By Sarah Taylor Phillips, talent attraction and talent retention consultant at Career Voyage Ltd.

In 2022, talent paradise is retention, retention, retention, not location, location, location.

Engaging and retaining employees and planning your workforce are crucial in the post-pandemic world. Many employees are reflecting and shifting career priorities, resulting in the Great Reshuffle/ Resignation or the Big Quit.

Historically, location was important when resourcing your organisation. If you had an office in London, you would have access to more talent. Today, this is not the case.

The "forced" remote working we have seen over the last two years isn't flexible working as a choice. Hybrid working has emerged as a response to post-pandemic relaxing of coronavirus restrictions. However, it's quite heavily focused on continuing business-as-usual in challenging conditions. It is also about where, rather than when, how and why.

This isn't the best place to start! Rather than thinking about location, let's think about the work. Let's look at how hybrid working can improve how work gets done. Let's focus more on the business benefits of making a change and less on implementing comprehensive policies around days spent in the office.

This new thinking might lead to accessing diverse talent, improving productivity by removing location needs or even redefining your employee value proposition.

Retention is a two-way process. It needs to start with what's great for your business and what success looks like for each and every employee, using their feedback.

The grass isn't always greener and sometimes quitting or moving on isn't the answer. People might be moving on due to the little things or niggles you could easily fix.

It might not be about the money; it might be about having more time. Half an hour extra lunch break can make all the difference, meaning you can do a fitness class or a run without getting stressed about returning to the office within an hour. It means it can be done in daylight, which is great for wellbeing and productivity. The niggle might be about a boss - and you can easily change a line manager.

With so many businesses with skill shortages, it makes sense to have some pre-retirement conversations. Retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be, not everyone is ready to give up work completely when the law says they should.

So what about introducing phased retirement, flexible working and job share? What about following up with retirees once they've left and seeing if they want to re-engage on a freelance or consultative basis? They often do!

For more information, connect with Sarah on LinkedIn, visit Career Voyage Ltd or call 0333 123 0510.