It would be an understatement to say the last eighteen months have been eye opening with many facets of our daily lives having been uprooted by the novel coronavirus. While a large number of the pre-Covid workforce just had their federal unemployment benefits expire, a vast portion of the employed population that had transitioned to working remotely are now on the cusp of returning back to the office.

This has given people over a year to contemplate whether they actually like what they are doing, and with that slight bit of uncertainty comes the potential for new opportunities.

With recruitment strategies running at full speed to cherry pick talent, the adverse effect has created an environment with above average employee turnover. Retention is no longer a salary game as it is nearly impossible to compete with well funded tech companies who have wage inflation issues to curb in their own regard.

So what’s an HR team to do?

Your people strategy should not only focus on retaining and attracting talent, but implementing a fail-safe course of action to mitigate any downtime due to the surprise departure of critical team members. Some of your best people are going to leave, it’s inevitable, and it’s up to you to pinpoint your vulnerabilities. Planning now, rather than taking a reactive approach when the situation presents itself is critical for long term success. Hiring ‘up and coming’ talent that can eventually be promoted to fill the shoes of their predecessor, or at the very least having groomed potential candidates for certain roles ahead of time is not only recommended, but necessary. The team that deals with this reality in an impassive manner can plan three to five years out rather than focusing on putting out yesterday’s fire.

The logistics of meeting product deadlines or sales goals is solely contingent upon the synchronicity of your workforce performing consistently and efficiently like a well tuned engine. It is up to you to keep up with the maintenance, and ensure you have the tools and spare parts to stay in the race.