Why are your people looking?

Sterning HR tracks salaries and collates data around what makes people thrive to ensure that we stay informed of what business is doing to reward performance and attract and retain talent. This helps us align candidate expectations with the market and also advise clients when they position their new roles and prepare for programs that will help retain their high performers.

According to research from Gartner, only 30% of Australian workers intend to stay in their roles this year. Aaron McEwan, Advisory Leader in the Gartner HR practice says “Growth targets are high, and for years, organizations have expected their workers to do more with less and achieve continuous results against a backdrop of constant change and increasing complexity.”

“Workers are acutely aware of what their employers want from them; they’re feeling pressure to work longer hours, often without pay, and take work home in order to meet deadlines. With the added stress of ‘always on’ technology and flat wage growth, it’s not surprising that employees are feeling overworked, disrespected, stressed and anxious,”

Out of the 70% that said they were ready to look for a new role – the key things that came out in Gartner’s research was lack of internal promotion and opportunities, lack of new challenges, poor training and development and poor work life balance. The top reason for wanting to leave was burnout. This is scary!

Is the “war for talent” still real?

We would say yes when it comes to HR. It is a competitive space and if you are a commercial, outcomes focussed individual, this will put you a step ahead of the pack. On the flipside when you are recruiting your next HR professional it is essential you know what you want your person to achieve and based on the ability to achieve those objectives – you need to reward appropriately, provide development opportunities and wellness programs focussed on the individual. Managers need to create opportunities for real conversation and feedback to understand what will attract, retain and develop your people.

Gone are the days of HR just ticking boxes and offering tea and sympathy. HR professionals need to be able to focus on lifting capability and performance and this has to align with the overall business strategy. Which begs the next question – should the term “People and Culture” still exist or should it be “People and Performance”?

Need some help navigating all of this? Give me a call for a confidential discussion on how we may be able to help!