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In any company, business, organization, startup, NGO or agency, almost regardless of their size, there is expected to be some monthly fluctuation of personnel. The turnover rate of all employees seems to be at around 10-15% in almost any company setting, and the larger the number of total employees is, the more people tend to come and go as well.
This is a two-way street: on one hand, the employee turnover rate can be beneficial to your company, since it allows those new additions to the team that weren’t exactly a good fit to just go before they waste more of your time and resources. But on the other hand, it’s also quite a hassle to invest time into a new hire, and do all the trainings required, only to see them go before they actually manage to become productive. Finding the ideal balance of employee turnover is a challenge for any business, be it big or small.
Of course, no one is or should be advocating a clingy approach towards employees, especially the most recent additions to the team. Retaining new hires through almost any means possible is neither feasible nor desirable. When there is no desire to stay, you probably had the wrong person for that position to begin with. Still, sometimes it happens that the members you managed to temporarily recruit were actually more than valuable additions to the team, but sadly, you cannot manage to convince them to stay long.
True talent will of course receive competing offers and be tempted to go to a higher bidder, or sometimes a busy time in the company can make new and promising employees feel not quite at home in it, thus preferring to move on. These cases where employee turnover could have been prevented, with better care is what every manager should focus on.
It’s a pity to see valuable potential walk away, so here are a few tips on how to find loyal new talent (and make new recruits more likely to stay on board), from recent headhunting strategies and trends. As a bonus, employees who can be characterized as ‘loyal’ not only remain with you on the long run, but are also likely to go above and beyond to meet each project’s goals. These are the type of people you should be looking for.
How to Find New Loyal Talent for Your Business: 3 Approaches
- Talk about your long-term goals for their department and how they could fit in them. A truly valuable professional must be aware of the room there is for them to grow (and be promoted), right from the start. This way, you can accomplish two things at the same time: first of all, you will motivate them to stay on, with the promise of future growth, and second of all, you will help them achieve a clearer image on what their role will be, what is expected of them, how does their work fit into the larger scheme and long-term strategy and so on.
A lot of new hires leave because after a few weeks, they still haven’t managed to find their place or understand what they’re supposed to be doing and why exactly they should do it. Valuable professionals want their work to have meaning, beyond simply doing daily tasks because they’re told to. Following this recruitment strategy will help you provide them with just that.
- Make sure you look at several indicators from their background. Another key factor in preventing a too high employee turnover is making sure you weed out the dubious ones who are most likely to jump ship at the earliest convenience. Don’t just look at their CV so far, there are multiple factors you should take into account when trying to spot a quitter.
These are the things you should be looking at: the length of their previous employment gigs, on average (giving the benefit of the doubt if short collaborations seem to be the exception rather than the norm), their collection of achievements of any kind (including community work and so on, since it shows commitment to a cause), and some signs of doing their research before applying for a position with you (it shows seriousness). You should also discuss professional long term plans with them during the interview and see if you obtain a detailed response, which would reflect that they really think things through are in it for the long haul.
- Offer a simple and comprehensive long term gains system right from the recruitment stage. Companies who offer a bonus system or a clear and transparent path to promotion have nothing but to gain from motivating their recruits this way. By discussing a potential path for advancement head-on during the interview, beyond what is being offered in the initial package, you not only motivate new hires, but you also give them a clear image on what they should do in order to qualify for what’s in store.
The clearer the picture you offer, the better: a graph or chart presenting the potential paths to take as building blocks would be ideal, for example. The point is not only to get your message across, but also to really help your recruits envision a future with you.
Amanda Wilks is a Digital Marketing Specialist and a Contributing Editor at Job Application Center. She has a great interest in everything related to corporate branding and recruiting and loves helping companies succeed at making a powerful impact on the market.
Great advice, Amanda. I found your point about long term gains especially helpful. By making a clear effort to discuss available paths for career and skill development during the interview process, employers will communicate to job candidates that sticking with their company is a valuable investment that will pay dividends in the future.