Bob Lockett, Chief Diversity & Talent Officer, ADP, joins Cheddar to break down why offering more flexibility at work is a top way to retain talent at work, and how strong DEI policies help encourage employee loyalty.

On the Job

Attracting and Retaining Top Talent in Today's Workplace

to on the job presented by ADP If there's one thing we've all learned over the past couple of years, it's that workers want change a period dubbed by many as the great resignation. I know you've heard that term a lot. It's more apparent now than ever that organizations must adapt to meet their employee's needs or risk losing top talent. A study done by ADP Research Institute shows seven in every 10 workers have contemplated a major career pivot this year and that corporate ethics and values have become integral to retaining talent joining us now is bob locket chief diversity and talent officer at ADP bob. Welcome to the show, I'm so glad you're on the show to talk about such an important topic. Let's kick things off with a topic we've been discussing for a few years now flexible work. How important is it for flexible, flexible work? How important is it when it comes to retention with those employees? Hi Hannah, thank you for having me on the show. Well of course flexibility, you know, is one of those things that it's important to everybody's decision about what they want to do from a work standpoint. And remember one size doesn't fit all now, there are some companies that are going to be going back to work five days a week and that might work for them in their industry while others are gonna say, hey, we're going to have fully remote work if that's the case keep in mind that there are pros and cons to each approach and at the end of the day, what people want is flexibility so they can have work life integration versus work life balance, which I think is an important sort of spend on that old work life balance issue from times gone by now this is a candidate driven market and companies will miss out on talent if they don't offer some level of flexibility. And besides being flexible it also shows that you care about your your people holistically so they can participate in experiences that matter for them. And then finally you mentioned the survey, you know that was conducted by the ADP Research Institute about seven and 10 folks who responded to that survey said that if they didn't get some level of flexibility and if their company required them to come back into the office full time that they would say that I'm gonna start looking for a job. So that's an important thing to sort of keep in mind inflation and rising costs of living are also at top of mind. And back to your point of what you said. I think the pandemic has changed the mindset of so many of us. So how can employers approach compensation to maybe improve employee retention bob, you know Hannah by the way paying people the right amount of money is kind of table stakes for any retention effort. I mean by the, by the way you can attract people either if you don't pay them right. So in this candidate driven market, you know wages are up and that's due to some basic economic principles that you've got supply and demand. You know, there's greater demand for talent, lower supply. So of course wages are going to go up now. While compensation is one of the most important factors, it's not the only factor that will keep people. And in fact research shows that people will give up parts of their compensation if in fact they can have greater flexibility. Now. In other words, compensation plus flexibility could lead to greater retention opportunities for growth and development within an organization. Fuel employee retention as well. How can employers make those opportunities available for their workers? You know, and it's such a great question. And of course people want to learn new skills, they want to advance in their careers and they want to contribute to the organization's success. Now, we conducted an internal study related to this and our people told us that they wanted time to develop new skills and an opportunity to gain new experiences. Now we give people time to improve their skills, give them time to have those different experiences, this will build loyalty and people will stay and say, look, this is another reason why I enjoy working in this organization, diversity equity inclusion, play a big role in workplace culture as you well know, bob. How can D. E. And I play a role in employee retention efforts and also results in employee loyalty moving forward for these companies. Absolutely! Well, of course people want to work at a values driven organization and D. E. I in this day and age has to be one of those values now. ADP one of our values is each person counts, which speaks directly to diversity equity and inclusion. People want to know that their employer has a strategy around D. EI and plans to make the business world a more equitable place. Now, as we know, you can measure things like diversity. You know, you can look at demographic data, you can measure equity because you can look at the pay gaps and pay equity and promotional equity as well. And we've also developed a tool to measure your sentiment, e how do you feel about being seen valued and heard uh, in your organization? And so when people feel that they can be their true authentic selves at a company, you know, and it reflects the community in which they operate in the clients that they serve, people are more likely again to stay. What's the one thing employers can do to attract and more importantly retain today's talent bob And I wish there was only one thing, you know, unfortunately there is no silver bullet to attract and retain talent rather we have to look at the talent ecosystem to say, should we be paying people the right way, provide them the right opportunities to learn and grow, have some degree of flexibility depending on what your businesses and finally ensure that the people feel connected to your organization and they, they can be seen valued and heard for all that they are now by focusing on the ecosystem. Companies then can have pull multiple levers to say, here's how we're going to leverage this tool to attract and retain talent as needed. Now, one final thought, it's really important that leaders pay attention to their people and they can frequently check in to see how they're doing by paying attention to your people. You will avoid the need to conduct the dreaded stay interview, which is often very ineffective. So checking in with them, paying attention to them, giving them the opportunity to to have some level of flexibility and career growth opportunities all helped lead to greater retention of your associates in in in this day and age. And that is such great advice. I hope employers are listening bob locket, chief diversity and Talent Officer at ADP. We appreciate your time. Thank you and to learn more about the top trends that are reshaping the future of work, visit ADP dot com