Employee turnover and retainment is a hot topic at the moment, and with it becoming increasing tricky to find the right people for your business we were keen to partner with the expert HR talent business ‘Talent Group’. This is because we have seen the need to not only retain great employees but also to ensure the right employee is found for the business.
I talk a lot about engagement and culture within the strategies we have developed to ensure good uptake of the preventative mental health training we provide but another key element to creating the right culture to support this within your business is getting the right people into your business in the first place.
So, here we are going to go through 5 top tips to ensure you find the right employees and 5 top tips to ensure you keep those employees!
5 top tips to getting the right people
In theory, building a team sounds pretty simple: you post a few openings on job boards, skim through applications and facilitate interviews. How difficult could it be? Well, as many entrepreneurs can attest, the hiring process is often more complicated and nuanced than that.
Have a plan in place…
New business owners are eager to surround themselves with talent, but more often than not they get ahead of themselves in the hiring process. Rather than making hiring decisions based on industry trends or competitive staffing models, it’s crucial to take the time to plan out your business’s long-term strategy and budget allocations.
For example, with everyone talking about influencer marketing, new business owners may feel that they need to hire a dedicated influencer strategist right off the bat.
But, in reality, it may take a few months before you have the right budget in place to effectively maintain a strong influencer network. If that’s the case, your influencer strategist won’t know where or how to fit in at your company. Making a long-term roadmap will help you create plans and timelines to keep your hiring goals on track.
Know what you want …
Before you even open a listing for a new job on talent networks like LinkedIn take a second look at your description. Do your opening for a marketing manager read like all of the other ads for the position? If so, you should expect to receive a slew of generic applications.
When job seekers see generic openings, more often than not they don’t tailor their resumes or previous work examples to fit the company’s needs. This means you end up with 100 applications that all look the same. The more targeted and comprehensive your description is, the better chance you have to attract relevant talent.
Have you asked internally …?
Referrals often come from existing connections and acquaintances, which means that your own employees have already started the vetting process for you. When an employee puts forth a referral, they’re indicating that they believe this person has the talent and personality to fit in with the company culture.
Furthermore, because referred candidates are being pulled in from their own contacts, they come to the hiring table with a clearer picture of company culture and goals. Referrals eliminate a lot of the guesswork on the parts of both employer and potential employee.
Referred candidates are confident that their friend or previous colleague wouldn’t put them up for a job at a company with low morale or unclear goals. In fact, 65% of referred employees are satisfied with their jobs and are confident in their ability to fulfil the position’s requirements.
Culture and Fit is more important than experience ….
Experience is heralded as the most important trait when it comes to amassing a strong team. And for many roles, years of experience are a necessity. Roles that are technically advanced and require comprehensive understanding of systems need experience to build up skillsets.
For example, a marketing manager with an interest in product development but no real concrete experience probably won’t work out. However, sometimes hiring someone with too much experience can backfire.
Let’s say you’re interviewing a candidate with 10 years of design experience at a large agency to lead the design efforts at your burgeoning start-up. Because the candidate has been in one specific environment for so long, they may believe that their approach is the only approach.
With fluid budgets, aggressive timelines and minimal resources, new teams require agility. Recruits need to be able to take a step back from their own habits and processes and rethink their approaches in the context of your company’s business model.
Are they onboarded right in the current WFH climate…?
The hiring process doesn’t end once the i’s have been dotted and the t’s crossed on a contract. Too often, start-up founders forget that even highly qualified recruits need some guidance and encouragement at the beginning. When new hires are left to flounder, that’s when the trouble starts.
In fact, one-third of new hires quit their jobs after just six months. Founders can increase their company’s retention rates by establishing strong onboarding procedures from the get-go, including regular employee check-ins.
It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you employ individuals with personal career goals but making the extra effort to nurture their development will help you build a stronger, longer-lasting team.
Great teams don’t just appear out of thin air; they’re the result of careful planning, vetting and supporting. Rushing the hiring process or focusing too much energy on the wrong areas is not only financially costly; it will also weaken the morale of your growing team.
5 top tips to keeping the right people
Show them that you care………… Authentically!
When I say ‘show them that you care’ I DO NOT mean to sign post them to an employee benefits platform or EPA. I mean to create an atmosphere of support, engaging them in processes that are clearly there for their benefit and to support them with their needs, not yours or the businesses. This will in turn both support you and the business as they will be happy, engaged and productive employees that are likely to stay.
Create a culture of growth and development
Here it is important to engage employees in activities that will show them that you are invested in them both professionally and personally. To be clear that you want to support the development in both of these areas, that you want them to excel and be happy doing it. Gone is the old way of thinking that people want to work themselves to the bone, to at all costs reach a professional goal, people more and more want a balance. Show them, that you to what to support them to find the balance that is right for them and thrive.
Empathetic, emotionally intelligent managers
One of the top reasons for absenteeism and losing employees is poor management. When we work with businesses there is almost always inconsistent management styles causing challenges with the teams and people. This is somewhat to be expected as different people will manage their teams differently and this is also ok, it is good to bring personality to a management role. But where things tend to fall short and start to cause challenges is the lack of understanding of both personal emotions and how they relate to behaviours and then also the lack of understanding of other people’s emotions and how they will affect there behaviours also.
So, this is always a great place to start to make positive changes, the more we understand each other the better we work together and having managers that lead with this style of relationship and communication will impact the team, people in it and quality of work and working environment for the better.
Don’t take a ‘one size fits all approach’
This will never work, it is biologically impossible for this to work. We are all different and what will work for you will not work for someone else. If you are looking to care for and support your employees then you need to firstly take a holistic and education-based approach, giving people the options and tools they need to make the right choices for them. Not only what YOU think is good for them. Encourage them to develop and learn both professionally and personally, providing a well-rounded education in both areas.
Remove personal judgement
You cannot authentically lead where there is judgement and lead is what you need to do to retain employees.
In order to lead your employees you will need to inspire them, care for them, create a culture they want to invest in and be authentic. If there is judgement of people’s lives, habits, emotions or behaviours in this then something will fall short! Depending on what or where the judgement is. Look at it this way……… until you are a perfect person, with perfect emptions and someone who’s behaviour doesn’t ever step even slightly wrong then you have no right to judge others. And if you think you are perfect so have the right, then that is where you are not PERFECT. The same as us all. Striving for balance and success in life is great, but we will all do this in different ways, a good leader will not judge others for there way. Rather they will support and guide them through difficult times and help them progress and grow.
Now, if you had a boss like that would you leave!?
For more advice and assistance with recruitment contact Simon Doogan – https://thetalentgroup.co.uk , simon@thetalentgroup.co.uk
For more advice and assistance with employee retention contact Sophie Kirk – https://theholistichealthcaregroup.com , sophie@theholistichealthcaregroup.com
