Employee Retention Strategy: How Retention Starts With Your Hiring Practices

You know employee retention is critical to your company’s success. For starters, there’s the cost of high turnover: Employee turnover can sometimes cost as much as 2.5 times the amount of the former employee’s salary, and beyond the financial losses, there are other less perceptible but equally impactful costs, such as decreased engagement, low productivity, and negative cultural effects.

How can you ensure your employees are happy, healthy, engaged, and therefore more likely to stick around? It starts with the right employee retention strategy.

How can you develop a strong retention strategy?

Whether your company keeps recruitment in-house or decides to bring in a recruitment partner like Empower Partnerships, it’s vital to start thinking about retention at the start of the recruitment process (or even long before), not just after onboarding a new employee.

Here are some of the areas you’ll need to consider including in your retention strategy, so when you begin looking for new talent, you’ll not only know exactly who you’re looking for, but you’ll also know how you’ll get them to stay for the long term.

Recruiting process improvements

Employees that perfectly fit their role are going to stick around longer, but it’s harder to find the candidates you need with an inefficient recruitment process. Critical components of an effective recruitment process include using an applicant tracking system and building a strong and consistent employer brand.

Once you’ve found the right hire, ensure your onboarding process sets the employee up for success through clear instruction that’s not limited to helping them perform in their new role, but helps them thrive within the company.

Identify the best candidates

Candidates who match your company’s culture are much more likely to feel engaged and satisfied and less likely to leave, but you need to consider other critical factors when sourcing talent.

When the time comes to recruit talent, make sure the exact expectations of the role are clear to both you and the candidate, and watch out for any red flags. While there are different reasons for frequent job-hopping, if you hire someone with a history of moving from company to company after a short time, you shouldn’t be surprised when they quit.

Ongoing education and opportunities for advancement

Promoting from within is an often-overlooked recruitment tool because it shows that the company values its employees and recognizes their contributions to the company’s success.

Because ongoing education goes hand-in-hand with ensuring your employees have the tools to succeed in their roles and climb the company ladder, it’s critical to prioritize training, putting learning at the center of your hiring process and overall work environment. When candidates see growth opportunities, you’re empowering them from the start and helping to improve retention before the hire is even made.

Benefits

Of course, benefits are powerful incentives for employees to stay with your company. But employers should go beyond standard benefits like health care coverage and sick leave to keep employees engaged and happy.

Consider bonuses such as flexible scheduling and options for remote work. Giving employees flexible work arrangements is an effective way of attracting candidates, and, once they become employees, helps prevent any burnout and resentment, which otherwise can build up over time and push employees to look elsewhere.

Transparency

Quality of leadership can have a significant impact on turnover rates, and part of being a strong leader is fostering open communication with your employees, whether they’re on-site or working from home.

Be transparent about any major changes or company issues, allow employees to offer their ideas and express their opinions, and be sure to check in to get a feel for their job satisfaction. Your employees will feel heard, and retention rates are likely to improve as a result. Ensure transparency is present throughout the hiring process as well to avoid any discrepancies between expectations and reality.

Leveraging technology

Technology advances everyday and should be leveraged throughout the hiring process and beyond, especially as younger generations make up more and more of the workforce. Use digital recruitment tools to help you identify and track candidates and take advantage of social media networks for attracting talent.

Even after you’ve made hires, technology can continue to be used in innovative ways to keep employees motivated and engaged, such as using e-learning platforms to give employees educational opportunities to help them grow.

Start improving your retention with Empower Partnerships

You want your employees to be there for the long haul, and that’s what we want for you, too. As your recruitment outsourcing partner, we’ll stick with you to help you develop an employee retention strategy that keeps your employees motivated to grow and to support your business. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help you drive down turnover rates by not only retaining, but empowering your employees.

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