HR update March 22

ended 01. April 2022

Calling all HRs. We want to know what the main challenges have been for you in March. For example:

  • What questions have you been asked most by clients?
  • Which HR issues have been taking up most of your time?
  • What are the main themes playing out in HR right now?
  • Any developments within the HR world that everyday businesses and employees should know about?
  • Any particularly interesting situations you have had to deal with (obviously you can keep it perfectly anonymous)?

We plan to do these alerts at the end of each month now so that we can spot trends and power the news, and not just across the HR media but national and local media subject to your responses.

3 responses from the Newspage community

Legend
Sarah Loates
Director at Loates HR Consultancy
"The Great Resignation is taking a heavy toll on SMEs. As HR, we are at a major juncture: how do we attract, retain, and engage the talent we need for SMEs to flourish post COVID? Navigating the Great Resignation, and the ever-spiralling offer and counteroffer culture, now more than ever attracting and holding onto existing talent is a key priority. "Businesses need to understand what the 'pain points' are for their employees, digging below the obvious. There’s no point asking employees during an insipid exit interview, when they've already resigned and mentally checked out. Ask them whilst they are with you. The stay interview is the antidote to the Great Resignation. What excites your staff about coming to wor, what do they want to do more of, less of, what do they want to learn, and what would make them leave? "The next priority for HR is reward and recognition. SME employers: rest on your laurels at your peril. HR needs to provide creative solutions to the cost of living pain, this could be ad hoc non-consolidated payments, or diverting money to their employee’s pockets via recognition schemes, or employee referral schemes. "HR also needs to 'be kind' and really understand mental health and physical employee wellbeing. Wellbeing is so much more than dishing out pedometers and Fresh Fruit Fridays. More enlightened employers are deploying carefully considered wellbeing strategies."
Premium
Karen Watkins
Founder at Rowan Consulting
"At an operational level, we’re still carrying some legacy issues from covid around managing sickness absence, with confusion from many small businesses owners on what’s now “permitted” and what’s not in terms of being at work. But the bigger issue that is looming on the horizon is the tsunami of issues that business owners now face around managing ongoing mental well-being and employee retention, as individuals seek to find other ways to get the balance back in their lives. Recruitment shortages have hit unprecedented levels, all of which will result in a catastrophic impact on business growth at a time when ironically growth is what we need in order to recover as a country. Managing a business right now is like your hair is on fire and you're trying to put it out with a hammer."
Premium
Maddy Alexander-Grout
CEO at My VIP Rewards
"The market has gone crazy, we really are in the middle of a recruitment crisis. Employers are finding it a lot harder to attract and retain top talent. Employers need to start to think about benefits and how they can use their benefits package to support their existing employees to improve retention, but also make their packages more attractive for new employees. Pensions, holidays and free coffee don’t cut it these days. Financial well-being should be at the top of employers' lists at the moment given the rising cost of living. We are also seeing more employers who are looking into corporate social responsibility as part of their employee engagement piece."