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- 01 11月
Recruitment Focus – Employee Retention
Hang On To What You’ve Got!
When we recommend a role to a candidate one of the first things they do if the name is new to them is to check the company’s online profile, in particular, websites such as Glassdoor and Vorkers. One measure used to judge whether to apply to the company or not, is the rate of turnover, particularly in a certain team, and it will be a major red flag for them if many people come and go quickly. Obviously, employee retention is a crucial aspect for a company’s well-being, in order to grow and develop the business, maintain the brand and attract the best employees.
It may seem strange for a recruitment agency to talk about the best way to retain employees, after all, if there is no movement in the market we would have fewer jobs for us to work on. However, with lower turnover, companies will have stronger employee brands and so will be easier to recruit for when positions do come up.
While there are many different reasons why people voluntarily leave their jobs, we will look at some of the most common and also some ways on how to prevent those conditions from happening in the first place. After all, it is much better to prevent situations from occurring in the first place than attempting a quick fix.
We meet hundreds of candidates per month who are actively looking for a new job or who are just open to better opportunities and, across disciplines and industries, the reasons they may be looking are similar and quite simple:
- Their career growth has slowed or even stopped – the candidate can no longer see a clear path to gaining more responsibilities or gaining new skills
- Problems with the manager – this could have a range of causes, form a personality clash to a disagreement about management style
- Work is not satisfying – the work does not match their abilities and is not fulfilling, they feel their potential is not being used and they re not making progress (see above)
- There is a major change in the company’s focus or culture – the candidate may have become disconnected from the things that attracted them to the company in the first place
Some of these causes are preventable by introducing strategies to increase employee engagement and boost retention – it’s not all about the salary and benefits!
- Develop personalized action plans for employees and train managers to have regular meetings with their teams to follow up on these plans and keep them on track
- Conduct an employee satisfaction survey – based on these results, talk to the least satisfied employees immediately to address their concerns. Take the feedback from your most satisfied employees to build a long-term plan to increase job satisfaction across the company
- Create a learning culture – many employees, especially those in their 20s and 30s, will look outside if they have no opportunity to learn new skills and fulfil their potential. Some companies offer learning and development as part of the benefits package, while others offer an allowance to spend on evening or online classes
- Consider flexible working conditions – some studies have found that offering flexible hours and work from home can be the equivalent of a 10% salary increase, especially among millennials (people born in the 1980s and 1990s). This may be difficult to implement depending on your company culture, but is incredibly popular among employees and they are more likely to stay if they have them
Retention policies should also be a part of the recruiting process, and it is important that your recruiting teams, internal or external, are making sure that the candidate is considering the long-term proposition before they join. One way of doing this is to get the candidate to consider your role with all of the short-term gains removed, e.g. salary, bonus, location and then ask them why they want the job. If they cannot give a good answer to this question then, even if they accept your offer, they may not be satisfied in the long term and will be looking again soon.
Improving employee engagement and retention brings great results in the short-term and long term. Your current employees will feel more motivated and be less stressed and more productive and the improvement in your brand caused by lower turnover will mean your roles are easier to fill when people do leave.
We provide a free consultation and training session to help clients improve recruitment activity and perfect their agency relations.
For further information on this topic or any other recruitment-related questions, please contact ken@alberto-recruitment.comComments are closed.
