The hiring process can present an expensive challenge to businesses, especially when turnover rates are high as well. Not only does high turnover leave you starting the hiring processes again, but it creates turmoil within your team because there’s a lack of consistency. To reduce the costs associated with hiring talent and to make life easier for your team, it’s important to implement strategies to reduce employee turnover.
Retention Starts Before Day One
Retention efforts need to begin before an employee starts at your company, as the onboarding process will tell them how the future is likely to pan out. Therefore, you need to make sure onboarding processes provide a clear understanding of what the company is trying to achieve and how they will contribute to that effort. If you can, have their line manager make contact a week before they start to answer any questions.
Hire the Correct Talent
To get the most out of hiring efforts, you need to be attracting and onboarding the right people. This doesn’t always mean hiring the person with the most qualifications, as they may not align with your company’s ethos and culture. The best way to make sure that a prospective employee will suit a position with your company is to ask behaviour-focused questions during the interview. For example, you can ask about their previous experiences of handling last-minute changes to their routine – their answer will say a lot about their character.
Find and Fix Issues
Even successful companies will have processes that can be improved, so perhaps it’s time to start looking inwards and making positive changes. A great way to gauge how your employees are feeling is to send out an employee engagement survey from inpulse.com, which will let you highlight bottlenecks and fix them. If you can reduce friction within your business, you’ll see lower turnover rates.
Recognition and Rewards
Every employee in your business wants to be recognised and rewarded for the hard work they put in, and it’s your responsibility to make sure this happens. Whenever an employee reaches a milestone or carries out positive work, make a point to openly celebrate it. There are countless ways to recognise and reward employees, and doing so will boost motivation and reduce turnover rates.
Present a Clear Career Path
While we’re on the topic of rewards and recognition, your current employees will likely be in search of career progression. Therefore, spend time putting together a clear career path that all employees can access. If a talented member of your team feels like there’s no way for them to progress, they’ll start looking outwards for different opportunities. To prevent this from happening, schedule regular appointments to talk about career aspirations and how your company can contribute.
Facing high levels of turnover will impact your bottom line and your existing team’s productivity, so make sure you’ve got plenty of ways to retain talent. The key to successful retention is having clarity from the start, offering career progression, and firing people up through recognition and reward.