Aram Lulla - Division President, FA | HR | IT | Legal | Military | SC&O | SM at Korn Ferry.
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What would happen if your top three performers quit tomorrow?
Unexpected departures can rock teams, departments and entire companies—and the risk of these surprises may be greater than you think. Fifty-eight percent of professionals would leave their job for one less interesting if it offered a higher salary, and 44% are thinking about their career path in months, not years, according to the 2023 Korn Ferry “Future of Work” survey. According to findings from Indeed, "47% of Generation-Z and 66% of Millennials said a higher salary would influence them to switch jobs."
Eroding employer loyalty and short-term career thinking are two of the many challenges HR leaders face regarding workforce planning. From ongoing economic uncertainty to tight talent markets, HR leaders are navigating challenges on all fronts. So how do we move from simply meeting the current moment to developing a long-term plan—one where an unexpected departure could be managed with ease rather than panic?
These are three critical components to agile workforce planning that can help prepare your company to navigate talent ups and downs, no matter what challenges the future holds.
1. Succession plan at all levels.
You can’t predict every employee departure, but you can mitigate the fallout from unexpected exits by planning for turnover in key roles. Building depth into your leadership bench starts with identifying mission-critical roles at every level—not just the C-suite—and positioning employees for advancement.
Communicate promotion pathways and follow through with challenge assignments, skill development and leadership training. Quiet hiring, for example, can help train the next generation of leaders by allowing up-and-coming employees to acquire new skills and demonstrate potential. By identifying potential skills gaps or leadership vacuums in advance, you can take a thoughtful approach to developing the right mix of interim hires, internal promotions and full-time hires.
2. Bring back your boomerang employees.
Companies are finding that rehiring former employees can help solve recruitment challenges. Hiring boomerang employees requires less training than new hires, saves on recruiting costs and boosts team morale. Smart HR execs understand boomerang hiring is more than a trend. They include alumni engagement as part of the employee life cycle, building recruitment programs that open the door for talent to return, along with proactive alumni recruitment.
Hesitant to get serious about boomerang hires? Given the frequency with which professionals switch employers, bringing former employees back doesn’t need to be awkward. Their existing experience shrinks onboarding timelines and makes navigating the nuances of your company culture easier. Plus, they’ve seen for themselves that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere while gathering valuable outside experience.
3. Engage Millennial talent.
Boomerang hires may be great, but what if you never lost your top performers in the first place? Companies need to understand the “why” behind employee retention stats, especially for Millennial talent. Are your employees staying in their roles to weather an uncertain market, or are they genuinely excited to build a future at your company? If employees leave, was salary, work-life balance, promotion opportunities or a disconnect between daily tasks and big-picture mission part of the problem?
Sixty-six percent of Millennials plan to change jobs in 2023, partly driven by their desire for flexible work. Yet remote and hybrid work arrangements are also weakening connections between employees and company culture. HR leaders face a catch-22: giving people the flexibility to work in ways that work for them while continuing to build connected teams and a strong culture.
Finding a path forward is critical: With Boomers at retirement age and Gen-Xers not far behind, Millennials are poised to move from middle management into senior leadership roles over the next decade. We need to be honest about the connection between company culture, employee performance and turnover. Pulse surveys, listening sessions and skip-level meetings are all opportunities to hear what’s working and what isn’t, so you can take action today to keep tomorrow’s leaders engaged.
Your next marketing leader, chief technology officer or executive director could already be within your company. It’s up to you to engage that talent, retain it and set it on a path to success.
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