SkyWater Blog

“The biggest challenge businesses face in their adoption of digital technologies is lack of capable talent…” KPMG Global Tech, September 2022  

If you're a tech employer – and today, just about every company is a tech employer - you know the drill: you pour countless hours and endless effort into recruiting and onboarding the best and brightest talent, only to watch them exit through a revolving door that seems to be spinning out of control. It's a vicious cycle, one that's becoming difficult to break. Yet, the stakes couldn’t be higher for organizations coming off a two-year big spend on new technology and infrastructure. Intended to improve agility, security, collaboration, and market growth, these investments now sit largely underused, their potential not nearly actualized, simply due to a dearth of skilled talent.

Yes, greener employers do attract more talent!

To be honest, when I started writing this April’s SkyWater blog in honor of Earth Day, I wasn’t planning to talk about recruiting. Every April, we write an Earth Day blog, and this year, I’d been inspired by an MPR podcast hosted by Angela Davis, about the growing landfill crisis in the Twin Cities. Here in the metro area, we produce 3.3 tons of trash each year, roughly one ton per Twin Cities family – so much waste that our local landfills have become overwhelmed.

If you’re like most employers, you might be underinvesting in this critical hiring and retention tactic.

According to a 2021 Gallup article, 70% of employees who would rate their new employee onboarding experience as “exceptional” also say they are in “the best possible job.” Yet, according to that same article, nearly 20% of employees say their recent onboarding experience was either poor or nonexistent. What do these statistics tell us? At a macro level, it seems obvious: employer onboarding practices are almost universally abysmal. But at the individual employer level, they point to a real opportunity. In this age of employee attrition, labor shortages, and general uncertainty about future staffing stability, these numbers suggest that there is a reason for optimism for any organization that is willing to invest in robust, multi-level onboarding practices.

According to a recent survey by Magnify Money, half of all full-time workers are expecting a year-end bonus this year.  That, just on its own, is a compelling statistic. But as we near the end of an incredibly busy, often unpredictable year of executive recruiting in the Twin Cities, I’d like to offer a few observations – and words of caution – to employers, starting with this:

6 Elements of a Perfect New Employee Announcement

If you’re hiring, here’s something you already know: you’re competing with other top employers for a handful of superior candidates. 

But if you’re not currently hiring, here’s something you may not have considered:  you’re still competing.  Every day.  And the competition is fierce.  All of your employees, from new hires to old-timers want to feel welcome, engaged, challenged, successful, and appreciated.  Every day.  If they don’t, greener pastures are just a recruiter’s email away.

In my last blog post, I talked about employee engagement and how some of the most successful organizations have been able to boost employee engagement, even during uncertain times of change.  Your organization may be experiencing a healthy level of employee engagement, but you also may have a few bright stars who have begun to become disengaged. If that is the case, how do you recognize the signs, and what can be done?

Even when we do notice an employee beginning to disengage, we’re often tempted to bury our heads in the sand, hoping it’s just a bumpy phase that will smooth itself out.

A recent survey conducted by Gallup on employee engagement across the country shows that even as Americans' wellbeing has dropped to a 12-year low in the past month amid the coronavirus outbreak, the engagement of the working population has hit a new high. Despite new working conditions such as work from home or sparse office layouts designed to promote social distancing and slow the spread of the virus, companies are making it work. This begs the question: how is your employee engagement holding up? And if you're feeling like your business may be experiencing a rise in employee disengagement, what can you implement to turn this around?

In the ongoing battle for top candidates, a liberal vacation offering is a powerful perk.  In fact, a generous and flexible PTO policy does more than attract great new candidates.  When designed, communicated and managed well, it can also help you retain your current employees.

American employees are disengaged and millions are looking for a new job. As a number of IT companies are beginning to discover, the sector isn’t immune. With low levels of unemployment and a scarcity of available talent, employers can’t afford to assume their top performers are satisfied in their work.

In a recent ADP article, writer Ellen Gregory dispels a few long-held myths about “generational differences” in today’s workforce.  Most notably, she points to U.S. Department of Labor statistics from 1983 – 2016 (the most recent available) to suggest that “job hopping” among younger workers is not a new phenomenon.  Millennials didn’t start this trend. In fact, today’s baby boomers jumped around from job to job at roughly the same frequency when they were the age of today’s millennial workers.