The article was published on the portal of Mind.ua

The staff shortage in Ukraine began quite a while ago, after the visa-free regime with the EU, and the reasons are clear: Ukraine's non-competitiveness in the labour market. The war has become another powerful catalyst for this process. Thus, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, as of 21 June 2023, 8 million 177,000 Ukrainians were abroad.

The reason why staff shortages are dangerous for business is that they can lead to higher recruitment costs, affect the stability of business processes, and generally make it more difficult to achieve the company's goals. Instead, retaining an employee can increase a company's profit several times over. Svitlana Sokolova, Head of Recruitment at Ribas Hotels Group, told Mind how to achieve this.

Hold on or let go?

After the outbreak of the full-scale war, only a small number of people from our company went abroad. Perhaps this is due to the fact that we started working again a month after the military invasion, and the return was quite sudden.

However, when people migrate nowadays, they do so consciously, studying the conditions for possible development or study in certain countries. And here it is difficult to provide them with a better education than abroad, or the same level of healthcare or security. So in some cases, salary or non-financial motivation will not influence an employee's decision, and it is best to let them go.

However, the introduction of properly selected methods of motivating employees can significantly reduce the staff turnover rate in companies, as well as reduce the overall level of shortage of qualified personnel.

How can a company meet an employee's needs?

Nowadays, companies need to be flexible and think about new ways of working with the team. If you understand the basic needs of your employees, it will not be difficult to meet them. To do this, you need to communicate with employees, conduct surveys and consultations.

There are several key ways a company can meet the needs of its employees.

Opening up opportunities

One of the main reasons why people move abroad is because they see a clearer future there. We need to work to ensure that employees have a future in Ukraine, and improve working conditions to compete with neighbouring countries:

For example, according to the Officevibe portal 32% of employees worldwide do not believe that they are paid fairly for their work.

At Ribas Hotels Group, we use methods of monetary motivation, in some specialities we have to monitor rates and make quick decisions on their changes, and non-monetary motivation.

Not only do we maintain competitive salaries, but we have also introduced a system of incentives for hotel employees depending on their length of service with the company.

These are certain monthly surcharges that vary depending on how long a person has been working in the network.

For example, among office workers, the average period of work in the company is 1.5 years. This figure could have been much higher, but given the expansion of the staff due to the company's rapid development, we observe this indicator. The head of one of the departments has been with the company for 7 years and 2 months, and the average tenure of department managers is 3.5 years.

As for hotels, this figure is more difficult to calculate, given the different launch periods, but in some properties it reaches 3.6 years.

Discussion

In times of uncertainty, it's important for managers to provide moral support to the team, communicating that what they are working on continues to be important.

According to Officevibe, 72% of employees worldwide believe that their manager could have set clearer goals. So employees need to understand why they work every day and how you measure their success.

In addition, according to statistics from Officevibe, 56% of employees believe that they have no career opportunities. Therefore, it is equally important to discuss the future of each employee within the company. This will inspire employees to work and foster new ideas.

At Ribas Hotels Group, we talk openly with our employees about their career opportunities. An example is the maids and administrators who worked for promotion to hotel managers.

Ensuring professional development

According to statistics presented on zoomshift.com only 34% of managers invest in employee development. Therefore, providing staff with opportunities for professional growth is very important. And if employee adaptation includes e-learning, the retention rate increases to 60%. This is stated on the LegalJobs website LegalJobs.

For example, our company has created an employee training and assessment department. We organise in-house training for our employees, introduce weekly microlearning, pay for additional courses and provide opportunities to attend professional events that help improve their skills. This helps employees feel supported by the company and develop.

Flexibility

Since the beginning of the war, one of the additional methods of motivating employees has been the introduction of flexible working hours. It is important to take into account that employees may be less productive during nights that are restless due to shelling. Therefore, our company sometimes shifts the working hours slightly or uses a hybrid work format.

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