Most businesses are searching for ways to hire talent. But once they find them, very few businesses have ways to nurture and retain them. Employee turnover costs can have a significant impact on your bottom line. In fact, replacing high-potential talent can cost a business two to three times the outgoing worker’s annual salary.
Learn ways to find and hire good talent and improve employee retention with these talent acquisition and retention strategy tips.
What is talent acquisition?
Talent acquisition is the process of finding and recruiting workers. This process involves identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting and interviewing potential candidates that meet your business needs. Talent acquisition is a long-term HR strategy to find specialists, leaders or future executives to fit certain skill sets.
Attracting the best talent for your business isn’t just a one-time event. It is a continuous process to make hiring more productive and to ensure that HR recruiters are filling vacancies with the right candidates. Finding the right candidates based on skill-set and cultural fit will improve your chances of retaining employees and propelling your business forward.
What is talent retention?
Talent retention refers to the ability of an organisation to retain its employees. This practice ensures that a company’s above-average professionals remain with them for longer. This benefits a business in several ways:
- It keeps productive and talented workers
- It reduces employee turnover
- It fosters a positive work culture
- It builds a stronger brand reputation
- It increases revenue for your business
- It lowers costs associated with retraining and re-hiring
With that, talent retention makes it possible to build a more competitive business. Employees tend to stay in a company for longer if they feel valued and happy in their job. Organizations that have positive experiences and strong team relationships create a more engaged workforce.
Retaining talent begins with recruiting the right employees. From there, hiring managers can try some simple strategies to improve their employee retention.
What processes can businesses put in place to achieve both?
The 2 processes aren’t mutually exclusive and your brand will benefit reviewing both strategies through a similar lens. Here are some strategies to consider when you want to acquire and retain talent:
Pre-screening candidates
Retaining talent begins with finding the right candidates. When hiring new employees, you should screen candidates that are a match to your company’s culture and values and who demonstrate a desire to want to stay at a company. Two ways you can determine this is by looking at their resume to see how long they’ve worked at previous employer’s. Another way to screen candidates is to ditch the phone interviews and go straight to in-person or video interviews. That way, you can more accurately study their body language and behaviours.
Look within the business
Sometimes, hiring internally makes sense. Hiring a current employee ensures that your ‘new hire’ will already be familiar with the company’s policies, culture and business goals. In addition, hiring from within your company reduces a great deal of money on recruiting costs.
Performance reviews
Accessing performance reviews allows HR managers the perfect opportunity to discover an employee’s full potential. Once the talent is defined, you can measure each candidate’s individual performances and impact across the business against the qualities/skill sets you’re looking for.
Onboarding experience
Effective onboarding strategies can save time and money by reducing employee turnover. Organisations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82%. Unfortunately, a recent Gallup study found that only 12% of employees agreed that their organisation had a good onboarding process. One of the most critical steps to improving the onboarding experience is to clearly identify and communicate your company values. For some candidates, your values may not resonate, leaving you with only the candidates who are the right cultural fit.
Investing in your EVP
A strong employer brand can help you win and retain the right talent. Have you given any thought to what your employer brand is communicating? Does it represent your business in the best light? Does it clearly represent your company’s values, goals and purpose? Top candidates will be looking at your brand and branding message to determine whether or not to apply. Whichever way you choose to get your brand out there – whether through job posts, a LinkedIn profile or advertising – remember your reputation is everything. Do a quick Google search and look at what comes up. Are the reviews, Blog posts, social media pages and job listings describing your brand in the right light?
Planning for future growth
If you’re forecasting growth and team expansion then give yourself time to find the right candidate. Finding the right employee for a role takes time. In effect, your recruiting process directly affects your retention rate so you want to be sure that you are investing your time and resources in the right way. Try conducting a Skills Matrix for your employees and incorporate some succession planning and forward planning to ensure all skill gaps are filled with the right candidate.
Professional Development – Training + learning opportunities
Investing in training and development not only makes your employees experts in their field, but it also motivates them to remain with your company as they have the ability to progress in their careers. When trained, employees feel valued. Having training customised to their role and learning styles also help employees understand their self-worth and build their on-the-job confidence.
Flexible Working Arrangements
Businesses that offer flexible working arrangements remain very attractive to employees. In fact, employees who are given flexible working hours are 4 times less likely to be a retention risk. Some ways you can do this include remote or hybrid working, providing unlimited paid time off (PTO) opportunities or giving employees the chance to choose their own hours.
Make it a fun place to work
Feeling fulfilled and happy in the work they do and the work environment they’re in can help employees decide to stay long-term. One-third of your life is spent at work. If employers hope to keep their workers happy and fulfilled during this time, they need to look for ways to contribute to their well-being.
One of the most under-recognised ways to improve employee retention is to make your workplace fun. How to do that? Consider a combination of tools and events to promote bonding and boost morale such as:
- Creating a gaming room or relaxation area
- Encouraging office/cubicle personalisation
- Having virtual happy hours
- Celebrating birthdays and milestones at work
- Providing wellness incentives such as onsite massages, gym memberships and yoga classes
- Hosting work retreats and excursions
- Forming an office sporting team
Both talent acquisition and talent retention are important for a company’s long-term success. Businesses spend a lot of time and resources in finding employees who demonstrate the desire for a long-term commitment to their organisation. Once these new employees are hired, the focus must be on committing to a long-term strategy to retain these employees.
At Employment Innovations we work with brands that want to improve their performance management review processes and employee onboarding. These systems are highly effective at acquiring and retaining the right talent in the business and build teams delivering business results. If you would like to speak with a HR Advisor, get in touch.
About Employment Innovations
Employment Innovations is one of Australia’s leading providers of employment services designed to increase productivity and ensure compliance. Its services and solutions include all the tools that every Australian small to medium sized employer needs – including workplace advice, legal services, payroll solutions, migration, human resource management and HR software.
Disclaimer
The information provided in these blog articles is general in nature and is not intended to substitute for professional advice. If you are unsure about how this information applies to your specific situation we recommend you contact Employment Innovations for advice.