HR, it’s time to focus on retention

The US labor market continues to show strength, with the latest jobs figures again exceeding economists’ expectations.

What’s happening? The US economy added 275,000 non-farm payroll jobs in February, the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows. And although fewer jobs were added in February than January, they exceeded the 200,000 economists were expecting.

“This is good news for the labor market, as we see continued stronger than expected job growth,” Chris Martin, labor economist at workplace equity analytics platform Syndio, told HR Brew. “It kind of once again hit that Goldilocks zone.”

While there was a slight uptick in the unemployment rate—which rose modestly by 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%—it has been below 4% for the last two years, the longest period of time the rate has remained that low since the 1960s, the Washington Post reported.

Zoom out. Solid job growth and a historically low unemployment rate, along with the recent dip in the quits rate, could be a signal to HR that it’s time to spend more time focusing on retention over recruitment. And the experts agree.

“It’s time for HR folks to transition their thinking to ‘What is our value proposition?’” Martin said. “It’s time to pivot from ‘what do we need to do to be competitive in the labor market for new candidates?’ to ‘what do we need to do to be competitive for our longer tenured incumbents and to do right by them?’’”

HR should keep in mind that employees don’t need their employers in the same ways they did just a couple of decades ago, Trevor Bogan, regional director Americas for the Top Employers Institute, told HR Brew. It’s up to HR to create an environment “where people wake up every day and want to work for this company,” he said.

“You have to make people feel wanted, because if you make them feel like you just need them for something, they have a network and they can find 20 other organizations that will hire them for their skill, their talent, and they will pick them off,” he said.