HR Strategies to Attract and Retain Customer-Facing Talent

2021 proved to be one of the most difficult years on record for hiring frontline, or customer-facing, talent, and those struggles have continued into 2022 with key industries such as healthcare, hospitality and education all experiencing labor shortages.

As 2023 fast approaches, SSON Digital sat down with HR executive Paul Runyan to discuss strategies for attracting and retaining talent in the current labor market.

The responsibility for filling these gaps in employment typically falls on HR departments and recruiters. These teams and individuals have to think outside the box to both find new talent and retain the strong talent they already have.  HR efforts to establish their business as an employer of choice has led to many innovative recruiting and employee experience strategies.

Paul is an HR professional with over a decade of experience in various roles in the finance and real estate industries. Paul’s most recent role came as the Head of HR for Public Storage, one of the largest self-storage providers in the U.S. During his time at Public Storage, Paul helped increase hiring by 35% even amidst the historically tight labor markets.

On February 1st Paul will participate in SSON’s HR 4.0 Digital Transformation Summit where he will discuss the impact hybrid work strategies have had on talent management and retention. Before the session, SSON Digital spoke with Paul about some other strategies that have had a beneficial impact on those topics in recent years.

Building positive recruitment experiences with data

In 2021, during the peak of the ongoing labor shortages when there were over 11 million jobs available, Paul and his team were considering a variety of ideas to bring in, and retain, hires including bonuses and a referral program.

According to Paul, one of the most important aspects of the HR departments efforts was compiling specific market data from each of the regions Public Storage has a presence.

“We went market by market, to all seventy markets Public Storage is present in, and looked at the current labor market in that region, what turnover was like there, and every factor that was impacting labor in that market,” Paul said. “Those insights influenced very market-specific incentives.”

 Paul highlights that when compiling this market data, it is important to do so with a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer.

Meaning, HR departments should attempt to collect the most granular of data they can from each market, thus allowing them to determine which incentives are most likely to increase applications for each region.

The value in referral programs

While Paul and his team at Public Storage tried several solutions to bringing in qualified employees, the one they found the most success with was an employee referral program where current employees could refer friends or family members for job openings, and if hired they would earn a bonus.

The program came with one stipulation, a 90-day trial period during which the business determined if the referred employee would be a long-term fit. The program also required the employee who made the referral to stay at the business past the 90 days in order to receive the bonus.

According to Paul, the referral program led to many employees referring individuals who were qualified for openings and had the desired skills and attitudes Public Storage values in its customer-facing employees.

“You don’t know what a job is until you do it,” Paul said. “You read the job posting, and go through the interview process, but you still won’t know exactly what the job entails. When an employee is referred for a job, they have spoken with their friend or family member about the business and the job they are applying for, so they begin the application process with the knowledge that the position is a good fit for them.”

The employees who came into Public Storage having been recommended knew the job and what the expectations for them would be, and as a result, were more likely to stay in the company long-term than someone who wasn’t referred.

Retention becoming the focus

While the Public Storage HR team has deployed a number of strategies that have helped bring in new talent, Paul is adamant that retaining workers will continue to be the focus of HR in the future.

One way Public Storage retained workers was improving the visibility they offered employees to their potential career paths.

“It really came down to an employee satisfaction survey,” Paul said. “We surveyed employees in February, then again six months later, and we saw a lot of improvement in their satisfaction because we were showing them a career path.”

That first survey showed employees weren’t happy with how management was helping employees find career opportunities, as a result, HR took a proactive approach to going to leaders and helping them shape how they would conversate with employees about their career paths.

Another important issue when it came to retaining talent was understanding Gen Z and millennials, the generations most likely to seek jobs at other businesses. For Paul and Public Storage this meant relying on the same market research and surveys that had propelled them through an era of worker shortages.

“When you’re looking across these generations, I don’t think you have to do anything differently now than you did in the past,” Paul said. “It’s just about market segmentation and looking at the data to understand the needs and desires of each segment.”

Paul emphasizes that this doesn’t mean segmenting data by age, but rather the desired outcomes of the individual, then determining how do you match these desired outcomes with the benefits a business is offering.

Attracting and retaining talent has been no small feat for HR departments in recent years. However, this article has laid out a few solutions that had a positive impact at Public Storage. For those hoping to learn more talent management strategies, be sure to register for HR Transformation Digital Summit from January 31 to February 2.