What happens when the employee you hired turns out to be less qualified than you thought? Or, what happens when your best workers choose to resign out of the blue?
These things can happen in every organisation, but there are ways to improve them. Starting from the selection and hiring process to the onboarding and management of employees, there’s a lot that you can do to make sure that you have the best people in your organisation.
Before we go into how you can improve all this, let’s learn a bit about why it happens in the first place.
Hiring Challenges faced today
No matter for what industry you are hiring, chances are you have some competition. Other companies are trying to get the best talent just as you do. If you are looking for great employees but can’t seem to interest them in working for you, then you need some changes. People won’t apply for jobs with salaries that don’t fit their qualifications, positions with limited opportunities for advancements, or companies with poor work ethics.
Even if you do get some great people on board, they’ll soon leave your company if they are unhappy. According to Harvard Business Review, many people today work under poor leadership, are not recognised for their progress or need a better work and life balance.
top 7 employee retention Strategies
Unless you are attracting the best people out there and have many workers who stay with you for years, you need to make some changes – and fast. If you are thinking: ‘this is too costly and takes too much time’, think again. There’s always some brand out there that will offer your workers better conditions if you fail to do so.
With that in mind, it is more important now than ever for you to learn how to attract, engage, and retain the top talent in your industry. Here is where you should start:
hiring right
None of the strategies that follow or other onboarding tricks will work unless you hire the right person for the job. If you hire someone who will most likely quit and not be happy to work for you, you shouldn’t be surprised when they do.
This is why it is of high importance that all applicants are familiar with what you are looking for. They should know what they are getting into, and it is your task to determine if they are invested in the offered work. According to 37% of hiring managers, new hires remain in a company if they are informed fully about the job during the hiring process.
However, it is not just them that should be certain that they can work at your company. It is also you that has to make sure the candidates are the right fit. Unless they are, they’ll do their work poorly and you’ll have to look for new ones.
When you pick your favorite candidates for the job position, make sure to check their qualifications and credentials. Speak to former employees, ask the candidates some questions about their backgrounds, and wherever applicable, test their knowledge.
There are many tools that make this very simple and affordable. TestGorilla has all sorts of assessments that can show you if the person who will work for you can do their job well. For example, if you are looking for a good accountant, their accounts payable assessment will tell you all you need to know. It will show you how able the candidate is to identify, manage, and record accounts payable.
incentiviSed Perks
People won’t jump at the opportunity to work for you if they can get better benefits elsewhere. They won’t be willing to stick around if they aren’t appreciated. The benefits package you are offering to employees can certainly affect your hiring and retention numbers.
With the right package, you can make your workplace stand out to the best talent in the industry. It can also do wonders with employee morale and keep people happy with their work at your company.
Starting with a fitting salary based on their position to wellness opportunities to boost their health and performance, there’s a lot you can do today to attract and retain talent. Successful companies have stress management programs, excellent healthcare packages, great career advancement opportunities, and much more.
The newer generations look for these things more than they look for high pay. Millennials, for example, will rather pick a more flexible job with better work culture than one with higher pay without these perks.
While it’s not all about the money, keep in mind that the salary is still a big incentive. Still, don’t be afraid to widen your scope and include more perks for your employees.
workplace communication
Good communication in the workplace is more important than ever. This is vital for the progress of your company and it helps you build good relationships with people who work in it.
Every person in your team should feel free to communicate their ideas and thoughts. They should be able to ask questions without fear or hesitation and state their concerns if they arise. It’s how you can keep track of their progress, handle issues before they affect the company’s work, and make people more comfortable in your organisation.
There are many ways to improve communication in your organisation. Start with team building activities, set regular meetings to discuss matters with your team, and arrange some activities where your team can relax and communicate among themselves.
feedback and reward
Employees leave their work because they don’t feel like they’re valued. When you stick around in a company that doesn’t recognise your hard work, it’s natural to lose motivation and focus.
In those meetings, you’ll introduce to boost the communication, talk with your team about their goals and praise their current work. You should let them know that there’s potential for career advancement wherever possible, which will incentivise them to keep working.
However, if you do all this without actually providing them with the rewards, you’ll lose them anyway. Telling people that they do a good job is enough sometimes, but a lot of the time, you need to show them that you value their hard work.
People want to feel more appreciated. In today’s workforce, gratitude toward employees is expected. There’s a lot that you can do to reward your team for their hard work, from small perks to big promotions.
If you want to make sure that you stick to your budget and still recognise the hard work in your team, creating a good recognition program beforehand is a great start.
Continuous professional development
Most people don’t want to be staggering in the same job position without learning anything new or advancing professionally. Today, job seekers look for companies where they can develop personally and professionally. They search for jobs that have the potential to turn into something better and bigger.
To attract more people to your company and keep the ones you have fulfilled and happy, you need to offer them development opportunities. This can include anything from coaching and mentoring to online classes and vouchers for outside education.
flexibility
As was mentioned previously, young people prefer flexibility over high pay when looking for work. Now that we’re dealing with a pandemic, work has become more flexible for all. People have been adjusting to remote work and different working hours, which shows that flexibility is more in demand than ever.
As a matter of fact, a survey by Robert Half shows that 1 in 3 professionals prefer working from home occasionally. If remote work is not an option for your team, try to find other ways to make their work more flexible. Offer breaks in between, give them the chance to work different hours, reward them with more time/ days off, etc.
promoting Purpose-led organisations
If you are proud of your organisation, what it stands for, and if has a great reputation, people will want to work for you. Businesses that contribute to the community, offer volunteering opportunities to employees, and help charities and other organisations are highly valued nowadays.
When you put effort into making your company a place where employees can feel safe and happy, you’ll find that people are more likely to work for you.
Final thoughts
The needs and preferences of talented and skilled employees change all the time. It is your job as a brand to offer people the right conditions, rewards, and perks that will make them motivated and happy to work with you. Waiting for people to apply for work and perform it without getting anything in return doesn’t work today. That being said, it’s time to make some changes and turn your company into one that people will want to work at.
Author: Daniel Quintero – Content Partnership Specialist, Skale
