HR News
TA Q&A: Recruiting Top Tech Talent
By Debbie Bolla
HRO Today: What’s the biggest hiring challenge you’re facing and how are you overcoming it?
Liz Raymond: Recruiting top tech talent remains one of our biggest challenges, especially for roles in AI and product engineering. This is far from unique to Nexthink, as 90% of tech leaders say it’s a moderate or major issue they face and 70% of candidates for technical roles receive multiple offers simultaneously. In such a tight labor market, we’ve adopted a multi-pronged sourcing strategy to help Nexthink stand out and attract the very best candidates. This is built on the following.
- Close partnerships: We team up with specialized agencies and our internal recruiting team to identify the key regions and communities where talented workers are concentrated
- Relocation support: We offer competitive packages for new joiners who are moving away from home and offer “step-stone” programs like internships and upskilling tracks for rising stars
- Utilizing our own network: We provide employee referral schemes for team members who recommend new joiners and attend tech events to recruit local and skilled talent.
HROT: How do you align talent acquisition with broader business goals?
Raymond: At Nexthink, talent acquisition is embedded within our strategic planning. Recruitment metrics are directly tied to key business objectives such as revenue and market-entry milestones. This alignment ensures hiring efforts support business growth, a strategy that proved critical in our recent expansion into Japan.
When launching our platform and opening a new office in Japan, we faced the challenge of building an entire sales team in just six months. To make it happen, we worked closely with the sales, legal, and finance departments, as well as local agencies. Together, we fast-tracked compliance, established competitive pay ranges, and identified ideal candidates. As a result, the new sales branch opened with a fantastic new team in place, providing a perfect platform for a successful product launch in Japan.
HROT: What gives your organization a competitive edge in attracting talent?
Raymond: We pride ourselves on delivering cutting-edge product solutions that drive forward the next era of digital productivity. That means continuously integrating the latest technologies, like AI and automation, into our products. It’s this commitment to innovation that excites candidates, giving them the chance to work for an exciting company on the front foot.
But technology is just one part of the story. A strong company culture is also essential in attracting and retaining top talent. From the day they arrive, new joiners experience a supportive, “one-team” culture throughout the entire organization and benefit from mentorship programs and cross-team projects. We also invest heavily in career growth, offering clear career paths and regular upskilling opportunities.
HROT: What are you currently binging, reading or doing in your free time?
Raymond: The TV show “Severance” is one of my favorites! I’ve just re-watched the series again and love the unique mixture of mystery and dark humor. Away from the TV screen, my weekends are usually spent hiking or exploring with my family and our dogs, Indiana Bones and Arrow.
New Skills Call for Role Restructuring
By Maggie Mancini
As economic uncertainty abounds, organizations are looking for ways to manage costs while maintaining operations and preparing for the future. For some companies, “quiet cutting”—in which businesses reshuffle talent into roles with less responsibility, fewer perks, and unclear development paths—has emerged as a potential solution to cutting costs while avoiding the trauma that comes with conducting outright layoffs, says Hannah Yardley, chief people and culture officer at Achievers.
According to Careerminds, a global outplacement and career management services provider, employers use quiet cutting as a strategy to avoid reputation damage from mass layoffs, shift the market power back to leadership in a weaker job market, and some employers may hope it will push employees to leave voluntarily. However, 56% of employees would rather be laid off than quietly cut, Yardley explains—likely because they had no say in the change and now feel undervalued or directionless.
It all comes down to trust and belonging, which are already low. Achievers Workforce Institute (AWI) finds that only 23% of employees say they trust their company’s leaders.
“While it may be a way to ease tensions around staff changes and budget cuts, quiet cutting can still have a significant impact on employee morale and potentially cause reputational damage for employers,” Yardley says. “That being said, some role changes are critical, and it’s problematic to classify good role restructuring as quiet cutting given this is necessary and prevalent in today’s changing skills landscape.”
In addition to quiet cutting, AI and other technologies are changing the way people work, Yardley adds, and creating new job positions and skills requirements. As this happens, employees’ roles need to change too.
“To build tomorrow’s workforce, defined by smaller teams and diverse skills, companies must focus on finding and training the right talent for key roles, and this could prompt HR leaders to initiate restructuring or role reassignments,” Yardley says. “Our research shows organizations should actively seek new roles and development opportunities for employees who are ready to uplevel their skills and progress in their career journey.”
Employees who believe their company has a strong internal mobility program, which is geared to help guide these transitions, are 26% more likely to stay, according to research from AWI. An effective internal mobility program could be the exact tool an organization needs to future-proof their top talent, Yardley adds.
“When career shifts happen without notice or transparency, employees may feel like they have been misled, demoted, and overall undervalued,” Yardley says. “As a result, employees may not feel connected to their work and stop going the extra mile.”
To combat this, HR leaders must be transparent and authentic when sharing changes in job roles and responsibilities, particularly if these changes are the result of legitimate role restructuring or skills development needed to support the future of work, she adds.
“HR leaders can also involve employees in redesigning their new roles, giving employees their voice back,” Yardley explains. “The voice of the employee is vital to improve trust between employees and employers, plus it fosters a sense of belonging at work. When employees see their feedback leading to real change, it can boost morale, employee productivity, and increase overall engagement.”
Recognition is a powerful tool to help improve engagement and morale, especially during uncertain times. Research from AWI reveals employees recognized at least monthly are 33% more likely to stay with their current employer, even if paid below the local market rate. Employees receiving monthly recognition from their managers report two times as much productivity and engagement and three times more trust in their managers.
“Clear recognition is a gateway to directing new behaviors and skills development as employees land in their new or revised role,” Yardley says. “It helps employees know that they are doing the new, right things in their role and reinforces whereas an organization or leaders you appreciate employees putting more of their discretionary time.”
Peer recognition can also be impactful in building workplace connections. Research from AWI finds that employees who receive at least monthly recognition from their peers are twice as likely to feel connected to their coworkers and to say they get along with most of the people they work with. For someone new to a team, that sense of connection is invaluable, Yardley adds.
When leaders lead with transparency, employees are more likely to respond in kind—especially when it comes to feedback, Yardley says. That feedback must be met with action. AWI data shows that acting on feedback increases trust in company leadership by 75% more than simply collecting it.
“Transparency should be centered around acknowledging employees’ contributions, rewarding their efforts, and giving employees a real say in shaping their roles within a company,” Yardley says. “Companies that are open and transparent about role changes, pay, and career growth tend to experience increased loyalty and engagement, fostering a culture that employees want to be a part of long-term.”
Recognition data can be an effective resource to help HR leaders move away from quiet cutting and, instead, build intentional internal mobility strategies, Yardley says. The impact is clear, as AWI research finds that organizations using recognition to track and validate skills are 38% more likely to quickly identify employees with high-priority skills.
“While few organizations have figured this out, they don’t need to start from scratch,” Yardley says. “With the right combination of recognition, feedback, and development tools, they can build internal mobility strategies that aren’t seen as quiet cutting, but as meaningful investment in people’s growth and potential.”
Employee Experience: Delivering on Expectations
By Laine Thomas Conway
Employee experience encompasses literally everything someone encounters from the moment they first engage with a company as a potential candidate through their time as an employee until their final departure weeks, months, or years later. From the physical space, culture, and technology used to do the job, to relationships with colleagues and managers, well-being support, and opportunities for career and development growth, it’s all about creating a positive and purposeful work environment.
A good employee experience is characterized by a supportive, inclusive, and engaging environment where employees feel valued, respected, and motivated to contribute to the best of their ability. It’s easy to see why delivering a positive employee experience should be at the heart of every organization’s people strategy. Not only does it increase the likelihood that current employees will stick around, it also makes the organization more appealing to potential employees, promotes productivity, and drives better business outcomes.
Over the last few years, worker perceptions of their employee experience have faltered, in large part due to factors out of the employer’s control—the COVID-19 pandemic, a volatile economy, and widespread layoffs, which all negatively impacted how employees were feeling about their jobs and employers.
Amid the debate over return-to-office (RTO) policies, the battle over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the economic challenges brought about by layoffs, tariffs, and rising prices, great uncertainty is still plaguing the workforce. Remarkably, however, workers are feeling more enthusiastic than they have in recent years. According to the upcoming 2025 Alight Employee Mindset Study, 77% rate their employee experience positively, up five points since 2023.
Even more encouraging, two-thirds (63%) report positive energy and excitement at their employer (up 12 points over the last two years) and 64% say their organization inspires them to do their best work every day (up 11 points). Notably, despite common stereotypes, younger employees are decidedly more optimistic than their older counterparts, with 70% of Gen Z workers reporting positive energy, compared to 54% of Gen Xers and 57% of baby boomers.
Inspiring Improvement
While it’s difficult to peg the exact drivers of this notable improvement, it’s easy to identify some likely contributors based on some of the most prevalent workplace macrotrends. This provides a road map for employers to improve the employee experience.
- Get it right from the start. It’s much easier to begin an employee-employer relationship on a strong footing than to attempt to rebuild on shaky ground. Therefore, it’s crucial to provide a positive experience from day one, something that clearly isn’t happening currently, as just over one-third (37%) of workers report having a great new hire experience. Employers should strive for an engaging recruiting and onboarding experience that helps people feel connected to the company.
- Foster a connected experience. This is actually much easier than it sounds. It’s simply a matter of providing open and honest communication about things that are relevant to employees, ensuring connection to the purpose and mission of the organization, and fostering strong relationships between workers and their managers, as well as their colleagues. Currently, only 54% of employees say they feel connected to their coworkers and just half report that their employer encourages social interaction.
- Provide the right tools and tech. For many workers, the verdict is still out when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). While their overall comfort level with AI is steadily increasing, 39% of employees admit that AI scares them and 33% say they are worried AI is going to take away their job. At the same time, 41% say their employer encourages AI use at work and 45% are concerned about falling behind if they don’t learn it. Among those who are using AI, 43% say it makes their job easier. This is a great opportunity for employers to create positive excitement and energy around providing employees with AI tools that will inspire them to do their best work.
- Embrace a high-tech, high-touch well-being strategy. Increasingly, employees are trusting AI to make recommendations for improving their physical, mental/emotional, and financial well-being. Tools like health navigation, designed to simplify the complexities of the healthcare system and guide employees and their dependents to the right care at the right time, are invaluable. Alight’s Mindset study found 61% of employees regret a healthcare decision, most often because they took the advice of someone who was not a healthcare professional, rushed into treatment, or neglected to ask the right questions. Undoubtedly, someone’s performance on-the-job is going to be impacted if they are concerned about the healthcare decisions they have made and are perhaps suffering the negative effects of an ill-advised treatment—or a lack of treatment altogether.
It’s not just AI-driven support either. Employees have shown they still need and want a human touch, especially when dealing with a difficult, stressful situation. Therefore, it’s crucial that employers make available coaches, advocates, and advisors to give workers the support and guidance they need to enact the best possible outcome. That high-touch, personal element goes a long way toward demonstrating an employer’s care and concern. In the process, it creates a sense of loyalty and belonging that is key to cultivating a positive employee experience.
By getting new hires off on the right foot, giving them the tools to do their jobs, fostering a sense of connection, and providing personalized high-tech, high-touch well-being support, employers can effectively deliver on the promises of the unwritten employee-employer contract, resulting in a newfound enthusiasm, enhanced well-being, and a positive employee experience.
