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Talent retention, workforce planning and skills shortages continue to sit high on the agenda for HR leaders across Northern Ireland.
At the latest Women in Business NI HR Leaders Forum at Custom House Belfast, HR professionals came together to share experiences, discuss current challenges and explore practical approaches to building and retaining the talent organisations need for the future.
The conversation highlighted an important shift in how organisations need to think about their people strategies. Recruitment can fill an immediate vacancy, but long-term workforce planning means looking beyond the roles that need filled today and considering the skills, capabilities and talent an organisation will need tomorrow.
Retention is about more than salary
Salary remains an important part of attracting and retaining employees, but it is only one part of the overall employee proposition.
For many professionals, factors such as flexibility, autonomy, purpose, culture and opportunities for development can influence whether they see a long-term future with an organisation. Creating a strong employee proposition means understanding what people value at different stages of their careers and making those benefits clear from the outset.
Flexibility can give employees greater control over how they work. Autonomy can give people ownership over their role and responsibilities. A clear sense of purpose can help employees understand how their work contributes to the wider organisation. When these elements come together, they can help create an environment where people can see themselves building a career rather than simply taking their next job.
Making career progression visible
Career development was another key theme from the discussion.
Employees need to understand what progression could look like within an organisation. If career pathways are unclear, people may look externally for opportunities that they cannot see internally. That does not necessarily mean every employee needs a rigid career plan. Instead, organisations can benefit from making development opportunities, potential career paths and the skills required for progression more visible. Regular conversations around development can also help managers understand where employees want to go next and identify opportunities to support them.
For employers, this can have a wider benefit. Developing existing employees can help build internal capability while reducing reliance on external recruitment for every new or emerging role.
Workforce planning needs to look beyond today's vacancies
Workforce planning is often driven by immediate recruitment requirements. A vacancy needs filled, so the focus naturally turns to finding someone with the right experience and skills.
However, longer-term workforce planning asks a different question: what skills will we need in the future, and where will those skills come from?
This becomes particularly important in areas where talent shortages are already creating recruitment challenges. Organisations need to consider factors such as upcoming retirements, business growth, changes in technology, new skills requirements and evolving customer or regulatory demands. Understanding these factors earlier gives employers more options.
Rather than waiting until a specialist vacancy appears, organisations can begin developing existing employees, establishing graduate or apprenticeship routes, investing in training or building relationships with potential talent pools.
Building talent internally
Developing talent internally was another important area of discussion. Apprenticeships, graduate programmes and structured training can all play a role in creating stronger internal talent pipelines. These approaches require investment, but they can provide organisations with an opportunity to develop people around their specific systems, processes and culture.
They can also help broaden the routes into roles where traditional recruitment approaches may be producing a limited pool of candidates. For HR teams, the challenge is finding the right balance between immediate recruitment and longer-term development.
That means considering where it makes sense to build, buy and retain skills. Some skills may need to be recruited externally because they are required immediately. Others may be better developed internally over time. And, where organisations have hard-to-replace expertise already within their teams, retaining those employees becomes particularly important.
Tackling skills shortages creatively
Skills shortages require organisations to think beyond traditional recruitment methods. The discussion also touched on approaches such as bursaries and funded development to encourage people into hard-to-fill areas. These initiatives can help remove some of the barriers that prevent people from entering particular careers while giving employers a way to develop talent with the skills they need.
There is also an opportunity to broaden the talent pool by considering transferable skills and potential, rather than focusing exclusively on candidates who have already performed exactly the same role elsewhere. Recruiting for potential and then providing the right development can be particularly valuable in areas where experienced candidates are difficult to find.
Giving people a reason to stay
One message came through particularly strongly during the forum: retention starts with giving people a reason to see their future within your organisation.
That future might involve progression into a more senior role, developing new skills, moving into a different area of the business or simply having greater flexibility and autonomy in their current position. For HR leaders, this means retention cannot sit separately from recruitment, development and workforce planning. The different parts of the employee journey need to work together.
If organisations can understand the skills they will need, develop people internally where possible, communicate career opportunities clearly and create an employee proposition that reflects what people value, they are better placed to build a workforce for the long term.
Continuing the conversation
Forums such as the Women in Business NI HR Leaders Forum provide an opportunity for HR leaders to step away from the day-to-day demands of recruitment and people management and consider the bigger picture.
Sharing experiences with other organisations can highlight different approaches, challenge existing thinking and provide practical ideas that can be taken back into the workplace.
At VANRATH, we’re proud to continue supporting the HR Leaders Forum and the conversations helping to shape the future of people and talent across Northern Ireland.
Thank you to Collette Kelly for hosting and to Linda McMillan Chartered FCIPD for leading the discussion, as well as everyone who contributed their experience and perspectives.