on:

  • Re­mu­ne­ra­ti­on
  • Working at­mo­sphe­re
  • Pro­mo­ti­on op­por­tu­ni­ties
  • Working time re­gu­la­ti­ons
  • Com­pa­ny child­ca­re
  • Work-life ba­lan­ce
  • Are­as of re­spon­si­bi­li­ty
  • com­pa­ny pen­si­on sche­me
  • Chan­ce to have a say in de­cis­i­on-ma­king
  • Ad­di­tio­nal be­ne­fits that set the com­pa­ny apart from the com­pe­ti­ti­on

What are the se­crets of sus­tainable em­ployee re­ten­ti­on?

Let’s as­su­me: Af­ter the in­iti­al love pha­se of a cou­ple, mar­ria­ge co­mes at some point. It is the sign of a long-term com­mit­ment, loyal­ty, an ob­li­ga­ti­on and a pro­mi­se. The re­la­ti­onship bet­ween a com­pa­ny and its em­ployees should be si­mi­lar – but on a pro­fes­sio­nal le­vel.

In or­der to achie­ve this long-term and sta­ble com­mit­ment, the fol­lo­wing re­qui­re­ments must be met:

1. re­se­arch cau­ses and find so­lu­ti­ons

Find the root of all evil in your com­pa­ny. Be­cau­se em­ployees have cer­tain re­asons for lea­ving a com­pa­ny. If you re­se­arch the cau­ses, you have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a real ch­an­ge. Not only will you at­tract ta­len­ted peo­p­le to your com­pa­ny, but you will also get them to stay with you. Ac­cor­ding to a 2019 ana­ly­sis by the on­line job plat­form StepStone, the fol­lo­wing are some of the re­asons why com­pa­nies are unable to re­tain their em­ployees:

  • a poor working at­mo­sphe­re, for ex­am­p­le un­fri­end­ly su­pe­ri­ors
  • No op­por­tu­ni­ties for ad­vance­ment
  • poor pay
  • poor work-life ba­lan­ce

2. re­tain em­ployees emo­tio­nal­ly

It is not for not­hing that emo­tio­nal at­tach­ment is re­fer­red to as the „glue“ of a re­la­ti­onship. Ma­na­gers should the­r­e­fo­re fo­cus on the emo­tio­nal at­tach­ment of em­ployees so that they do not re­sign be­fo­re they fi­nal­ly lea­ve the com­pa­ny. Neu­ro­sci­en­tists from the Dana Al­li­ance for Brain In­itia­ti­ves (DABI) have al­re­a­dy shown in their pu­bli­ca­ti­on on stress that our brain per­cei­ves st­res­sors par­ti­cu­lar­ly quick­ly. As a re­sult, we de­ve­lop fe­ars and the re­la­ti­onship of trust is dis­tur­bed in an emo­tio­nal­ly unsta­ble re­la­ti­onship.

In sci­en­ti­fic theo­ry, this me­ans:

In or­der to in­fluence bon­ding be­ha­vi­or in the brain, fa­vorable con­di­ti­ons must pr­e­vail. Un­der un­fa­vorable con­di­ti­ons, it is not hap­pi­ness hor­mo­nes (in­clu­ding do­pa­mi­ne, en­dor­phins, oxy­to­cin) that are re­leased, but stress hor­mo­nes that si­gnal dan­ger (ad­re­na­line, cor­ti­sol).

In prac­ti­ce, this me­ans

  • En­su­re po­si­ti­ve emo­ti­ons th­rough ac­ti­ve lis­tening, em­pa­thy, prai­se and app­re­cia­ti­on.
  • In­vol­ve em­ployees in dis­cus­sions and don’t lea­ve them out of im­portant de­cis­i­ons.
  • Con­vey a fee­ling of se­cu­ri­ty, tog­e­ther­ness, trans­pa­ren­cy and sin­ce­ri­ty – be­cau­se the­se ba­sics are part of a sta­ble and trus­ting emo­tio­nal bond.

3. of­fer at­trac­ti­ve working con­di­ti­ons

Fle­xi­ble working time mo­dels, fair re­mu­ne­ra­ti­on for all, flat hier­ar­chies: at­trac­ti­ve working con­di­ti­ons should not just be emp­ty pro­mi­ses, but com­mon prac­ti­ce. Be­cau­se de­mand ex­ceeds sup­p­ly due to the shorta­ge of per­son­nel. Skil­led workers, who are par­ti­cu­lar­ly sought af­ter to­day, will the­r­e­fo­re stay lon­gest whe­re their ru­les are play­ed by – not the other way around.

4. con­duct app­rai­sal in­ter­views and ask for feed­back

Do your em­ployees feel com­for­ta­ble? What bo­thers them? What can the com­pa­ny im­pro­ve? A con­ver­sa­ti­on at eye le­vel bet­ween bos­ses and em­ployees can work won­ders and help to re­tain key em­ployees in the long term. Peo­p­le in aut­ho­ri­ty should the­r­e­fo­re not just have a con­ser­va­ti­ve ma­nage­ment style that lea­ves no room for the opi­ni­ons of their em­ployees. Quite the op­po­si­te: tho­se who in­vol­ve young ta­lent and lis­ten to qua­li­fied spe­cia­lists se­cu­re the ad­van­ta­ge of get­ting to know the needs of their coun­ter­parts. In this way, com­pa­nies know what their em­ployees want – and how they can meet the­se needs so as not to lose em­ployees to the com­pe­ti­ti­on.

5. not a „quick num­ber“, but a ge­nui­ne re­la­ti­onship

Back to the love af­fair: part­ner­ships are not a fo­re­go­ne con­clu­si­on. The same ap­pli­es to the re­la­ti­onship bet­ween com­pa­nies and their em­ployees. An­yo­ne who ex­pects new em­ployees to stay wi­t­hout do­ing any­thing them­sel­ves is wrong. Re­la­ti­onships and mar­ria­ge mean work. And it’s the same with em­ployees. Af­ter a eu­pho­ric first pha­se of get­ting to know each other, ever­y­day life will come. But right now is the chan­ce to pro­ve yours­elf as an em­ploy­er: Show that it was­n’t about win­ning the po­ten­ti­al candidate’s he­art in the short term – or about a „qui­ckie“. It’s about buil­ding a long-term re­la­ti­onship. Small ges­tu­res, fri­end­ly gree­tings in the mor­ning, a box of ice lol­lies for em­ployees on a hot summer’s day. Ever­y­thing is al­lo­wed. But long-term and con­sis­tent, plea­se.

Con­clu­si­on: If you want to win the batt­le in times of staff shorta­ges, you have to step on the gas

Com­pa­nies that want to out­do the com­pe­ti­ti­on in times of staff and skills shorta­ges need to bring out the big guns. Af­ter all, the batt­le not only to at­tract qua­li­fied em­ployees, but abo­ve all to re­tain them, is a dif­fi­cult one. In ad­di­ti­on to good re­mu­ne­ra­ti­on and com­pa­ny be­ne­fits, which we all app­re­cia­te, the emo­tio­nal com­po­nent is par­ti­cu­lar­ly im­portant. It has long been known how im­portant it is, for ex­am­p­le, to be ap­proacha­ble as a boss. Af­ter all, line ma­na­gers can be the re­ason why em­ployees lea­ve. An out­da­ted and pu­rely con­ser­va­ti­ve ma­nage­ment style is con­side­red out­da­ted. Po­si­ti­ve emo­ti­ons, re­gu­lar dis­cus­sions with em­ployees and an app­re­cia­ti­ve ap­proach streng­then loyal­ty in the long term. Af­ter all, it’s like mar­ria­ge: say­ing „yes“ to each other is a big step. But only then does it be­co­me clear who is re­al­ly pre­pared to stay for the long term. Source: https://​ar​beits​-abc​.de/