Usually, retention is not really seen as a recruiter´s job, and even less that of an external recruiter. However, your employee retention strategy is of utmost importance for retaining those talents that are critical to your business´ success and therefore everyone that can make a contribution to employee retention should do so. And, although it may seem that a recruiter´s job ends when an employee is hired and starts in the business, recruiters can play an important role in boosting employee retention as well. Especially external recruiters can make a great contribution here because they will be able to provide you with specific insights for your employee retention strategy that you might not have within your business.
So where exactly can professional recruiters add value to boost your employee retention?
1. Compensation & Benefits: Pay Well
In order to retain your top talents, you should make sure that they are compensated well enough. This might seem obvious, however, what does “pay well” actually mean for your critical employees? Professional recruiters will be able to provide you with market data and insights on how to provide competitive compensation and benefits packages for your employees. You might think you are paying well, however, professional recruiters will be able to tell you how you compare to your key competitors for example, which is invaluable information for your employee retention plan.
2. Hiring the right employees
Another big cause of employee retention problems is cultural fit. Even if an employee is compensated well if there is just no right fit with the company´s culture and ways of working, that employee might leave soon again. Professional recruiters can help you by hiring the right employees, and not just in terms of skills and experience but also focusing on cultural fit. By already emphasizing cultural fit in the interview process hiring mistakes can be avoided leading to higher employee retention.
3. Understand the candidate´s career goals befo
re hiring
You want to retain your top talent and your business critical employees, but do you really know what they want to get out of their job? Salary is one thing, but what are their career goals? What do they want to achieve in the next 5 years? What do they want to develop in their job? A professional recruiter can help you with understanding a candidate´s career goals before making a hiring decision. By making a thorough analysis of the candidate´s career ambitions, expectations can be managed better. Also even if a candidate is a great fit for the job if you know beforehand that their career goals will be very unrealistic to achieve in your company, maybe it is not such a good fit after all. If you know the candidate might be leaving soon again when he or she realizes as well that your company is not the place to fulfill their career goals, for business continuity it might be better to hire somebody else and thereby boost employee retention.
4. Educate your business leaders about the cost of losing talent
Do your business leaders know the real cost of losing talent? The cost of finding and hiring new people? Professional recruiters can help you in educating them about the cost of losing talent and the importance of employee retention strategies.
5. Help you set up a flexible working culture
A flexible working culture is becoming more and more important. Many employees value flexibility more than some monetary rewards. Therefore, setting up a flexible working culture can be a great benefit for boosting your employee retention. Professional recruiters can help you by understanding what today´s talented employees really look for in a job and how you can set-up a flexible working environment.
What other areas did professional recruiters help you with in your employee retention strategy?
