The aging population of Canada was already causing problematic situations in recruitment and retention of top talent. However, the pandemic-related health and economic crisis has only made the problem worse leading to even greater employee turnover. According to StatsCanada, over the past 10 years in Canada, employment has increased by 10% while the labour force has grown by only 1%. In the second quarter of 2021, Canada had nearly 732,000 vacant positions.
To combat this employer challenge, many companies have turned to creative ways to fill their open roles and keep their best employees. We touched on this topic in a previous article, Leverage Health Spending Accounts to Attract and Retain Top Talent.
Benefits Canada recently reported how the pandemic has changed what employees care about in their happy employment. Gone are the days of employers bragging about modern offices with gyms, fully stocked kitchens and bowling alleys. Since the pandemic hit, the idea of sharing a meal or treadmill with a colleague became a lot less attractive to workers. The shift toward remote work means competition in recruitment and retention of top talent has never been fiercer in some industries.
TD leveraging creative benefits to recruit and retain talent
For example, in the financial sector, employers are rolling out higher wages and a broader benefits package for their teams. TD Bank is one of many employers in Canada enhancing meaningful benefits offerings in their pursuit of recruitment and retention of top talent. Bloomberg reported recently that TD Bank will be expanding their wellness spending account benefit offerings in their fight for financial talent. Starting March 1st, TD will be adding child daycare and elder care as eligible expenses for employees’ wellness accounts. They will also be adding coverage for fertility treatment and support for adoption costs.
TD’s leverage of their wellness spending account offering is just one example. Here are other recruitment and retention tactics to be on top of in 2022:
Top recruitment and retention tactics in 2022
1. Wages and benefits
This tactic will always top the list of what’s important to your employees. To recruit qualified personnel, you need to understand what the market bears as well as how much you can afford. To optimize the recruitment and retention of employees, companies will have to offer competitive benefits such as the TD example above. Total compensation needs to be used and communicated.
2. Flex time and flex place
Working remotely has became somewhat second nature in the past two years. Tele-commuting via Zoom, MS Teams, Skype, etc. is here to stay. There are arguments that remote working creates less productivity and counter arguments that the opposite is true. Both are likely true depending on the industry, the employer and the individual employee. Regardless, working from anywhere and any time will now be the norm for many jobs going forward. Being couped up in an office or cubicle is a thing of the past.
3. Mental Health in the workplace
Happiness in the workplace comes in many shapes and sizes. Physical and mental health, professional development, and even personal development at work, have become a top priority for employees in their decision to accept an offer and to stay at a job. Employers need to ensure employees – particularly new employees – feel happy and motivated at work. Furthermore, employers will have to establish an evolved atmosphere built on workplace allowances, diversification, mutual respect, peaceful conciliation and absence of conflict.
4. Professional development
Companies will need to focus more on internal learning opportunities and project availability. The access and availability of skill upgrading will be paramount to employee satisfaction. Internally paid training will be increasingly necessary to attract workers. In selling, it is often easier to retain and sell to existing customers than to attract new buyers. The same is true amongst employees. The resources needed to attract a new employee is 4-5 times higher than the activity of retaining existing team members.
5. Recognition and advancement
Like the previous point, it is easier to retain existing employees than attracting new ones. Equal access to career advancement for all is going to be a trend going forward (and should have been all along). Wages and raises will have a closer tie to performance than hierarchical seniority and tenure models of the past. In addition, regular displays of recognition – whether public or private – allows room for initiative. Everyone needs to have opportunities linked to their quality of the work.
6. Company culture and values
Employee values need to align with company mission and vision statements for them to believe in the company. Employees want more than a job. Their activities in the company are part of a cause that makes their involvement worthwhile. They want to surround themselves with a belief they can wrap themselves in. Salary and benefits are a start. But work life should have emotional meaning to them.
Additionally, employees want to work for a company taking responsibility and doing their part to be agents of change on important issues. Especially when those agents of change align with their own ethical compass. They want to work for companies that uphold ethical values, as much on a human level as social, economic and environmental level. The application of community social responsibility mandate should be integrated into all business operations strategies.
Your Health and Wellness Insights
When employees feel appreciated and are actively achieving their personal goals, morale, productivity, and motivation rise. Jobseekers look for that in future employers. Pair job happiness with the flexibility to change or adjust their wellness goals, you create a strong personal network. Job engagement and loyalty will surely get a boost. A healthy, happy workforce is the foundation of a healthy, successful business. Recruitment and retention of top talent starts with putting the health and wellbeing of employees first.
Does your employee benefits plan include the flexibility to attract and retain top talent? Not sure? Contact the team at HSA Easy Pay Ltd. for a free consultation. We can also provide a demo of how our no-out-of-pocket solution can ease the stresses of your entire team – including you!
Healthcare is stressful enough. Paying for it shouldn’t be.
