The Top Challenges HR Teams Face in 2021

As we look to 2021, the standard for attracting and retaining top talent has changed. Hiring can be one of the most challenging aspects of human resources for some companies. While compensation will still be an important part of an employee’s drive to work for your company, there are a few more aspects that need to be addressed. Some employees may feel more attached to development opportunities, flexible working conditions, or even a chance to do good in the world.

It’s important to identify what makes your company unique within the job market, in order to align with employees who have the same values. Value and role-aligned employees stay in their jobs. 

At Culture Works, we help clients create a “bench” of great talent, so when you’re ready to find a great team member you know where to start your search. We believe in efficient and effective recruiting, which all starts with your job descriptions. 

Articulating your job description saves everyone time, money, and stress. In addition, we carefully review and screen each candidate, and we administer customized assessments while delivering value and role-aligned people to fit your needs.

Pay attention to high churn rates and employee turnover

Emplify’s 2020 Employee Engagement Trends report found that 73% of respondents are open to new career opportunities, 62% of those respondents suffer from burnout at work. In order to ensure your employees stay engaged and excited about their work, employee wellness needs to be a top priority.

After all the mental anguish we experienced in 2020, your employee’s health and wellbeing should be top of mind in everything you do. Plus, it will actually benefit your business in the long run, after all, employee wellbeing is intrinsically linked to productivity. 

In order to put this into practice within your organization, your employees have to feel comfortable talking about their health and wellbeing. Once your employees feel comfortable about communicating their need for a mental health day, you can start developing processes to ensure that workloads are reasonable. With remote work opportunities, it is easier to offer flexible work opportunities and create a company culture that supports a strong work-life balance. 

Encourage learning and development

Developing the next generation of leaders is an important aspect of human resources moving into the future. Some businesses spend billions of dollars in leadership development training that their employees are dissatisfied with. It’s important to ensure that you have the proper training programs in place that align with your employee’s needs and wants. 

Most employees would prefer flexible learning opportunities that utilize real-world applications as much as possible. Try to implement innovative approaches to learning new skills, such as online learning, on-the-job coaching, and virtual training. 

Investing in training and development for your entry-level employees is a strategy that is gaining more momentum. If you train and develop your employees from the beginning, they are more likely to remain with your company and perform stronger in their roles later on. 

Be aware of workplace bias – both unconscious and conscious

Workplace bias remains an issue that impedes the hiring, development, and promotion of underrepresented groups. While most companies have made strides in this aspect over the years, there is still quite a bit of room to improve.

In order to ensure you’re hiring employees with no bias, work to ensure you hire employees based on job-fit metrics, rather than demographics. Before you interview candidates, be sure to evaluate their skill sets and work to gain insight into their behavioral patterns based on their resume.

Once companies hire these employees, they need to focus on retaining them by ensuring their workplace is inclusive in every aspect. In order to be sure your workplace remains inclusive, you must put strong policies in place to protect employees from potentially negative experiences and behaviors. Once you’ve created these policies it’s important to train your employees on these policies to ensure employees are aware of their biases and how not to act on them. 

At Culture Works, our culture operations specialists are equipped to help your organization create an inclusive company culture that aligns with the values of your company. We help operationalize this culture to create success from within.