5 Tips For Employee Recruiting And Retention

A new year is an ideal time make new hires, implement new training programs, and make changes to your business' benefits package that will both attract and retain top talent for this year and for many years to come.

But corporate new year's resolutions and visions of grandeur only materialize when the right decisions and processes are first put into place.

And to help you ensure that they are, and your 2018 goals are ultimately achieved, here are 5 key tips to follow in this year's recruitment process:

1. Make Your Company Attractive To Top-of-industry Talent
Before you can even think about creating an effective new hire selection process, you first need to attract good candidates to choose from. Not only should compensation be competitive and working conditions and schedules reasonable, but you also need a great benefits package to keep your staff top-of-market.

Invest in consulting and enrollment services to ensure you are meeting employee's benefits needs and not overwhelming your HR department in the process.

2. Create Detailed Candidate Profiles
Once you are offering highly competitive compensation and benefits, you have every reason to insist upon hiring extremely good candidates only.

Write down the experience type and level, the educational requirements, geographic and practical (availability) concerns, and work history and character quality must-haves. Think about the kind of person you are looking for and the kind of work performance you envision he/she must provide.

3. Look For In-house Referrals First
It really is true that "who you know" is as important as "what you know" in the business world. But there are good, legitimate reasons for that. One reason is that hard-working, talented employees tend to associate with people of similar bent and work ethic.

That's why you should start up an employee referral program that utilizes your existing talent to find new talent. Reward employees who find what prove to be new, valuable hires. Remember that referrals are the single biggest source of new hires, and they are hired at a very high rate of about one out of every three candidates.

4. Training, Training, Training
You should take time to train your interviewers. You don't need them wasting time and misrepresenting your company by pestering prospects with irrelevant questions. That could even lose you some key hires that would have benefited your company.

Also let new hires know they will immediately be trained, and that periodic training will be ongoing. Even your managerial staff should still receive new training. Focusing on training not only improves productivity, but it lets workers know there is a path of advancement (not a "dead end" job.)

5. Ask For Feedback And Make It Easy To Give
Give out a feedback questionnaire for candidates to give concerning the interviewing process: you might want to have them turn it in before they find out if they're hired to cut down on "revenge ratings," however. Set up an easy to use, even anonymous, employee feedback system as well so you can always have your finger on the pulse of employee satisfaction levels. Feedback will help you improve your recruitment process, benefits package, and your employee retention levels.

By following good recruitment practices and treating your employees right, you will fill your staff with top talent and keep them happy and productive - which improves your competitiveness and bottom line!

To learn more about optimal employee recruiting and related matters, feel free to contact Summerlin Benefits Consulting today!