Maintaining Human Resource Capacity: A Fresh Look at Employee Turnover Amid Global Skills Shortages

We need to talk about something that’s been keeping many of us up at night: resource shortage and employee turnover. It’s one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today, and it’s not limited to any specific role, industry, or country—it’s a global phenomenon.  This scarcity is creating a skills gap in our companies and presenting us with capacity planning and work stability challenges.  But you know what?  These resource shortages are also forcing us to rethink how we approach employees and resourcing.  So, let’s dive in and explore how this new reality is reshaping our strategies.


 

Managing Employee Turnover: The Shift from Retention to Adaptation

In the past, our primary focus was on retaining employees, but in today’s landscape, it’s more about managing the flow.  We must accept the reality that we’ll inevitably lose a percentage of our workforce.  So, instead of fighting against it, let’s embrace it and develop efficient strategies to manage the outflow of employees and their replacements.  One effective approach is to prioritise internal promotions, ensuring a steady flow of talent while also seeking new recruits at the base.  By doing so, we maintain stability and reduce our dependence on external hires.  What this means is that we need to first understand how many employees the business can afford to lose because they outgrew the business.  This number needs to be based on facts and data.  Once the number is obtained we can help you devise strategies to manage the flow of employees coming into the company, those being promoted and the accepted percentage leaving.

 

How we can help you:

  • Establishing the benchmark percentage of employees that the business can afford to lose.
  • Developing career paths for employees to grow in the business and get promoted.
  • Develop strategies for employee mobility between roles.
  • Identify leaders who you can invest in.

 

Preserving Knowledge Amidst Employee Turnover

As we navigate the flow of employees, we must ensure that knowledge doesn’t leave with them.  It’s crucial to retain organisational knowledge to sustain smooth operations and prevent disruptions caused by employee turnover.  Implement processes and systems that facilitate knowledge transfer, capturing valuable information and embedding it into our company’s processes and systems.  By doing this, we create a cushion for employees transitioning between roles and minimise the impact of resource shortages.

How we can help you:

  • Identifying the key knowledge that is required for retention and growth.
  • Helping you look into processes and systems to ensure that knowledge is built into them.
  • Developing procedures and manuals for employees to follow.
  • Devising employee offboarding processes to capture knowledge that was about to be lost.

 

The Increasing Importance of Employee Engagement

While employee retention remains important, the new reality places greater emphasis on employee engagement.  Engaged employees contribute their full potential during their tenure, helping us navigate the resource shortages more effectively.  So, how do we foster engagement?  It starts with purpose.  Fair compensation is the bare minimum, but employees also crave personal development, career growth opportunities, and flexible work models that allow for better work-life balance.  By prioritising these aspects, we create an environment where employees are fully engaged and motivated to give their best.

How we can help you:

  • Compensation strategies for employees that are in line with the business needs and growth.
  • Role definition and career planning for employees.
  • Developing leaders in the workforce.
  • Developing work-life balance strategies that are beneficial to employees while still making sense for productivity and operations.

 

Measuring Productivity: Quality Over Quantity

In this changing landscape, it’s essential to rethink how we measure productivity.  It’s no longer about counting hours spent in the office; it’s about measuring tangible outcomes.  This shift is driven by the need to adapt to remote work and the realisation that productivity doesn’t always correlate with time spent on the task.  By focusing on measuring productivity rather than time, we gain a more accurate understanding of our employees’ contributions.  This shift in measurement aligns with the current trend and enables us to make informed decisions, even in the face of resource shortages.

How we can help you:

  • Defining the measurables and KPIs for each role and business area.
  • Creating systems and processes that enable periodic measurement, analysis and corrective action.
  • Creating metrics to understand individual employee contribution against pre-defined employee objectives and targets.

 

A Structured Path to Succession through Employee Turnover

Considering the various aspects we’ve discussed—resource shortages, employee flow, and engagement—it’s becoming evident that our organisations need a clear structure.  This structure includes well-defined career paths, roles, and a steady flow of employees entering at lower levels and progressing over time.  However, to support this scenario, we must cultivate strong organisational leadership.  Identifying employees with leadership skills is essential, as their influence inspires and engages others, creating visible career paths.  This structured approach not only addresses resource shortages but also designs succession into our businesses.

How we can help you:

  • Role definition and career planning for employees.
  • Developing leaders in the workforce.
  • Defining succession plans and metrics for each role.

 

 

Resource shortages may be one of the biggest challenges we face, but they also present opportunities for growth and transformation.  By managing the flow of employees, preserving knowledge, prioritising engagement, and measuring productivity effectively, we can adapt to this new reality.  Embracing a structured approach to employee resourcing with clear career paths and roles, allows us to nurture talent from within and increase the likelihood of replacing lost employees with internal resources.  Ultimately, the focus on knowledge retention and strong leadership ensures a smooth-running organisation, regardless of the resource shortages we encounter.

 

So, let’s face these challenges head-on, adapt our strategies, and build resilient businesses that thrive in the face of resource scarcity.  Together, we can navigate these changes and emerge stronger on the other side.

 

CMG Consulta can help you evaluate and shape your resourcing strategies.  Get in touch with us to discuss your business.