Post-quarantine: try to keep your talents !
Quarantine has sometimes been an opportunity for workers to question. Some had time to take stock of their careers and others noticed a significant weakening of the relationship with their employer. Companies will need to find solutions to reward efforts and retain their talent.
Despite the looming economic crisis, more than one in two executives would currently be open to new opportunities or active job search, according to a recent survey by Robert Walters.More than ever, businesses need to be mindful of retaining the talent they will need to overcome difficult times. However, 48% of employees in short-time work, surveyed by Opinionway in a survey conducted for the law firm La Garanderie Avocats, denounce a weakening of the link with their employer since the beginning of the crisis and 32% believe that they have worked much more without compensation. “Rewards ask a real question from a human resources perspective,” says Richard Letzelter, HRD at Novartis France.
An important financial risk
What is the return on your efforts? Is this an exceptional bonus? An increase? A promotion? At Novartis, as well as at the international Linedata group, the messages from the Directorates-General were clear from the beginning of the pandemic: the groups are strong. Promotions, salary increases and bonuses decided at the beginning of the year will be maintained in the same way as the participation and profit-sharing which have already been paid or are about to be. Yet half of the Hrds responding to the Willis Towers Watson survey anticipate or have already taken steps to reduce or delay increases. One third have already frozen salaries and 24% anticipate a reduction in the annual bonus envelope, or even wage reductions for 23%. «The most important is to give a vision on the future, on career plans», believes Laurianne Le Chalony, HRD group of Linedata.
Encourage a career plan
Beyond pay, job maintenance has become fundamental, as has health and safety. Training can be a solution to give employees a little more visibility.
Whether in the form of Moocs, online videos or interactive games, companies have taken advantage of the confinement to accelerate this issue. Linedata’s Human Resources Department individually contacted all employees who had received only one hour of training since January to strongly encourage them to do more. “We wanted to help our employees deepen their skills, this is a way to reassure them about their future,” says Laurianne Le Chalony. The investment is rather profitable since the number of trainings on the e-learning platform tripled between March and May. Training is also a response to internal mobility, facilitated by the fact that external recruitment is mostly frozen until further notice. Two-thirds of Hrds surveyed by Willis Towers Watson have already delayed recruitment and half have reduced the volume of hiring.
In addition to providing career opportunities, companies will also have to relax the conditions for access to telework and make less vertical organisation a reality. Dominique de La Garanderie, a lawyer specializing in social law, said: “We need to strengthen social dialogue, to multiply agreements based on company-specific parameters.”
Implementing a citizen role
The concrete implementation of the values put forward by the company is also another way to retain talent. Novartis has, for example, provided 250,000 masks and combinations to PA-HP and associations.In France, they raised $1 million to support Ehpads in the organization of family visits. And 12 additional days of leave were granted to employees who helped or wanted to give their time during this health crisis.