In 10 years of being a business owner, I’ve learned many lessons and made many mistakes. This year as we celebrate our 10th year in business I’m sharing 10 lessons I’ve learned in 10 years. This blog and video is lesson 7 of 10, and it’s a common issue I have seen over the years, businesses failing to focus on retention when recruiting staff.
Click here to see my video on the topic
Unfortunately today 30% of new starting employees don’t last more than 6 months! The cost of these mistakes is costing employers 10’s of thousands, if not 100’s of thousands per unsuccessful employee. I’d really like businesses to learn from their mistakes by investing more time into their retention strategies and a more proactive recruitment process.
The recruitment cycle has four parts; Sourcing (finding/searching), Selecting, Attracting and Retaining. Employers that recruit and retain well are the employers who put time and resources in this whole cycle, ongoing, without a break. Unfortunately, the employers who don’t recruit and retain staff well typically are reactive recruiters, they make decisions spontaneously as a result of an immediate need. They rush their recruitment process and make poor recruitment decisions. Aptus has seen many employers continue to make these mistakes repeatedly so I’m hoping this blog can help employers learn from mistakes other employers have made.
There are two things among many, I believe employers can do to improve their recruitment & retention success;
- Dedicate time to analysing why your staff stays so long, why they joined you in the first place, what keeps them happy and motivated, what are the key criteria that you need to look for in future staff members, values, behaviours, traits, skills, etc. Once this is understood we can use the data to set selection and attraction criteria to help choose the right fit for your environment, your working culture.
- Always have your doors open to new talent. Businesses that stop recruiting or stop attracting talent for periods typically don’t recruit and retain staff as well as employers who are always attracting staff. Using the employer brand values, story etc and positively projecting this daily via social channels etc is key to bringing your employer brand to the front of mind when people in your employment market are considering a change in job.
There are many things to consider when recruiting with the view to retain people for as long as possible however I can’t share everything in one video or blog, there is way too much to consider. I have and do run workshops to help SMEs source, select, attract and retain talent so I’d be more than happy to help any business owner learn from this. I welcome questions or messages anytime as I do believe this helps people find the right employer for them, helps employers find more success and helps recruiters work better with employers and candidates alike.
If you would like to recap on lessons 1, 2, 3 & 4 please click on the links below:
