How Midsize Firms Can Attract — and Retain — Talent Right Now
Summary. Midsize companies have weaknesses when it comes to addressing the talent issues they face — but they also have critical strengths. The authors present three steps leaders can take to leverage those strengths and prevail in the toughest talent market in memory. First, they should identify and prioritize exactly which talent they’re lacking — the solution for a shortage of managers is different than one for a shortage of developers. Second, they should revamp the recruiting and onboarding process. Finally, they should craft a retention strategy. By combining the advantages they have over large companies with focused initiatives, middle-market companies can get through the current crisis and find themselves with stronger long-term talent capabilities as well.
While companies of all sizes are struggling to keep and find people during the Great Resignation, it’s hitting the middle market especially hard — and middle-market companies often find themselves with an inadequate toolkit to address the problem. The same old approaches aren’t working in the crisis and will not build the capabilities companies will need in the long run.
And crisis isn’t too strong a word. In surveys conducted by AchieveNEXT in August and again in September, middle-market CFOs and CHROs said that attracting and retaining talent is their number-one challenge — cited as such three times more often than supply-chain disruptions and nearly four times more often than costs. Worse, nearly half (47%) told us that their enterprise lacks the tools to address their talent-retention problems.
Midsize companies have weaknesses when it comes to addressing the talent issues they face — but they also have critical strengths. There are steps they can take to leverage those strengths and prevail in the toughest talent market in memory.
