Staff Retention and Recruitment in Bulgaria
Despite the impact of Covid-19, the War in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis, Bulgaria is still suffering from a skills shortage. The skills shortage runs across many disciplines and industries ranging from hospitality to IT, that’s why the role of recruitment in Bulgaria is very important.
This article looks at the steps that employers must take to recruit and retain the best quality staff in Bulgaria.
Measures To Improve Staff Retention and Recruitment in Bulgaria
Adopting a measured response to attract and retain quality staff is required. These steps span from revamping your attraction strategy to reviving employee engagement.
Increasing Employee Engagement
An engaged workforce is one in which employees understand and are committed to an organisation’s values and objectives and are motivated to not only offer their best at work but to go above and beyond to help achieve its goals.
This involves both intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
- Intrinsic factors include
- Having a purpose
- Sense of achievement feeling of being valued
- Sense of being treated fairly
- Satisfaction that they are making a difference
- Extrinsic factors come from outside the employee and are external influences, such as:
- Financial rewards received working environment
- Receiving an efficient induction and onboarding process
- Recognition
- Flexibility
The onus is on employers to expand their engagement and retention strategy to include their temporary workers. This includes:
- Be open and make sure communication flows both ways
- Encourage temporary and contract staff to make suggestions and share information
- Integrate temporary and contract staff into your team including understanding your company’s culture
- Ensure that everyone in the team is aware of the objectives or tasks the temporary or contractor is there to achieve.
- Provide performance feedback regularly to get the most out of your temporary, contract or contingent worker and build a more productive relationship.
Upskilling
Bulgaria’s skills shortage will continue to intensify in 2022. Upskilling needs to be upgraded from a desirable to necessary tactic to assemble a workforce with the skills essential to achieve success and to motivate staff, helping to stem turnover.
Highly competent candidates are aware of the value of their skills. They have choices in the job market and will not work for an organisation that offers subpar salary or benefits.
How to overcome skills shortages:
Communicate Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
Your EVP clearly communicates the value that employees get from working for you beyond just remuneration.
Along with traditional benefits such as salary and rewards, flexible working, career progression and mental health and wellbeing support, today’s EVP must also bring to life your organisation’s purpose and values.
Map The Candidate Recruitment Journey
Creating a map of a candidate’s entire recruitment in Bulgaria journey, from the point they become aware of your job opportunity through to onboarding, allows you to identify every stage in the process.
Consider Transferable Skills
When considering which technical skills are transferable, identify what’s genuinely essential. Are some skills in fact desirable rather than essential? Also reconsider industry background – a candidate from a different industry often brings fresh insights to a role.
Reconsider The Value of Location
COVID-19 enforced a rapid uptake of remote working and proved that many jobs can be done successfully from remote locations.
Impress Candidates in Your Job Interviews
In a tight labour market, where candidates have more options, job interviews are your best opportunity to impress.
Understand The Key Drivers of Candidate Attraction
There are six primary drivers of candidate attraction. To attract the best candidates, you must offer them all:
- Flexibility: As the concept of work-life balance evolves to work-life integration, and work is viewed as a subset of life rather than a separate thing.
- Salary: Salary remains a key driver for candidates, with wage increase pressure mounting in response to the shortage of skilled professionals. While benefits can help bridge this divide, there may be occasions where you need to increase salaries to secure talent in highly competitive areas.
- Benefits: The actual benefits differ from person to person, so get to know your preferred candidate, then tailor an offer accordingly.
- Learning and development: As part of the benefits on offer, share learning and development opportunities.
- Career progression: Show candidates you offer opportunities to grow and advance their career with you.
- Mental health and wellbeing support: Explain the support offered in your workplace and demonstrate that you understand there are times when they may require additional support.
Expect Counteroffers
As competition for talent increases, counter offers impact your ability to secure your preferred candidate. To defend against the potential of counter offers, ask candidates in the interview why they are looking for a new job, then show how your organisation can deliver the inducements that they are looking for. When you make your offer, ask the candidate if they expect a counteroffer from their current employer and, if so, how they intend to respond.
Look Overseas
Given record vacancy activity, it is important to inspire Bulgarians who have moved overseas and developed excellent skills to return home to ease existing skills shortages in some industries.
