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Retain Vs Recruit
So, you’ve just recruited a great person to join your organisation; their CV read to perfection, they impressed you during the interview, they looked smart, the references were excellent and you believe they’ll fit in well with the team. Good work! But if this is happening too often you need to re-think your retention strategy.
The Cost of Recruitment
It’s at this point your business is all too aware how much this recruitment exercise has cost. But do you ever consider the costs you don’t see; the time the role was unfilled resulting in work not getting done, those training the new recruit shift their focus from customer service and the time spent overcoming the learning curve. This will crush your bottom line if repeated too many times.
There are other intangible costs to consider too such as brand reputation; the perception of your business will suffer as high staff turnover does not spell confidence. Not to mention the devastating effect if they transfer all their talent and business knowledge to one of your competitors.
Taking both quantifiable and unquantifiable costs into account, it’s crucial that businesses do all that they can to get to know their employees as individuals, invest time in them and keep them happy.
How Well Do You Know Your Staff?
Finding out what motivates your workforce, and acting on this, is the foundation for successful employee engagement which is key to retaining your workforce. Do you know how they feel about their workplace or what they think of their reward package?
Getting to know your employees on a personal level is incredibly important to the success and smooth running of your company. Engaged employees who are invested in your company perform at a high level, have a positive effect on others and rarely suffer with the ‘Monday blues’.
The Engagement Survey
Completing engagement surveys will give your business immediate insight into your employees’ level of engagement and what makes them tick. Appropriate surveys can be completed on specific employee groups, departments or your organisation as a whole.
Understanding how your employees feel about their work, the management, your customers, their colleagues and the direction of the company is such a crucial tool to identify why people leave the company, what they desire to gain greater job satisfaction and more.
External Assessment
Having an external company compile the questions and analyse your employees’ responses not only provides you with expertise and saves you time, but is more likely to result in honest answers. Confidentiality and anonymity is important to everyone completing the survey. It’s not hard to understand why some answers may be ‘diluted’ if you feel your manger will see your reply! The more honest the feedback, the better the fit of your retention strategy.
This expertise will identify patterns and pinpoint areas in need of re-energising.
Rewards and Benefits
You may be surprised at the findings, it’s often assumed that a salary and benefits alone can retain staff, but in today’s competitive workplace this isn’t the case.
Having a diverse mix of employees is great for your company, you benefit from a range of different approaches, strengths and ideas. So, it’s no wonder that members of your workforce are driven by a wide range of both financial and non-financial rewards.
Now you know your workforce on a more personal level, maybe it’s time to rethink your reward strategy too.
Retain Your Talented Workforce
Implementing a fresh retention strategy, based on the survey findings, demonstrates that you are not only listening to your workforce, but you are acting on what’s important to them. The benefits to the individual and the company are immeasurable; they are less likely to look for other jobs, they will enjoy being part of a company who cares about its staff and they will have a sense of pride from their work. This successful employee engagement can only strengthen your business.
How we can help you
If you’d like to discuss any of the issues detailed in this blog, get in touch with us today. We’re here to help.
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