Employee Retention Poses Consistent HR Challenge

If you ask any manager or CEO what the main workforce challenge is, one is guaranteed varying answers. But, according to the 2018 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Report, the top workforce challenge is actually employee retention.

Over 700 HR professionals with staffs of more than 500 took part in this survey, where 47 percent noted turnover as the biggest struggle faced in the workplace. Following employee retention is recruitment at 36 percent. In third place, with 34 percent, is culture management, which previously held the fifth-place position. Finally, in fourth place was successful planning to round out the biggest challenges.

“Continuous peer feedback and recognition, as well as a supportive feedback environment, have the power to help organizations drive employee growth and development,” said Derek Irvine, VP of strategy and consulting, Globoforce. “As our study shows, HR professionals are still dissatisfied with the accuracy of traditional performance reviews. Reward and performance strategies need to be reimagined so they help fulfill employees’ basic human needs of appreciation and connection. Social recognition programs alongside more human-centered practices have the power to not only strengthen relationships between employees, but also employees’ overall connections to the companies they work for.”

To better understand these struggles, here are the basic definitions:

• Employee Retention: keeping staff
• Recruitment: finding qualified employees to fill the positions
• Culture management: Values, beliefs, and norms which influence behavior of people
• Successful planning: this could be scheduling, communication, organization, etc.

This is the third consecutive year in which employee retention has been number one. It seems obvious that proper workforce management strategies and solutions have  not been implemented at many of these businesses.  Could it be the struggle with recruiting qualified candidates for specific positions? It depends on the business at hand.

What is the biggest workforce challenge in your company? 

Edited by Erik Linask

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