Future proofing business : attracting, retaining and motivating talent

Abstract

Organisations are engaged in a war for talent striving to attract and retain talented individuals in pursuit of unique competitive advantages. The largest workforce in the market, currently, is millennials and organisations are introducing new human resource (HR) practices designed to resonate with them in order to future proof their business. South Africa has one of the highest degrees of inequality, in the world, and this reality combined with historical social consequences has led to a shortage of skilled labour. The main aim of the study is to provide insights to South African organisations regarding which new HR practices are most effective in attracting, retaining and motivating millennials. The study was guided by these new HR practices that have emerged globally within the last decade: employee value proposition; unlimited paid-time-off; flexible workplace arrangements; relaxed workplace attire; and removing the undergraduate degree as a minimum requirement for employment. The study reviewed literature surrounding the key concepts of attraction, retention and motivation of employees together with the literature on these new HR practices. An exploratory study was conducted, in an organisation currently implementing some new HR practices, in order to understand the phenomenon as it occurred. A sample size of thirteen was obtained comprising of ten millennials and three HR practitioners. The participants partook in semi-structured interviews targeted at understanding the effects the new HR practices had on millennials in an established South African organisation, and the data were analysed with thematic analysis. The study found that HR practices promoting flexibility, autonomy and accountability are most attractive to millennials, and while the new HR practices are generally received positively by HR practitioners, they come with unavoidable negative implications, the impact of which can be mitigated proactively. The study provides a framework to managers and HR practitioners with which they can lessen the impact of the latter by following an approach that guides their decisions when selecting and implementing a new HR practice.