Nexus: Recruiting and retaining talent in an ever-changing world
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Nexus has re-imagined recruitment to compete for talent in a changed world. People and Culture Director Rachel Redshaw explains why we should all rethink our approach to attract and retain the best people.
How can we retain our current employees as well as attract new talent to the organisation?
This is not a new question; in fact it’s been such a recurring theme throughout my 25 years in HR, that you would think a universal solution would have been invented by now and we would be following a beautifully crafted framework for success.
We aren’t. Why? Well, put simply, it’s complex.
The world changes, businesses change, it’s hard to predict the future, to successfully plan ahead for what skills will be needed 5, 10, 20 years from now. There is competition for talent (some describe it as a war) and it drives a fear reaction, that tempts businesses into short-term solutions of incentivising retention, inflating pay scales and conducting a narrow industry-specific search for new talent, who have a suite of ‘essential’ skills and experience that allows for a quick transition that requires minimal effort.
This approach is fundamentally flawed. Even more so as we live in a world that has changed significantly and continues forward in a state of constant flux. People have came through Covid with very different lived experiences and their expectations have changed. People are looking at their current or potential employers for flexibility, to be supported on a personal level and with opportunities to grow.
Huge advances in technology have brought about products and services that are quicker, personalised and experiential from organisations that are agile, responsive and innovative. People have come to expect this same approach in their work lives that they experience in their personal lives and employers are having to step up to the challenge.
There has been role reversal and the decision-making on recruitment and retention is no longer the sole domain of the organisation. Employees are assessing their employer and deciding if they remain a fit for their needs; candidates are looking beyond the job specification and terms and conditions to see if the employer is inclusive, hires diverse talent, has a social conscience, environmental focus and the list goes on. Agile working has become expected and people are asking where jobs are based and how many days they are expected to commute to the office. Flexible working is no longer something occasionally requested and often rejected – rather it’s a key factor in someone’s decision-making as to whether they stay with an organisation or are attracted to join a new one.
Retaining talent is ultimately about personal engagement. Communicating with employees, creating a sense of belonging and inclusion, seeking their opinions and shaping solutions to meet personal aspirations.
At Nexus we have developed a People and Culture Strategy which reflects the entire employee lifecycle from pre-employment, during employment, to moving on. It’s about creating the best possible employee experience and has Inclusion and Diversity at the core. There are pledges around inclusion, wellbeing, career development, succession planning, retirement planning and many more which are published and accessible to all employees. We hold ourselves accountable and communicate our progress against those commitments.
Developing the skills and competencies of People Leaders is critical in achieving what we have set out in the People and Culture Strategy and through the use of the Nexus Learning Centre; we have began on a journey of equipping our leaders with contemporary training and learning options to develop their leadership competence and in turn, our colleagues and customer’s experience.
Attracting talent is about planning for the long-term, anticipating versus reacting and hiring for potential versus proven. What does this mean? It’s about being open to talent from different backgrounds, industries, life paths than you would traditionally consider.
Hiring for foundational skills and taking a holistic view of a candidates skillset and asking:- are those skills transferable, can they transition and can the skills be taught? Consider a person’s core competencies and their ability to learn. Are they curious, agile, collaborative, able to problem solve and willing to learn. How much potential do they have and can we help them realise that potential. By taking a flexible viewpoint, you can increase diversity, career pathways and personal growth.
At Nexus, we are learning how we can shape this approach into our own recruitment processes, whether this be bringing talent into the organisation or developing career pathways for our own employees. We are all adapting to a world of work that is constantly changing. As part of this, it’s important to look outside and learn from those further along in their journey and find opportunities to partner and collaborate with fellow organisations.