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Think about this. According to PeopleKeep.com, it is estimated that the cost to replace an employee is anywhere from 20% of an employee’s salary for low paying jobs to over 200% for higher level positions. What’s more, we are living and working in a candidate’s market.

So just what is your company doing to keep your employees and keep them productive, successful and happy? It all starts from the moment you onboard your newest superstar and the companies I see most successful in their employee retention strategies share two common qualities.

Build and Live a Strong Culture: As soon as you walk through an office door, you know if a company gets it or not. The office environment not only needs to reflect the company, brand and culture but it must express gratitude for the employees that work there and ultimately make the company what it is. This recognition can be shown in a variety of different ways and can be something as simple as signage and something more strategic such as making sure every employee plays a direct role in the company’s success and can see their impact. Knowing that their company cares about them and appropriately rewards them goes a long way in strengthening employee retention. These companies identify what makes them different than other employers, especially the competitors, and show employees how important they are too.

Companies with higher retention rates tend to even go so far as to allow what they stand for to exist outside of their office walls. Corporate social responsibility and opportunities to give-back to the community go a long way to strengthening a company’s culture, which in turn strengthens retention. Consider giving employees time off to run a race supporting cancer research or coordinate a team building activity around helping out at your local food bank. You will be amazed at how demonstrating how a company’s culture functions in the greater community fosters employee tenure.

Active Employee Engagement: The number one reason that I hear from candidates as to why they are looking for another job is for growth opportunities. This can be addressed through transparent conversations around employee skill set and overall company direction Clear goal setting, cross-training, mentorship opportunities, and encouraging external formal education play a huge factor in employee retention and motivation. Employees stick around for a company that invests in them.

The companies who listen to their employees and actively encourage open communication get the best kind of feedback there is. I always remind colleagues and clients that the exit interview is just as important as the hiring interview for learning what is keeping employees at your company and what might be driving them away. Whether it’s through one on ones, weekly team meetings or simply a routine walk to grab a coffee, the conversations shared during these moments inform companies on just how the teams really are doing and also nip potential issues in the bud. And we all know how they can escalate and cause employee morale and productivity to drop. For example, especially if a particular position has become a revolving door of employees, what you might discover in these conversations is that the manager of that group may require some training or reminders regarding conflict-resolution, work styles, or motivational tactics. As hard as it may seem to broach sensitive topics in the workplace, it is essential to build teams with staying power.

Revisit Part I and Part II of the blog series for more insight on who is out there to hire and reinventing your hiring process.

Finding the right candidate for the job is not an easy process. And for the best results, you ultimately want to ensure an all-around candidate fit. And by all-around fit, I mean a candidate’s fit with the role and pace of work, the company culture, the team and the hiring manager’s leadership style. Here are some things to think about to help make your hiring strategy more effective.

360 Company Review Believe it or not, not every company does this. Before you post the job and start the interviews, round up your own team and ask them what their expectations are for the new hire, in conjunction with their business goals and team needs. And at the same time, it never hurts to revisit your company’s overall business plan to think strategically about what employee additions are needed to align with and support company objectives to lead to success. New hires should not just be hired to complete tasks, but to further the growth of the entire organization and live the organization’s culture.

Define Success Goals You only want qualified candidates to apply for the job, so take your time when writing the job description. Instead of writing a standard job description focused on job responsibilities, consider writing a job description focused on goals and metrics that this person will hit if they are successful. Get your team’s input. And during the interview process, explain the job description clearly to every candidate so they know what they can expect and what will be expected of them. The number one reason I get from candidates as to why they are looking to leave their current job is because of lack of career growth. They have not been given any defined goals and ways to track their success.

Assessments

Using personality assessments as part of the hiring process has become common practice. Some of the more popular ones are Personality Index and DISC. Personality Index works well when compared to historical data or data about the team’s make up whereas something like DISC can be used as more of a standalone tool.

While more companies are hiring for personality and then training for skills, I always suggest using a skill set assessment (such as an excel or a writing assessment) along with the personality assessment to help get a more holistic understanding of the job candidate and their all-around fit. Also, I typically recommend conducting the assessments within a particular time frame (timed) and administering them later in the hiring process unless it is being used as part of an initial application screening.

Hiring Department Research has shown that hiring managers aren’t successful the majority of the time. I believe this has more to do with teams not having the proper tools and resources to search, find and hire the right people or the interest and drive to allocate the proper amount of time to this task. If this is the case in your company, think about providing your hiring team with training, reorganizing responsibilities, or looking to external resources. And when it comes time to interview a candidate, have multiple interviewers and decision-makers and give each one different areas to focus on during the interview.

Outreach Efforts Don’t wait for qualified candidates to come to you. With the job description and goals in hand, get the word out everywhere you can. This could be through targeted searching and outreach through your network or through proven hiring resources.

Missed Part I? Catch up here: Who is out there to hire?