Employee retention remains top workforce challenge, SHRM survey finds

Jan 29, 2018 | Hiring and Interviewing | 0 comments

Employee retention and turnover ranks as the top workforce management challenge, cited by 47% of HR leaders surveyed for the 2018 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Report. It is the third consecutive year this challenge has topped the list.

Recruitment was the second-biggest challenge at 36%, while culture management, at 34%, jumped from the fifth most-cited challenge last year to third this year.

The top workforce management challenges cited by HR professionals are:
1.  Employee retention/turnover
2.  Recruitment
3.  Culture management
4.  Succession planning
5.  Employee engagement

The report also found HR leaders are using human-centered approaches in the workplace, which may help resolve retention, recruitment and culture management challenges.

“Continuous peer feedback and recognition, as well as a supportive feedback environment, have the power to help organizations drive employee growth and development,” said Derek Irvine, VP of strategy and consulting, Globoforce. “As our study shows, HR professionals are still dissatisfied with the accuracy of traditional performance reviews. Reward and performance strategies need to be reimagined so they help fulfill employees’ basic human needs of appreciation and connection. Social recognition programs alongside more human-centered practices have the power to not only strengthen relationships between employees, but also employees’ overall connections to the companies they work for.”

The SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Programs Survey was commissioned by Globoforce and conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management from Sept. 27 to Oct. 18. The final sample of the survey comprised 738 HR professionals who are employed at organizations with a staff size of 500 or more employees.