By this point, we’ve covered in-depth the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the marketing readiness, software usage, and other components of businesses across industries. In this discussion, we’ve used Pollfish to gather data from small business owners, in-house recruiters, and human resource specialists to reveal how they’ve adapted their recruiting and retention strategies post-COVID versus how they attracted and retained talent prior to the pandemic outbreak in 2020. Working with the survey data we gathered from 600 small business owners and in-house recruiters across the United States, we organized the analysis of the survey findings according to the following aspects:
- Employee Recruitment Methods
- Employee Retainment Strategies
In order to corroborate the data we gathered through Pollfish, we’ve also reached out to the wider global community of business owners, human resource specialists, and in-house recruiting professionals via several channels to secure their expert input on the same queries posed to the Pollfish respondents.
Using the combination of data and allegorical feedback, we’ve crafted the following narrative for our community in the hopes that it will help your team to identify the gaps in your own recruiting and retention strategies, allowing your team to revisit your human resource best practices for 2022 and beyond.
Employee Recruitment Methods
A majority of small businesses focused on expanding their online brand presence to find new talent pre-COVID
As with advertising, social proof plays an important role in recruiting initiatives. Job seekers will explore your brand’s online branded content, including your website and social media pages, in order to learn more about you. They will also explore other channels, such as review sites focused on employee engagement practices and the employee experience of brands, such as Glassdoor.com. Prior to the pandemic, it was crucial to manage content and engage with reviews across all of these channels. By focusing on brand presence in this way, companies were able to control visitors’ impressions of the brand, the brand’s culture, and the overall brand image.
The recruiting landscape prior to COVID-19 relied on a number of tried-and-true tactics that had emerged in recent years. Job boards still topped the list for a large number of respondents, supported by an expanding reliance on social media outreach and more transparency in job postings. In this sense, it follows that LinkedIn, which is known to have a user base focused on networking and building relationships, grew to be a powerful tool for reaching out to and communicating with potential employees.
Pre-COVID-19
(On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the most important)
Increasing your online brand presence
Utilizing more job boards
Expanding your social media reach
Creating more detailed job descriptions of the role and daily tasks
Contacting potential candidates on LinkedIn
Prioritizing workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion
Showcasing the job salary range on the job description
Showcasing company culture videos
Leveraging an employee referral program
Recruiting universities/college
Now most small businesses are prioritizing workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion, expanding their social reach, increasing their online brand presence, and showcasing salaries in their job descriptions to find new talent in 2022
In the wake of COVID-19, LinkedIn and other social channels continue to be ideal platforms for communicating to potential employees information such as company culture, salary ranges, and showing your own business’ diversity and inclusivity through videos and social posts. Inclusivity, equity, and diversity are gaining importance to job seekers in the post-pandemic economic landscape as many job seekers are utilizing the opportunity the Great Resignation has created to find jobs and businesses that are more in line with their expectations of how they want to be treated. Creating and maintaining a more inclusive and diverse workplace is shown to lead to improved employee satisfaction, higher productivity, and shows the company to be operating ethically.
2022
(On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the most important)
Prioritizing workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion
Showcasing the job salary range on the job description
Expanding your social media reach
Increasing your online brand presence
Leveraging an employee referral program
Creating more detailed job descriptions of the role and daily tasks
Showcasing company culture videos
Contacting potential candidates on LinkedIn
Recruiting universities/college
Utilizing more job boards
We explored these trends by querying the wider global community of in-house recruiters and small business owners to find out how their recruitment methods had evolved since COVID-19 struck in the first quarter of 2020.
“The pandemic has changed how we hire and recruit new employees forever. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we used LinkedIn, networking events, and such to find new talent. Since the coronavirus pandemic, we have heavily relied on LinkedIn for our recruitment and hiring process.”
—Candice Moses, Chief Marketing Officer, Information
“Prior to the pandemic, we used direct advertising, employee referrals, and employment exchanges, but we’ve changed our strategies significantly since. This is so because it became much harder to attract organic talent. It didn’t help that we were also affected by the Great Resignation. We saw a drastic fall in candidate applications for all our job posts, so we’ve now changed our strategy to outsourcing to recruitment agencies.”
—Paul Mallory, Co-founder, ConsumerGravity
“Before the pandemic we focused on high salaries and rewards for good work. Talented candidates mostly wanted to be rewarded and recognized and had more standardized requests. But It’s not so easy anymore. Money isn’t enough! Talented employees know their worth and demand more. Before starting a job candidates want to see that your company offers flexibility and a more empathetic approach to its employees. They want to see that your corporate culture coincides with what they’re expecting.”
—Cornelius Fichtner, President, OSP International LLC
34% of B2B SMBs aim to showcase their brand to new talent by displaying their business’s awards and achievements
Whether your marketing team is trying to attract potential clients or your recruiting team is attempting to entice a candidate to accept a job offer, the concept of social proof permeates almost every level of modern business operations. When leveraging social proof in your recruiting tactics, it’s important as a B2B service provider to understand how to set your organization apart across recruiting channels and what job seekers in your niche prioritize in their efforts to identify job opportunities.
For our B2B respondents to the Pollfish survey, a majority of brands prioritize showcasing awards their organizations’ have received showing potential applicants that their brand is considered a top workplace in their industry. It’s interesting to see that in this period of post-COVID recovery, a large number of respondents also showcase their charitable and community work, as these elements are shown to be increasingly important to both customers and potential hires.
B2B
18% – Including the company’s mission statement on your website and/or social platforms
34% – Proudly showcasing your company’s achievements including any awards you’ve received pertaining to being a top workplace
12% – Including a team bio page on your website
14% – Posting more company culture and/or employee testimonial videos
22% – Working with your company to give back to your community and/or charitable causes
In contrast, 24% of B2C SMBs include their company’s mission statement on their website and social media platforms
Consumer-focused services are a bit more equally split across strategies for attracting new talent. Just edging out proving that their brands are ranked as top workplaces, a slight majority of B2C Pollfish respondents instead use their website and social platforms to drive home their corporate mission statement to visitors. Using the organization’s mission statement as a recruiting tactic shows that B2C SMBs rely upon the short-hand evoked by their mission statement to draw in job seekers to their online recruiting assets, where targeted content and page links can most effectively guide job seekers through the recruitment process.
B2C
24% – Including the company’s mission statement on your website and/or social platforms
23% – Proudly showcasing your company’s achievements including any awards you’ve received pertaining to being a top workplace
12% – Including a team bio page on your website
20% – Posting more company culture and/or employee testimonial videos
21% – Working with your company to give back to your community and/or charitable causes
We wanted to explore how other brands were using various channels to showcase their brand culture and what benefit the channels they are using have provided, so we posed this question to a wider circle of business owners. Their insight showed a similar range of tactics in play across industries.
“As a company, our name does help showcase on a local level: longevity, family, respect, and community impact. Upon introduction, we welcome directing candidates to our website as a preliminary meet the Team and see who we are. The CEO has his own personal story of where he came from to where he is. Creating a very friendly, transparent communication right from the start to help candidates feel safe and welcome in their conversations.
We use all of our Leadership team in a portion of the recruiting process so candidates get to know who we are and what our culture feels like. We invite candidates to partake in any events, social or business, that we may be hosting. I would say there are many benefits to letting a candidate in right from the beginning. People join people, so allowing them to meet your Team, attend events, and come into your office only gives them a first-hand, real experience as to where they can see themselves and who they are spending time with.”
—Peter Hoopis, President, Hoopis Group
“I encourage prospective candidates to meet virtually with current employees so applicants can freely ask questions from them and have a feel of our company culture. This offers a more accurate picture of our company to the job-seeker, which can be a challenge when you’re a fully remote company”
—Kevin Huang, Founder & CEO, Ambient Home US
“Candidates now have more options in their job hunt as we have resumed hiring as our company steadily recovers from the pandemic. We are currently actively marketing ourselves to job seekers to stand out by providing pertinent benefits like flexible working hours, health and wellness packages, and sick leave policies, for instance, where employees must take care of a sick family member. Employers can no longer rely on luring candidates with a posh office or an eccentric leisure area because remote working is here to stay; instead, they must demonstrate how they will treat their personnel.”
—Lorie Carson, Founder & Marketing Manager, RealPeopleFinder
12% of small businesses are making an effort to include salary ranges in all of their job descriptions
A number of elements are emerging as essential to include in job listings to attract the attention of job seekers in 2022. From our Pollfish respondents, we’ve learned that more small businesses are including salary ranges than in the past. As employees have become less fearful of discussing salaries, a practice protected by law, they have become more discerning in their job seeking. This resulted in job listings that include salary ranges receiving much more attention than those without that information, as it allows job seekers to decide whether there is a parity between compensation and the posted job requirements. The post-COVID job seeker is also much more interested in what to expect in terms of workplace arrangements, so more brands are including explicitly whether a job is onsite, hybrid, or remote.
12% – Salary range
9% – Location
11% – Work model (onsite, hybrid, remote)
7% – Travel frequency/requirements
11% – Years of experience needed
11% – Hard skills/technical skills needed
10% – Soft skills needed
8% – Link to screening questions
10% – Company culture description
11% – Company mission and history description
We asked our community of SMB owners and in-house recruiting experts to reveal what elements they now include in job listings, given how job seeker behavior has changed in the last two years due to the pandemic.
“We always include salary range and location in our job descriptions for two reasons. One, more people want to work remotely. It’s a major factor in their decision and allowing remote work arrangements has helped us capture better talent. Two, job descriptions with salaries get far more applicants that are willing to work in our desired salary range. Why waste their time or yours with a back and forth over salary later in the process?”
—Joshua Rawe, Co-Founder, eSpark
“We post what the job entails, and whether the job is a remote one, or a physical one are two key elements to include in a new job description. In recent times, offering remote opportunities has become a must-have in order to attract talent. Failing to communicate that the job is remote may lead to a smaller pool of applications.”
—Katy Smith, Co-Founder & Product Manager, Airgram
“In the current job climate, we owe it to job seekers to be as transparent as possible about the roles that we’re advertising. The Great Resignation made it clear that employees have a new set of standards when it comes to finding meaningful work, and future-facing companies must adhere to these standards if they want to attract top talent. This means including all information relating to a role, including its requirements, reporting structure, and all the necessary qualifications that a candidate will need to succeed in the position. The more granular you can get, the more likely you’ll be to attract the caliber of candidates you’re looking for.”
—Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire
42% of SMBs leveraged both their company websites and third-party job boards pre-COVID. 48% of SMBs still use this combination in 2022
Small business owners and in-house recruiters understand that job seekers both before and after the pandemic are savvy Internet natives who continue to utilize a number of different channels to search for jobs. In order to reach the widest range of potential candidates, businesses in 2022 know that they should still be leveraging job listings not only on their own websites but also on third-party job boards and social media platforms. Posting on multiple channels allows your recruiting team to target job listings to certain audiences and potential candidate types. Multiple job posting channels also allow your team to recruit for different types of roles, as some job boards cater to specific industries and roles.
| Pre-COVID-19 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| I only posted on the company website | 36% | 28% |
| I only leveraged third-party job boards | 23% | 24% |
| I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards | 42% | 48% |
However, these statistics further varied based on the number of years that a company has been in business
Diving deeper into the Pollfish respondents and how they post job postings prior to the pandemic and post-COVID-19, we found that the number of years a business has had a profound impact on how recruiting tactics changed. Most notably, a majority of newer businesses prior to COVID-19 were only using their own company website for job postings. However, a majority of businesses that have been operating for one to two years now, essentially those that opened and have survived throughout the pandemic, rely solely upon third-party sites for job posting and recruiting, allowing them to focus their website content on marketing and sales growth.
Interestingly, businesses operating for three to five years prior to the pandemic carried their preferences over post-pandemic for utilizing a combination of their company site and third-party platforms, accounting for the shift in businesses that have been in operation for six to nine years post-pandemic. This shows that the pandemic has had a significant influence on recruiting tactics and that more brands are accepting that it’s necessary to broaden their recruiting strategies in order to find talent in this difficult economic landscape.
Majority breakdown by years in operation
| Pre-COVID-19 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 1 year | – | 41% – I only leverage third-party job boards |
| 1-2 years | 41% – I only posted on the company website | 44% – I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards |
| 3-5 years | 45% – I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards | 51% – I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards |
| 6-9 years | 48% – I only posted on the company website | 43% – I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards |
| 10+ years | 58% – I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards | 62% – I used a combination of both the company website and third-party job boards |
24% of B2B small businesses are currently using LinkedIn Jobs over alternative job boards. However, 32% of B2C small businesses are gravitating toward Indeed
The shift in usage between B2B and B2C service providers on LinkedIn versus Indeed.com makes sense when considering the demographics of the employee base targeted by each type of business. In searching for professional office personnel, management, leadership, and other specialized and skilled staff, LinkedIn is a platform where such individuals can easily be found networking and communicating with others working at the same level. For B2C providers seeking hourly staffing and other operations-focused management and leadership, Indeed and other recruiting job sites provide a faster and easier path for recruiting.
| B2B | B2C | |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Jobs | 24% | 12% |
| Indeed.com | 10% | 32% |
| ZipRecruiter | 14% | 9% |
| Monster | 13% | 6% |
| Glassdoor | 11% | 18% |
| FlexJobs | 2% | 3% |
| AngelList | 9% | 6% |
| Ladders | 11% | 3% |
| Scouted | 5% | 9% |
| Other | 1% | 3% |
The third-party website options available to B2B and B2C service providers for recruiting are numerous, so we reached out to business owners and in-house recruiters across industries to find out what sites they are using now for recruiting.
“I post job openings mostly on indeed.com and Linkedin. After COVID-19, I am posting more job advertisements on employment websites to encourage job applications from across the country. This is because my business processes have moved online and the location of the candidates is not a problem anymore. Indeed.com is my preferred third-party job board. I use it more often as it is simple to use and posting job advertisements is easier.”
—Joshua Rich, CEO, Bullseye Location Software
“We post them on our company website, and we share about them on our social media handles. We also utilize Facebook groups to maximize the reach of our job openings in a specific niche. We have always utilized this mix of online platforms for advertising our job openings, even before the pandemic.”
—Arthur Worsley, Founder, The Art of Living
“We normally post them on our company website and on a third party job board like LinkedIn and Facebook Jobs. Before, we used to post on our website and in a printed newspaper. However, since more people are now online, we have transitioned to pure online posting too. We prefer LinkedIn and Facebook Jobs as the platforms provide the targeted niche for our company’s needs. Hence, we spend less time browsing through applications since almost all of them can be considered for the job. We no longer spend time going through applications with no relevance to the job descriptions posted. Hence, they help us streamline our process.”
—Rachel Scott, Co-Founder & Medical Practitioner, National TASC LLC
47% of SMB respondents are requiring all of their candidates to complete a test project as part of the interview process
In the modern recruiting world, many organizations are choosing to put their candidates’ skills and experience to the test with test projects during the interview process. For technical positions, this is often a programming or design task related to the role. In non-technical roles, this can range from a project management scenario to data analysis. Brands use these test projects as a way to gauge a candidate’s ability to solve common problems they might face in the course of the work day. Roughly a third of our respondents to the survey didn’t feel it necessary to give such test projects during the interview process, instead relying upon candidates’ background and performance in face-to-face interviews to assess if they’re a fit.
47% – All selected candidates are required to complete a test project
29% – None of our selected candidates are required to complete a test project
23% – Sometimes – it depends on the type of position
42% of small businesses had a $501-$1,000 monthly recruiting budget pre-COVID. They’ve now increased their monthly budget to $1,001-$2,499
Fallout from the pandemic and the subsequent recovery period that has led to what many experts are referring to as the Great Resignation has combined to impose a wide range of staffing challenges on businesses of all sizes across multiple industries. In response, businesses have had to significantly shift their recruiting budgets in order to expand their efforts and deploy additional recruiting tactics, which accounts for the upward shift we see in the reported budgets of our respondents this year.
| Pre-COVID-19 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Less than $500 | 15% | 15% |
| $501-$1,000 | 42% | 35% |
| $1,001-$2499 | 33% | 39% |
| $2,500+ | 10% | 11% |
However, these statistics further varied based on the number of years that a company has been in business
Breaking down respondent data by the number of years they’ve been in operation, we see that COVID-19 had the most impact on businesses that have been operating three to five years, with that specific contingent of businesses increasing their budgeted spending by a full measure on the survey scale. Another interesting finding in breaking down the data in this manner is that businesses in operation for more than 10 years also shifted their recruiting budgets, showing that even the most established organizations didn’t go unimpacted by the pandemic.
(Majority breakdown by years in business)
| Pre-COVID-19 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 1 year | – | 36% – Less than $500 |
| 1-2 years | 54% – $501-$1,000 | 44% – $501-$1,000 |
| 3-5 years | 46% – $501-$1,000 | 52% – $1,001-$2499 |
| 6-9 years | 35% – $1,001-$2499 | 35% – $1,001-$2499 |
| 10+ years | 29% – Less than $500 | 30% – $501-$1,000 |
In the first half of our analysis, we focused on the ways in which the pandemic impacted the recruiting tactics used by small businesses and in-house recruiting specialists. From which job posting sites they are using to their overall budget, small business owners and recruiters have had to make significant changes in the tools and tactics they are leveraging to attract talent. On the other end of the human resources spectrum, retention tactics have also changed significantly. We explore how retention tactics have changed in the next section of our discussion.
Employee Retainment Strategies
A majority of SMBs retained their top talent by promoting candidates internally pre-COVID
Retention prior to the pandemic was a tricky undertaking under the best of circumstances, as employees largely looked for opportunities for advancement and robust benefits packages to keep them in roles. While data shows that employees leave positions for a myriad of reasons, a top driving factor is that there is a growing demand for work-life balance and flexible work options, forcing an increasing number of businesses to explore four-day work weeks and other options prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.
(On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the most important)
Promoting candidates internally
Offering a monthly health and wellness stipend
Providing other flexible work arrangements (4-day work weeks, summer Fridays, etc.)
Offering bonus incentives
Providing learning and development opportunities on the job
Expanding your benefit package offerings
Offering hybrid and/or remote work options
Expanding upon team diversity
Offering continuing education benefits
Assisting with student loan repayments
However, these statistics further varied by business size
Pre-pandemic retention strategies understandably shifted with the size of the organization, as our respondent data reflects. Breaking down retention strategies by business size, SMBs leveraged a number of tactics ranging from internal promotions for employees concerned with their career path to flexible work arrangements for employees looking to avoid burnout. Larger businesses focused on benefits and professional development for retaining employees.
| Majority breakdown by business size | |
|---|---|
| 2-5 employees | Promoting candidates internally |
| 6-10 employees | Providing other flexible work arrangements (4-day work weeks, summer Fridays, etc.) |
| 11-25 employees | Promoting candidates internally |
| 26-50 employees | Offering continuing education benefits |
| 51-100 employees | Expanding your benefit package offerings |
| 101-250 employees | Providing learning and development opportunities on the job |
Now in 2022, SMBs are focusing on how to retain top talent by expanding their benefit offerings
In the post-COVID economy, job seekers appear to be more concerned with the benefits and professional development opportunities their employers offer, as long-term overall satisfaction has been attached to the overall compensation package rather than other offerings. Hybrid and remote work has become more important in the post-COVID economy and is considered more of a staple requirement by employees than other flexible work arrangement models. Given the impact that COVID-19 has had on the overall health and wellness of the workforce, it’s interesting how less of our respondents are prioritizing health and wellness benefits than before the pandemic.
(On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the most important)
Expanding your benefit package offerings
Providing learning and development opportunities on the job
Promoting candidates internally
Offering hybrid and/or remote work options
Offering bonus incentives
Offering continuing education benefits
Offering a monthly health and wellness stipend
Providing other flexible work arrangements (4-day work weeks, summer Fridays, etc.)
Assisting with student loan repayments
Expanding upon team diversity
However, these statistics further varied by business size
Business sizes continued to impact employee retention strategies in 2022 as organizations strove to find the best way to keep their employees in place. Internal promotions have in most cases been supplanted by flexible work arrangements for most small businesses. At larger sizes, businesses are relying on a mixture of internal promotions, benefit program expansions, and the expansion of professional development programs to aid in retention.
| Majority breakdown by business size | |
|---|---|
| 2-5 employees | Promoting candidates internally |
| 6-10 employees | Providing other flexible work arrangements (4-day work weeks, summer Fridays, etc.) |
| 11-25 employees | Providing other flexible work arrangements (4-day work weeks, summer Fridays, etc.) |
| 26-50 employees | Expanding your benefit package offerings |
| 51-100 employees | Promoting candidates internally |
| 101-250 employees | Providing learning and development opportunities on the job |
Talent retention strategies have evolved over the last two years as businesses strive to meet current employee expectations when it comes to the employment experience. We asked business owners to provide insight into how their retention strategies have changed over since the start of the pandemic.
“To keep the existing talent in my firm pre-pandemic, one of the retention methods I used is to ensure a job position promotion once they gain a certain number of years of employment. This method will prevent employees from finding a new profession and retain them in the company as long as they want for promotions. These strategies changed when the pandemic started. Since most employees are eager to find a job that will help them increase their compensation, we improved our strategies to retain employees.”
—Lily Will, Founder & Designer, Ever Wallpaper
“According to our experiences and research, we’ve seen that the top retention methods used to keep existing talent in an organization pre-pandemic were offering competitive pay and benefits, providing opportunities for career growth, and maintaining a positive work culture. Since COVID-19 began, the strategies used to retain talent have changed in some organizations, while others have maintained the same strategies. The reason for this change is largely due to the pandemic’s impact on the global economy. Organizations that have seen a decline in revenue are more likely to change their retention methods, as they can no longer afford to offer the same pay and benefits as they did pre-pandemic. Conversely, organizations that have seen an increase in revenue are more likely to maintain their same retention methods, as they can now afford to do so.”
—Avi Lebovitz, CEO, Marketplace Fairness
“I deal with the trucking industry, an industry that is infamous for having massive employee turnover problems. We’ve been struggling like most industries with a driver shortage. In the trucking industry, employee pay is hyper-competitive, but we may have found a way to solve this issue according to our latest data. One of the big selling points of our company and its culture is the fact that we pay our drivers in numerous ways. Most businesses just give their guys a paycheck, but we give them a paycheck and stock. This is huge for retention because we’re growing massively, and will continue to grow massively for the coming years, so it helps make drivers feel like they will benefit from staying on with us to help grow the business and thus help themselves.”
—Marc Munoz, Founding Director, The Mississippi Company
14% of SMB respondents are currently adding more health benefits to their offerings, including mental health benefits
For those respondents who have prioritized health care and benefits in their retention policies, they have indicated that health and mental health benefits are a necessary addition to support employees and ensure they’re able to function and face the added challenges imposed by illness, personal loss, and other health-related obligations brought on by the pandemic. Without access to enhanced mental health benefits, many employees would be left struggling to remain efficient and would be incapable of contributing to the success of their businesses. With these benefits in place, employers can be more certain of their staff’s ability to perform in the role and show potential and existing staff that employee mental health and wellness is a priority, improving overall employee satisfaction and attracting top talent.
14% – Health benefits, including mental health benefits
11% – Retirement benefits
11% – Employee stock options
11% – Paid parental leave
11% – Life insurance and disability insurance
10% – Learning and development stipend
9% – Gym membership stipend
8% – Sabbatical leave
8% – I haven’t added any of these benefits in 2022
7% – Unlimited PTO
However, these statistics further varied by business size
According to our respondent data, the trend towards providing expanded employee health and mental wellness is a priority for all but the smallest firms in 2022. For small operations of five or fewer employees, the focus has been more on paid parental leave, helping the employees of small businesses to focus on family and still balance the needs of the business.
| Majority breakdown by business size | |
|---|---|
| 2-5 employees | 14% – Paid parental leave |
| 6-10 employees | 13% – Health benefits, including mental health benefits |
| 11-25 employees | 15% – Health benefits, including mental health benefits |
| 26-50 employees | 13% – Health benefits, including mental health benefits |
| 51-100 employees | 14% – Health benefits, including mental health benefits |
| 101-250 employees | 14% – Health benefits, including mental health benefits |
It’s important to explore what benefits business owners and HR teams are adding to their offerings in the new year, so we posed the question to the wider community to find out if their answers were aligned with those of our respondents.
“We’ve added increases with healthcare. COVID-19 are still there, with the increased costs in healthcare, employees will retain since they will feel that we care for them. There are also mental health seminars or paid leave where they have a day of paid leave quarterly. We did that because we know the struggle of being stuck at home for a few years and being exhausted with workloads. It also shows that we value their health.”
—Michelle Devani, Founder, Lovedevani
“Offering flexible hybrid work schedules is one of the best benefits you can offer in 2022. The benefits it can give to your organization are increased effectiveness and productivity. It’s also a great addition because it can both benefit employees who wanted to work from home and the ones who wanted to return to the office.”
—Jean Will, Co-Founder, NiaWigs
“We offered employees home office stipends to assist them in creating more productive workspaces and ensure that they can work comfortably and effectively from their homes.”
—Josephine Li, Founder & CEO, Cicinia
44% of small business team leaders are ensuring employee satisfaction by allowing flexible work arrangements, keeping employees informed of big company announcements, providing consistent performance feedback, and meeting with employees regularly
After more than two years working under modified work arrangements, the recent push for a return to the office or modified hybrid work arrangements has been accompanied by a strong desire for openness and transparency. It follows then that overall customer satisfaction has been strongly tied to continuing to provide flexible work arrangements. The accompanying need for transparency has led leadership to make communication of company announcements a priority. In many cases, a lack of consistent face-to-face interaction with leadership and team members over the last two years means that now many teams are also prioritizing regular meetings and performance feedback to give employees a clearer view of where they stand and where improvements can be made under the new working conditions in order to best align with brand goals.
10% – Create more collaboration opportunities through teamwork
8% – Acknowledge employee milestones
11% – Consistently keeping employees informed of any big company announcements
11% – Allow employees to have flexible work arrangements
10% – Encourage employees to use their vacation time for a better work-life balance
8% – Leverage formalized rewards and recognition systems
10% – Use training and development systems to invest in your employees’ career advancement
11% – Provide employees with continuous feedback on their performance
11% – Meet with employees regularly to maintain consistent communication
10% – Request feedback from employees on how their managers can improve
Maintaining overall employee satisfaction in the post-COVID workplace is a challenging task, even for the most experienced HR teams, so we wanted to provide additional insight into the strategies other owners are using in the field to keep employees happy and loyal to their brands. From our query of the community, we identified strategies in play and gained additional insight into how those strategies are influencing employees.
“Ensuring employee satisfaction in 2022 will require businesses to focus on creating a strong company culture. One way to do this is by promoting employee appreciation. Employee appreciation can be done in a variety of ways, such as through recognition programs, providing opportunities for growth and development, and offering a positive work environment. Our strategies to ensure employee satisfaction have not changed dramatically since” the pandemic began, but businesses are now placing a greater emphasis on company culture. This is because company culture has been shown to be a key factor in employee satisfaction and retention.”
—Cameron Toole, CFO, IBR
“How to increase worker satisfaction is one of the most frequently discussed topics in our workplace. With the economy in a slump and many businesses dealing with employee dissatisfaction, the topic of employee satisfaction has become a major concern in many businesses, including mine. One of the most important steps I have taken in increasing worker satisfaction is to establish clear expectations. My employees are less likely to be confused and frustrated when they understand what is expected of them and what will happen if they fail to meet these standards. If the expectations are clear and they know exactly what they need to do to meet them, they are much less likely to be discouraged if they do not achieve the desired result. This can have a very positive impact on overall worker happiness.”
—Alex Smith, CEO, Luckybobbleheads
“To ensure employee satisfaction in 2022, we must focus on creating a work-life balance for our employees. This can be done by offering flexible work hours, telecommuting options, and on-site child care. We will also need to provide opportunities for professional development and offer competitive salaries and benefits. By offering these perks and benefits, we can show our employees that we value their happiness and well-being. Our systems have changed slightly since COVID-19 began. Due to the pandemic, we have been forced to be more flexible with our employees. We have also implemented new safety protocols to protect our employees from the virus. However, our overall goal of ensuring employee satisfaction has not changed. We believe that happy employees are productive and will continue to invest in our workforce.”
—Michael Barr, Chief Operating Officer, TeleLeaf
17% of SMBs are promoting their company culture in 2022 by celebrating employee birthdays and work anniversaries
Protecting and building company culture in 2022 is a powerful recruiting and retention tactic, as a strong sense of company culture can ensure your staff act as one of your strongest recruiting tools when dealing with other professionals on social media and in their everyday business interactions. From a retention point of view, a strong culture shows employees that they can trust their company to remain true to its mission and vision statements and that the employee experience matters more than the bottom line.
From this point of view, celebrating events important to employees at a company level builds comradery and shows that these events matter to leadership as well. Other tactics in play leverage the desire for employees to connect with their coworkers and leadership through team-building events on- and off-site as well as satisfaction-focused employee surveys. As community involvement has gained importance for the post-COVID worker, many brands are also encouraging and even helping to organize opportunities to volunteer in the community.
12% – Offer company retreats and/or onsites
13% – Conduct team-building virtual events
15% – Allow employees opportunities to volunteer
15% – Conduct regular all-hands company meetings
14% – Send employees branded workplace apparel/gear
17% – Celebrating employee birthdays and/or work anniversaries
14% – Conduct employee satisfaction surveys
1% – Other
Many organizations struggle with conveying company culture effectively, as it often requires a combination of strategies that not all teams have the ability or resources to execute. However, it’s helpful to understand how other business owners and in-house recruiters promote company culture in order to better craft your own strategies.
“I help connect my employees to a purpose, which is one of the sole reasons my company exists. A purpose enables them to identify the things they can achieve and the impact they want to make at work and as a result, we together create a collective company culture by accomplishing each of their individual goals.”
—Amy Wampler, CEO, Spartan Mechanical
“Company culture can be promoted in a myriad of ways, and we’ve found creating a consistent feedback loop was essential. For starters, we hire and manage employees against our core values, which enhances corporate culture. We also built ‘Kudos’ into our weekly staff meetings. Kudos are an acknowledgment of outstanding performance that acts as an employee peer recognition opportunity. It’s not required and is only meant for recognizing truly outstanding and memorable efforts by team members. While not everyone appreciates public recognition, it does provide a structured format and can have a meaningful impact on morale. We consider kudos when conducting annual reviews, in that those who regularly receive recognition are likely high-performers and should be compensated accordingly.”
—Kent Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer, Anvil
“Company culture has always been important to us, but we’ve made it an even bigger priority in the wake of the pandemic. We want our employees to feel like they’re part of something larger than themselves and that they have a vested interest in the success of the company. To promote company culture, we use a number of methods, including these two very important activities.
First, we regularly brainstorm as a team about our mission and values. This helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that we’re all working towards the same goals. Second, we encourage the formation of more employee resource groups (ERG): We have a number of ERGs that help to promote inclusion and diversity within the company. We encourage all employees to get involved in at least one ERG. Joining ERGs greatly helps strengthen the company culture by fostering a sense of community.”
—Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer, Checkr
A majority of B2B and B2C respondents noted employees leaving their business for a similar but higher-paying job as the top cause of employee turnover
If the pandemic has taught small business owners of both B2B and B2C service providers anything, it’s that employee loyalty extends only as far as a business is willing to meet their compensation demands. Further, the Great Resignation has been characterized by a mass exodus of employees from multiple industries seeking a change of not only position but also career and industry. Because businesses are desperate to replace missing staff and ensure they have the personnel in place to meet the fluctuating business demands of an inconsistent economic recovery, many brands are willing to pay more than their competitors to lock in candidates. Recognizing the opportunity for improved pay, many job seekers are exploring their options and demanding higher pay than their current positions are offering.
(On a scale of 1-6, 1 being the most common)
Moved into a different career/industry
Left for a similar but higher-paying role
Moved locations/geographic regions
Left the workforce entirely
Other
Adopting a strategic approach to employee retention requires your business to take into account the evolving priorities of an increasingly mobile workforce. In the post-COVID economy, businesses must understand that it’s not solely about compensation, culture, or benefits, but rather a balanced offering of all three of these components that drive employees to either remain with their company or seek employment elsewhere. It’s on your in-house recruiters and leadership to provide the necessary transparency with your team in order to foster the necessary openness to understand how best to keep your team engaged and loyal to your brand.
Set the Stage for Success in 2022 with a Robust Recruiting and Retention Strategy
In this analysis of our Pollfish survey focused on recruiting and retention, we’ve shared with you how to build a strategy around both building up your team and keeping your staff in place once they’ve onboarded. In this discussion, we’ve given you insight into the recruiting platforms and tools you should be focusing your efforts on, and how to build listings that appeal to today’s post-pandemic job seeker. We’ve also provided significant insight into what employees today expect from corporate culture and how best to keep them engaged and loyal to your brand over time.
If you’re looking for a third-party HR professional to support your team, explore our marketplace of B2B recruiting agencies that can help you boost your recruitment and retention game in the year to come.
UpCity’s Survey Method
UpCity used Pollfish to survey 600 U.S. small business owners and in-house recruiters on how they’re recruiting new talent and retaining existing organizational talent in 2022.
Seventy-one percent of respondents own or work for B2B small businesses while twenty-seven percent work at B2C small businesses.
Forty-four percent of respondents are male and fifty-six percent are female. A majority of male respondents are 25-34 years old (34%) and a majority of female respondents are also 25-34 years old (46%).