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7 Ways to Recruit and Retain Employees

7 Ways to Recruit and Retain Employees

7 Ways to Recruit and Retain Employees


Once you’ve started a business, and you’re ready to scale, you’re going to need a team. Whether it’s one person, a small core of people, or a huge body of staff, you’ll have to navigate the recruitment process. But the application and interview phases are only the start. The real question you should be asking is what is the best way to recruit and retain employees?

Recruitment and retention strategies are many and varied. Different companies have different values and cultures, and these will often dictate the kinds of people you hire. This is one of the reasons why your mission, vision and values need to be so clear – they will often dictate the kind of people who apply to work with you. They may even be a deciding factor when it comes to retaining talented employees.

We know why recruitment matters. If you need a team, you need a good team. They’re the people who are going to handle the day-to-day running of your business.

They may provide customer service. They may handle payroll. Perhaps they’ll sell your products, or design your website, or write your copy.

Retention is just as vital for a healthy, thriving business. It may surprise you, but a moderate level of staff turnover isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It keeps ideas flowing through the business, and it ensures that things stay fresh. 

However, it looks like moderate turnover isn’t the norm in the US. According to this Payscale article, the turnover stats are pretty high:

  • In 2018 employers paid more than $600 billion in turnover costs;
  • Since 2009 there has been a 141 percent increase in open jobs;
  • 71% of employees in the US are looking for new jobs; and
  • 66 percent of organizations say that staff turnover levels are a growing concern.

So, why is retention so important?

  • Hiring is time-consuming

Think about all the steps that go into hiring a new employee. Posting the job description, screening people, the paperwork, checking references, background checks, making the offer, notifying all the people who didn’t get the job, onboarding. All of this costs money and time. Once you’ve gone through all of that, you don’t want to have to do it again in a couple of months.

  • Loss of knowledge

If experienced and skilled employees leave without transferring their knowledge to someone else, important information and skills can be lost.

  • Team work suffers

When people keep coming and going, it becomes difficult for a team to establish themselves and form a cohesive unit. The longer people remain in a team, the stronger bonds will become, and the more the effectively the team will perform.


7 Ways to Recruit and Retain Employees

How do we find new and creative ways to retain employees? Here are seven of our top employee retention strategies:

  • Culture

If you have a strong culture that people want to be part of, that’s already most of the battle won. Your culture will affect your reputation, and this is a key factor when people decide to apply to work with you. There are ways of finding out about your business. Nurture your company culture so that you attract the people that you want to work with. This is something you will have thought about when you started your business, and it will be in your business plan.

  • Promote from within

This is a powerful way to grow your company’s culture and goals. When you trust your team to grow with you, everyone benefits. They can see where you’re headed and they take the journey with you. If you need to fill a new position, try and promote internally. People are much more likely to continue working for you if they know that they’ll be able to grow as well.

  • Treat people well

When you treat your staff well, they are far less likely to look elsewhere for a better job. You can do this in various ways:

  • Treat them to experience days
  • Give them retail vouchers
  • Credit their multi-media accounts

Another great way to attract top talent is to ask your current employees for referrals. Reward them for this with financial incentives. It speeds up the hiring process and you won’t have to pay recruitment fees.

  • Sell up the business

When you post a job description, it’s important to include information about your company culture, and the best bits of your business that people can look forward to. People want to be happy when they go to work every day, so your call for new talent should already start to make them feel excited about the prospect of joining your company. Here are some of the things you can think about including in a job spec:

  • Do you offer flexible hours?
  • Will people be able to work remotely?
  • What is your incentive scheme?
  • What are your company’s rules and goals?

Don’t be afraid to change your recruitment ad if you feel like it isn’t working.

  • Allow them to advance – educate them

Many companies offer their employees the opportunity to learn, and to grow their skills. This can be done in various ways. You can create trainings and workshops on a regular basis; you can bring in new technologies and processes; you can offer to pay for tuition fees for outside courses. When you further someone’s education you don’t just help them feel valued. You also bring that newfound knowledge back into your business. It’s a win-win.

  • Benefits

Offering the right benefits is a powerful way to keep your employees satisfied and healthy. Medical cover and sick leave are some of the obvious ones, but there are others. You can offer stock options. You can also offer financial rewards for people who stay with the company for a certain period of time. If you have a company newsletter, mention people who are exceeding your expectations. Providing acknowledgement and gratitude goes a long way to keeping your top talent happy and engaged.

  • Transparency

Open communication is a powerful way to ensure that everyone in your company is working towards a common goal. Make sure that you are living the values of your business. Allow for regular meetings and invite feedback in a positive and non-threatening way. Embrace the feedback you receive and implement it if you feel that it will benefit your people. Allow people to talk to each other about their thoughts and feelings. Open communication breeds trust and loyalty. These are vital in fostering an environment of happy employees.

Finally…

The recruitment process is time-consuming and costly. In order to limit recruitment frequency, spend time and money on the talent you already have. When you retain your current employees, your business benefits because you save time, you allow teams to get stronger, and you hold into important knowledge and skills. To keep your top talent with your business, think about developing your company culture, selling up your business in recruitment ads, providing incentives, hiring internally, providing good benefits, investing in your people, and creating a work environment of transparency, openness and trust.

If you’d like to find out more about the support we give to business in and around Washington DC, visit our website.



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