Why is ‘brain drain’ increasingly becoming a headache for organizations?

‘Brain drain’, also known as human capital flight, is the term often used to describe the migration of skilled and educated workers from one country or region to another, but it can also be used to describe the movement of skilled professionals between organizations or sectors.

The key reason for brain drain is usually better pay or opportunities. With unemployment rates hovering at historically low levels of around 4% since the pandemic, and acute talent shortages, especially for STEM based skills and capabilities, we’re seeing it have a significant impact on both the source and destination sectors. This is causing headaches for talent and workforce decision makers, as they continue to face pressure to attract the skills needed to deliver on their organization’s strategic priorities.

Bridging skills and capabilities gaps, compounded by demand/supply mismatches, will be the biggest organizational challenge in the near-term.

What’s causing brain drain?

Four of the causes of brain drain we’re seeing:

Higher demand, competition, or innovation in the destination sector, which may offer more attractive salaries, benefits, or working conditions for the workers.

Lack of incentives, recognition, or career advancement opportunities in the source sector, which may lead to dissatisfaction among workers and a rise in the number of those looking for new opportunities.

Mismatch between the skills, qualifications, or interests of the workers and the needs, expectations, or goals of the source sector, which may result in workers losing momentum or even fostering boredom.

Change in the personal or social circumstances of the workers, such as family, health, education, or lifestyle, may motivate them to seek a different sector that suits their preferences or values better.

How to prevent brain drain?

Brain drain between sectors has negative consequences for the source sector with a potentially significant loss of talent, knowledge, and productivity.

Here are four workforce strategies to help:

Targeted focus on Employer Value Propositions. Not only creating a positive and supportive work environment and culture but promoting this to your workers. Boosting your EVP in this way makes it clear that workers should feel valued, respected, and trusted, and that they can express their opinions, ideas, or concerns freely and constructively.

Bespoke and tailored initiatives. Providing incentives, recognition, and feedback for the workers' performance, achievements, and contributions. This can increase their motivation and loyalty and lead to increased job satisfaction.

Focus on purpose. Aligning the goals, vision, and values of the sector and/or organization with those of the workers. Ensuring that workers understand and share the sector’s and organization’s purpose, and impact.

Diversity & Inclusion is key. Encouraging collaboration, communication, and diversity among the workers, teams, and departments, which can foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie.

Preparing for loss of talent

Unfortunately, all organizations lose highly skilled talent on a regular basis. Employees choose to leave and move to other sectors for all kinds of reasons – professional and personal – and sometimes there’s just no way to keep that talent.

One of the key trends since the pandemic has been an increase in the number of employees that seek to move jobs more frequently, with shorter job tenures perceived as less of a taboo and more flexible work engagements a top priority.

Attracting new talent, processing applications, and going through the interview process in a timely manner can be a time-consuming process and depending on notice periods, there might not be time for a handover that ensures there is no loss of productivity and transfer of information and knowledge.

One of the key competitive differentiators that talent and procurement leaders are focusing on, in an attempt to reduce the time to hire and find the best possible replacement talent, is to build an active and engaged talent community. More and more organizations are exploring how to leverage Advanced Direct Sourcing capability as a part of a multi-channel approach to attracting talent.

Why are talent communities proving to be key differentiators for organization’s to prevent brain drain?

A talent community is a network of potential candidates who have expressed interest in working in a specific sector or for a specific organization, either by applying for a previous position (sometimes called silver-medalists), through referrals, subscribing to a newsletter, attending an event, or engaging with the organization’s online presence.

By identifying these workers as unique data points, tracking them through technology, and then maintaining regular, often automated, communications with the workers in the talent community, the organization can build relationships, trust, and awareness, and highlight its employer brand, culture, and values.

When a vacancy arises, the organization can reach out to a now engaged, talent community and invite them to apply, or even directly offer them a position. This reduces the time to hire by eliminating the need to continually source new candidates, advertise the role, or screen the applicants, and ensures that the candidates are already familiar with and interested in the organization and its mission.

A talent community can also increase the quality of hire by attracting passive candidates who may not be actively looking for a job, but who may have the skills, qualifications, or experience needed.

You can find out more about leveraging your employer brand and EVP to build an engaged talent community in this podcast-style video from our EVP experts.

Find out more

If you’re interested in whether creating a talent community or building Advanced Direct Sourcing capability for your organization could provide you with a competitive differentiator in the talent market, please click here to reach out to me for more information.