Employee recruitment and retention

Managing a growing team is no easy task, especially when your organization is growing quickly.

A smart and organized recruitment and retention strategy can save your organization time and money while providing a foundation for sustainable business growth.

How can I recruit and onboard new employees?

When you take the time to find, hire, and train the right employees, you bring talented employees in your organization who will want to stay there. Using a streamlined recruitment and onboarding process can set your company up for success.

Here are some strategies to use when recruiting and onboarding employees.

Identifying your hiring needs: The first step to recruiting new candidates is to identify your hiring needs and what you are looking for in the position. This goes beyond just years of experience or a qualifying degree. Create a very specific recruiting post or advertisement that can attract the right candidates who will have the experience and expertise for the positions. The more specific you are, the more you will help candidates identify if they are the right fit for your organization.
Establish a process: Even if you find a candidate that you think will be a perfect fit at your company, it’s important to use an established process. This might mean having the candidate take a series of specialized tests to demonstrate their job skill or take on a small project to utilize their problem-solving skills. While impressions are subjective, having a standardized process can help narrow down the right candidates.
Take time to onboard: Once you have found the right candidate, you may be confident that they can handle all aspects of their job on the first day. But not so fast! Taking the time to onboard your employees can prepare them for success while allowing them to get to know the company’s culture. Having a standardized process can help identify patterns of what training is more helpful to employees over time.

What strategies can I take to onboard employees?

A new study shows that, across industries, the average cost per hire is $4,129, but the exact figures will be unique to your business.

With that kind of investment for each new hire, it is worth doing what you can to get them started and engaged in the right way.

Begin onboarding before the first day. A study by the Aberdeen Group found that 83% of the highest performing organizations began the onboarding process before day one on the job.

Examples of an onboarding process before the employee starts may include a friendly note from their manager, first-day information to help them prepare, welcome messages and photos from new teammates, a glossary of company acronyms, a virtual copy of your employee handbook, or vital details about the department or job responsibilities.

Make expectations and objectives clear: New employees want to understand their roles and objectives right away. It is also crucial they fit into the team. A good onboarding program makes their job duties clear and outlines the responsibilities of existing team members. This helps avoid conflict as the new employee can align with current procedures.
Assign a coach or mentor to new hires: Having a mentor can help orient new hires to the culture of your organization. Mentors can also work with new hires on career development while opening their network, most likely introducing them to other people in their field to help them reach their career goals. Plus, according to a recent study, employees who received mentoring were 20% more likely to get a raise than their peers who did not participate in a mentoring program.
Use onboarding software: Onboarding software can help streamline parts of the process and relieve some burden from your HR team. It helps managers track new hires' training, goals, and productivity. It can also reduce the time spent on onboarding paperwork.

What are the effects of employee turnover?

Whenever an employee leaves an organization, there is a cost. It takes time, money, and effort to replace that person. When an employee leaves, it affects many aspects of your organization.

Money: The cost of replacing an employee can be high, from spending money and resources on advertisements and recruiting efforts. This can range from one half to two times the original employee’s salary.
Productivity: When an employee leaves, that employee takes all of that specialized job-related knowledge with them, in addition to the work they were doing. Remaining employees may struggle to learn new processes, pick up new job duties, or keep up with a larger workload.
Morale: Losing employees can affect overall morale in your organization. While your other employees are picking up the extra work, they may start feeling burned out or frustrated. Employee resignations can also diminish morale if the employee was well liked and respected on the team.

Evaluating your employment management strategy

Making changes to your employee management strategy can seem daunting, especially when you've been invested in a particular system for a long time.

But taking an honest look at the employee journey—from the first interaction to several years in—can provide valuable information for improvement.

Here are three ways to identify potential weak spots.

Calculate turnover: High turnover rates may indicate a problem in your employee management strategies. Your turnover rate = number of employees lost last year divided by average number of employees x 100.
Review postings: Reviewing ads and interview questions can help extract the details from candidates that accurately assess their fit.
Conduct audits: How do you want your company to be perceived by potential candidates? How are you communicating values and expectations? Conduct an audit to uncover this information.

Strategies for employee retention

Employees who are dissatisfied with their company's management are far less likely to be productive and stick around. A recent study revealed that 57% of respondents who left their job cited management as the reason.

The best way to avoid losing good staff due to bad management is to catch and address problems early. Here are four ways to help your team stay happy in their job.

Encourage employee feedback: Providing opportunities for employee feedback can prevent minor problems from growing past the point of repair. Surveys, 360-degree review processes, or regular check-ins with each team member are excellent ways to get helpful feedback.
Create a survey for new employees: How are new employees adjusting to their role? Was the onboarding process effective? How well are they adapting to their assigned mentor and team? A new-employee survey can be a valuable way to assess how well they are adjusting to the role.
Make a visible effort: One way to improve loyalty and productivity is to ask employees about the hardest or most time-consuming aspect of their job. Then, look for ways to fix it. They will feel seen and heard and appreciate your effort.
Explore positive management styles: Four different positive management styles include Visionary, Democratic, Transformational, and Coaching. Visionary leaders set a team’s vision and strategy and convince their team to help execute their vision and idea. Democratic leaders let their employees participate in making decisions. Transformational leaders encourage change and growth, while Coaching leaders work to improve their employees’ professional development. All these management styles can have a positive effect on your employees’ well-being.

How can I improve team communication?

Effective communication lies at the foundation of every good relationship — including business relationships. To implement a healthy culture of open communication, leaders must strengthen both employee-manager and employee-employee interactions.

Choose collaboration processes and stick to them: Setting up a streamlined process of team communication and collaboration can help your team stay organized and in the loop. For the best results, managers should select communication avenues that employees prefer and can access quickly.
Walk the walk: Model the communication channels you want to prioritize by using them every time. To usher in organizational changes, managers must demonstrate those changes for employees.
Let projects dictate meeting times: Unnecessary meetings waste everyone’s time. Weekly or monthly meetings may work for some teams. For others, it may be more effective to let the project and your team’s natural workflow dictate when they meet.

Understanding and appreciating employees

Contrary to popular belief, salaries and raises are not always most important to workers. Some recent studies show recognition and appreciation mattered more to employees than their pay does.

Implementing just a few of the following organizational changes can dramatically lift your team's sense of being recognized and appreciated.

Acknowledge your team: Start meetings with each team member's wins, accomplishments, or personal reflections. Allocate a small monthly budget for managers to reward outstanding effort or ideas.
Be vocal: Some managers make the mistake of only calling out errors. Be vocal about team progress and projects, so employees know they are on the right track.
Respect their individuality: Give choices, whether it be schedule flexibility, office perks, or other options—choices show that you respect your employee's individuality.
Find out what works: Ask employees how they like to be recognized. Not all team members love the spotlight, but some will. Your employee definitions of appreciation will vary.
Show them a path forward: Offer mentoring or educational opportunities around topics that interest your employees.

Key points

Building a solid team takes time and deliberate action. Keep in mind the following big-picture perspectives while shaping your management practices:

Face problems head-on: Facing problems directly is far better than letting them linger. Increased turnover and low team productivity have hidden costs that significantly impact your bottom line.
Communicate clearly: Communication is crucial, along with creating systems and procedures for communicating in different situations. Leaders must take part in organizational change to lay the groundwork for new measures.
Check in regularly: Establish an iterative process of reassessing and tweaking employee management strategies. This will keep you continuously improving and learning how to get the most from your team.
Treat people well: Great employees are individuals, and it is important to consider their unique needs and preferences to keep them committed and engaged.

Next steps

Figuring out where you stand and envisioning where you want to be a year from now will help determine the next steps. Review the following steps to clarify what you can do to transform team management practices in your company positively.

Make changes: What changes can be implemented right now with minimal effort? Make a list of current problems and potential solutions. Share the list with team members and get their input.
Track employee metrics: Employee metrics like turnover rate, number of new hires, and individual performance can show whether you are on the right track.
Use recruiting and retention strategies: Strong recruiting and retention practices not only position your company for financial success but also pave the way for a happier, more creative, and more productive workforce.

The information in this article was obtained from various sources not associated with Adirondack Bank. While we believe it to be reliable and accurate, we do not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information. Adirondack Bank is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the information provided or the content of any third-party sites that might be hyperlinked from this page. The information is not intended to replace manuals, instructions or information provided by a manufacturer or the advice of a qualified professional, or to affect coverage under any applicable insurance policy. These suggestions are not a complete list of every loss control measure. Adirondack Bank makes no guarantees of results from use of this information.

Article written by EVERFI

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