Despite HR being continually focused on boosting talent retention and attraction rates, looks like there is some time to go before it is able to truly make significant progress in the area.

A study by Saba and WorkplaceTrends.com found that HR leaders admitted that retention and leadership development programmes were the top priority among talent management goals, but companies continue to suffer from significant retention challenges.

Polling 2,000 U.S and U.K. employees’ and HR leaders, the report found 41% of employees said they would leave their company for better career options – with a sizeable amount of those polled (31%) stating that background skills and talents were not being recognised.

The workforce did, in fact, admit that they would be willing to share more context about themselves for better career advancement in their current companies – but ironically, they weren’t been given the right opportunity to do so.

About one-third (31%) of employees polled stated they would be happy to share their goals, background talents and what motivates them to ensure more accurate workforce placement.

The survey added, however, that “the right questions are not often being asked”.

ALSO READ: Are bosses in Singapore not delivering on their HR promises?

“Saba and Workplace Trends research shows that HR leaders want to know what inspires and motivates the workforce, but they don’t seem to be asking them,” stated Adrienne Whitten, VP of product marketing at Saba.

“The problem could be a lack of the right tools or experience for gathering the data, as HR ranks workforce analytics as the lowest in effectiveness across the talent processes. “

Indeed, the report found that the misunderstanding of employee wants and HR needs, funneled down to a lack of staff insights and analytics.

Almost two out of 10 (15%) of HR managers said that having up-to-date risk assessment of losing high potentials would be the “most impactful” insight for their business.

Despite this, only 12% of HR managers said that “workforce analytics” and “planning” are their companies’ best function.

“Low importance for workforce analytics bears a strong correlation with the resulting low impact of risk assessment plans,” the survey stated.

“Lack of proper employee analytic tools can be blamed for low retention especially when employees are willing to share details that would prevent them from leaving.”

Image: Shutterstock