Gearing Human Resource Strategies to Solve Today's Workplace Challenges

Manish Verma, Global Head of Talent, Cargill

What are the present-day challenges organizations face when hiring and retaining talent?

Challenges can be differentiated into multiple levels. The 'Great Resignation' has significantly impacted the productivity level of many organizations. The high attrition rates in organizations are prompting HR departments to hire many qualified employees at once.

C-level hiring is equally challenging as candidates show high salary expectations and demands to suit their experience and expertise. Companies have to hire affordable candidates to ensure retention so that they avoid another mass resignation due to wage stagnation. The hiring of specialists comes with other challenges as well. At the senior level, companies look for exemplary candidates to steer the organization. A candidate who has already advanced in their career would be employed somewhere, and require a unique differentiation to switch companies.

Workforce challenges prompt companies to invest in employee engagement initiatives to retain employees, cutting-edge technologies to aid their growth, and unique value propositions to attract different talent segments.

What are Cargill’s employee engagement initiatives to ensure employee retention?

Apart from the usual employee engagement surveys, we conduct periodic pulse checks on a cross-section of employees for their feedback and suggestions on company policies, work culture, or adopting any new methodologies. We also invest in hiring and developing good managers as the quality of leadership grows the team's productivity, ensuring a healthy work environment to retain people.

“Workforce challenges prompt companies to invest in employee engagement initiatives to retain employees, cutting-edge technologies to aid their growth, and unique value propositions to attract different talent segments.”

We regularly check on employees, especially managers of every department, which reflects on their entire team. The frequency of assessments depends upon the department's pain points. The production team's attrition levels, for instance, call for daily workforce check-ups.

How do you manage different generations of employees?

We follow a multi-generational approach in our policies and practices at Cargill, but we also do not differentiate practices for certain generations as that can create a sense of exclusion. The multi-generational approach is a fine balance between including every generation without creating a division. Considering the tech-savvy generation at the entry-level, we employ technology-based screening procedures, chat-bots, and chat-based assessments. At the senior level, where there can be a whole different generation of employees, we focus on personalized and completely formal hiring approaches.

Employee engagement varies with the type of workforce. To tackle this, most companies employ diverse communication styles and tailor management strategies to suit different generations' requirements. Performance management, on the other hand, requires a unified approach. Inclusive work culture is where the company understands unique areas that require a differentiated approach while assuring equal involvement of employees.

What would be your advice to your peers and other industry leaders in the HR space?

Every HR professional must make use of the disruptions. These disruptions reset age-old practices, strategies, and approaches. They usually happen every decade, the most recent one being the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting labor shortage and recession led recruiters to explore new talent management strategies and be more client-centric.

HR professionals need to focus more on growing business leaders through challenges than merely executing strategies. An efficient HR team can build better leaders and a successful organization.