As a hiring manager, successfully executing a recruitment process takes time and financial investment, especially for more senior and highly specialized roles. If you’ve recently placed a candidate who appears to be a great fit with your company and culture, what are some effective ways to retain your new hire?
Internal Motivators
Designing a creative yet effective strategy to retain your staff need not be an expensive exercise. Staff are happiest when they feel the contribution of their efforts is valued and recognized, so promoting this message to your new hire from the first day on the job is important.
As we know, some people are motivated by intrinsic mechanisms, such as recognition and empowerment, while others are motivated by extrinsic factors such as the guarantee of financial benefits or career progression in the event of redundancies. Identifying these factors in new staff means you’ll be in the best position to determine what the most attractive forms of incentives will be for them.
Flexibility
Knowing they work for a flexible employer is a huge incentive for many staff today and is something many staff look for when seeking a new job. Encouraging flexible work practices enables employees to work wherever they need to in order to accommodate unconventional circumstances in their life. It also demonstrates commitment that you respect their work ethic and have trust in their ability to get the job done, regardless of their physical location.
Personalized Rewards
Establishing a personalized incentive system is a creative way to engage your new hires as well as existing staff. One may value having her birthday off so she can spend it with her family, whereas another may value having the cost of an industry networking event paid for. Get involved with the conversations of your staff, and find out the types of things they enjoy. Friday afternoon social chat is a great way to identify various interests among your staff. Ask them what they enjoy doing outside of work and what rewards have meant the most to them during their career. By actively involving staff, especially new hires, you’ll promote a feeling of respect and incentive for your staff to work harder knowing their contribution is valued.
Management
It’s a long standing truth that staff leave managers, not companies. Work with your managers to ensure the on-boarding process of your new hire is as flawless as possible and the new hire is suitably integrated into the team. Invest time into working with the manager of the new hire to ensure they provide constructive feedback about performance, are having regular meetings and also setting clear expectations with the new hire. Managers need to actively create the right opportunities for new hires in order to realistically expect them to stay for the long term.
Bio: Joe Flanagan is the Senior Resume Consultant at the resume builder at Velvet Jobs when he’s not helping people get the job they want you can find him learning new ways to cook Asian cuisine and running .. slowly .. in middle distance competitions.
