Dave Barnett is chief human resources and university relations officer at DeVry University. Views are the author’s own.
Organizations nationwide have been racing to attract and retain top talent in a highly competitive labor market. Many employers have replaced legacy talent acquisition and retention strategies with approaches that reflect the evolved needs and heightened expectations of employees.
To navigate this new labor market and positively impact the talent pipeline, employers can prioritize diversity, match employee values with organization values and value employees as whole people.
1. Strengthen teams through diverse hiring practices
Most human resources leaders are acutely aware of how employee priorities and expectations have shifted when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity has become a major nonnegotiable for job candidates, with recent research showing that nearly 2 out of every 3 candidates deliberately pursue careers at companies that have diverse workforces. Furthermore, creating inclusivity is not only the right thing to do, it also contributes to greater diversity of thought across an organization, which can in turn strengthen an organization’s performance, recruitment potential and retention.
Organizations have shifted hiring strategies to more clearly incorporate and communicate DEI practices in a way that attracts prospective employees. At DeVry University, our student population represents a wide range of demographics, and we strive to ensure that our faculty and staff reflect this. To that end, we require our talent acquisition professionals to be certified in diverse recruitment practices and they use specific methodologies during the recruitment process to help augment their search with diverse candidates.
2. Create strong alignment in values to beget retention
According to a recent survey from Qualtrics, 56% of employees said they would not consider a job at a company that has values they disagree with. Employers that make values well-known upfront can attract talent that enhances the organization’s mission. This can be accomplished by equipping interviewers with a set of questions that directly pertain to specific values to assess if a candidate is a good fit for the role, and how they will contribute to your organization’s purpose and culture.
When you align company values with employee values, employees are empowered to work toward the same goal. As a result, culture becomes a strong differentiator, and retention is bolstered by personal connections, collective focus and a seamless pathway to achieving objectives.
3. Value employees as whole people
In a recent engagement survey, more than 94% of DeVry colleagues said they feel that they are treated as a person, not just an employee. That is an outcome of a focused strategy to recognize the complexity that everyone brings to work in today’s environment. Creating opportunities for work/life integration and offering holistic well-being benefits are central to both attracting talent and building loyalty. Increasingly, employees seek to feel supported and valued for the complexity they manage at and away from work. While HR philosophies of the past demanded separation of these areas, current approaches must embrace both while dismissing the falsehood that separation truly exists.
As we continue to navigate the evolving expectations of employees, organizations should update their recruitment and retention strategies to align with some of the more permanent shifts that have occurred. And while these strategies may unfold differently depending on your organization’s goals and mission, prioritizing diversity, aligning employee and organizational values and valuing employees as whole people are now foundational to enhancing your pipeline of prospective talent and current employee base.
