The Great Resignation Is Here. 3 Ways to Win the War for Talent

I've just got off the phone from a senior executive in a global company were we were talking about "retention", "diversity", "inclusion", and the great resignation, also known as the big quit.

What is the great resignation?

It is the ongoing trend of employees voluntarily leaving their jobs, from spring 2021 to the present, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The term Great Resignation was likely coined by Anthony Klotz, a professor of management at Mays Business School of Texas A&M University

What are the business issues this senior exec is feeling?

The senior executive was telling me about how the company he works for struggles with getting new talent, that is partly because the skills he is trying to find are hard to obtain, but this is also partly because his company isn't seen as "trendy".

Vs a company like Google, where we all know that if we work there, we get to sit in hammocks and eat jellybeans and have a slide.

I used this as an example at how Google has created this outside "persona" of what it's like to work there. Of course, it might not but true, but perception is reality. 

But as a hiring manager at Google, you are probably not arguing over an additional 5,000 in base salary and and additional 5 days holiday as the candidate cannot wait to get to the free jelly beans.

But our company is amazing ....

This senior leader was telling me about the diversity programs his company has, he has just hired three people and they are all women. He was also telling me about the awesome life long learning they have. I understand that the training budget seems to be $infinite. The training budget in the companies 30 years of existence has never been cut. Of course lots of budgets in the past have been cut. 

But then he said something was crucial "but nobody outside the company knows this".

I had to agree.

But it doesn't have to be this way

Here at DLA Ignite, we train and coach businesses on how to use social media strategically. We train and coach all employees; SalesHuman Resources (HR), Procurement, etc etc, on how to talk about their experiences on social. (We are the only company in the world, who does this!)

If you think about it, your employees and their experiences are your only unique selling point (USP) today.

So empower your employees to talk on social, share their experiences.

Let them talk about your diversity program, let them talk about your great training program, let your employees talk about your life-long learning program.

What will happen?

People will start noticing your business, they will start seeing that your business is the one to work for.

You will start getting people applying for roles.

You will start becoming the employer of choice in your industry and business sector.

Just think about your business getting all the talent ahead of all the other businesses, think about the competitive advantage this gives you. 

And as you are the best place to work, you will also retain your employees.

Great resignation, you won't be impacted by it ...... just empower those employees and quick!

Now picture this

Tomorrow, you and I are going to meet at the lobby of your target customer. 

Imagine that I have a key card to get into the building, we wave to security and I let you through the security barriers. Impressive eh!

We walk over to the elevators and I press the button to go up to the relevant floors where we can meet with the people you need to sell to. Now you have never met these people before so i will introduce you. That will mean you will get to meet the people you need to meet in this target customer of yours.

Pick whatever department you want, I will take you there and introduce you. 

For example, say you sell accounting systems, ERP systems, then I can take you and introduce you to the people in Finance. Or maybe you sell human resources (HR) software and I take you to meet the HR people. Or maybe you sell CRM, customer experience (CX) and I can take you to meet all the people in marketing and sales.

Now if I walked you into finance, (or any of the other departments) and I started to introduce you to the people there one-by-one. Now, you wouldn't hand everybody a brochure and walk away, would you? 

This is your chance to get into the business, meet the people, build relationships. Kinda cool! 

As I introduce you to the people in your target department, you would hand them your business card. You might get people to scan the QR code on LinkedIn so you are connected. 

Either way you would also want to be remembered. So you might ask them a question about themsleves, maybe you spot that Manchester United mug on their desk, the Nick Saban bobblehead (doll). The photo of their family on their desk, you would start a conversation about them. You might crack a joke. You would start building trust. Maybe you would ask them about the business, be curious about them and the company?

As I walk you around the department, and introduce you to more and more people, you would get to know more and more people and the department would get to know you. In fact the whole department will know you, just think of the competitive advantage you now have.

We haven't needed to talk about product, we are connecting as humans, we are having conversations. We are being social. 

Just through this simple way of showing you around and introducing you to people, you are front of mind and your competition is not. This is so powerful!

I've now walked you around the whole department, they know you, you know them. It's time to see the big boss and I take you in and introduce you. 

You look around the office and see the photos of her fly fishing, you talk about when you had a fly fishing lesson in Scotland when you visited there last. You connect, you have a conversation. 

One of the things we do in life is find commonality with each other, because when we do that we start to know, like and trust each other.  

You then ask her some of the business related issues you picked these pointers up from her staff you have been talking to.  

If it's finance you might ask her about how long it takes to close the month end books, if it's human resources it might be about sourcing internal talent, if it's CRM you might ask about onboarding sales people.

I could go on, but you should get the picture now. 

It does not matter if you know nobody in this company, they could even be using a competitive solution. But by the time I've walked you around, they know you, they know you as a human, they are aware that you work for a company and you didn't even need to pitch to them. Now it's time to start moving some of those conversations to commercial interaction.

This is social selling

Now you can stop imagining, what I've described to you is social selling.

This is so powerful, so natural and is the killer blow you need today. 

Related: The Positives Of The Great Resignation with Matthieu Silberstein