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Staff Recruitment and Retention in 2022
2022 has seen a number of challenges around recruitment and retention of staff for a lot of businesses. Having gone through focus on remote working, followed by the Great Resignation, the UK companies are now facing the Great Return phase, where the previously resigned employees, having experienced other working environments are now considering returning to their previous employers.
The access to the candidate market originally heavily impacted by Brexit and pandemic has seen some stabilisation and improvement toward the end of 2022 with more workers expressing readiness to work and many having to return to work due to financial pressures. However, the staff shortages continue, and further reviews of the immigration system would be welcome.
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For many businesses, 2022 has been a year of reviewing internal procedures, benefits, and salaries in an aim to increase their competitiveness in the candidate market. We have seen changes to shift patterns, attendance bonuses, retainer bonuses as well as improvements of internal facilities to retain the workers. The strategic forward planning of staffing has been at the heart of those businesses that have been affected by the current lack of candidate availability and the boom in new opportunities in the job market. Increase in flexibility of working hours and engagement of part-time workers has been a welcome opportunity by many candidates and a relief to many employers. The biggest impact, however, has been on the hourly pay rates for staff. It has been a real race to the top which is likely to continue in 2023 with the new living wage increasing again in April.
The training and investment in staff will be the key to retention and business efficiencies in the coming year. Businesses should be looking to engage with reputable training providers to guarantee a continuous improvement of processes and development of staff.
It’s strongly believed that all of the work that has been done throughout 2022 to improve businesses’ attractiveness to candidates and to increase the retention of staff has been crucial and will give strong foundations as we go into 2023. It would be naïve to believe that the new year will not bring new challenges, especially with the current economic and political climate, however, the lessons learnt in 2022 will not be lost on us all. Here’s to a strong 2023 and new things to come!
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