Responding to news of mass layoffs and an unpredictable labor market, many organizations – especially small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) – are doing everything in their power to save top talent. In its third-annual survey of human resource (HR) leaders, isolved found that “keeping top talent” is HR’s number-one stressor and what’s keeping them up at night. Costly sourcing, hiring and training are motivating organizations to not only keep the high performers they currently have, but to also upskill and reskill them to fit company needs.

Released today, isolved’s “Power Moves: What 500 HR Leaders Are Doing Now, Next” report looks at the pain points, plans and priorities of people professionals in decision-making roles. Based on the data, workforce uncertainty is driving many organizational decisions. Forty-three percent of respondents, for example do not believe the “Great Resignation” is over and SMBs are responding with learning programs. In fact, 98 percent of companies say upskilling/reskilling their workforce is important with 58 percent indicating they have a skills gap at their company.

“Businesses always try to find the employees who are truly impacting the organization positively or have the potential to with the right people and programs,” said Amy Mosher, Chief People Officer at isolved. “When the job market fluctuates between abundance and scarcity almost weekly, developing driven people is a necessity. The questions HR leaders need to ask themselves are: who are their best and brightest, what do they need to be successful and how can we keep them engaged and thriving? Predictive people analytics, learning experience platforms and, performance and engagement solutions can help.”

These questions come at a time when 51 percent of HR leaders feel employees are less motivated than they were a year ago and an equal amount expect retaining talent to be even more difficult this year. One way companies are trying to increase motivation and engagement levels is through learning-and-development programs. Another is to minimize burnout. Over a third (37 percent) have implemented strict policies around responding after hours, for example, and nearly half (46 percent) are providing flexible work arrangements (including remote work).

Despite all the interest and investments in employee retention, companies are preparing for worst-case economical situations. In fact, 53 percent of HR leaders reduced their workforce in 2022 or plan to in 2023. Further 52 percent of companies have already reduced discretionary budget this year. Just 21 percent of companies are playing the “wait and see” game, only readdressing changes to headcount and discretionary budget if the U.S. enters a recession. As a result of pressure to keep up, HR might be looking inward for cost and time savings too:

• Predicting Workforce Stability: Thirty-eight percent believe people analytics would better help them do their jobs by forecasting turnover providing one more available tool to retain top talent.
• Reducing Administrative Work: Forty-two percent of HR leaders indicate they are spending 4-10 hours a day answering repetitive questions (e.g., PTO balance, scheduling), which limits the strategic impact HR leaders can have on organizational priorities like retaining top talent.
• Unifying Employee Records: A human capital management (HCM) platform is the number-one technology respondents will invest in this year which can support employee self-service and provide a more intelligently connected employee experience and holistic view of the employee across benefits, engagement, performance and more.
• Understanding Employee Sentiment: Forty-one percent of respondents plan to invest in employee-survey technology this year in order to better understand and respond to their workforce needs.
• Reducing Workload: Fifty-eight percent of HR departments will outsource HR management tasks this year with benefit administration and employee-relation support being the top-two tasks they plan to get support with.
• Investing in HR Learning: To improve their own industry understanding, respondents indicated HR events is their number-one source for advice, news and recommendations, followed by associations.

Download the full results of isolved’s “Power Moves: What 500 HR Leaders Are Doing Now, Next” report, here and visit the isolved Events Center to register for isolved Customer Roadshows and webinars highlighting even more of the findings and how peers are responding for better business outcomes.

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