It sounds simple enough. You want to hire great candidates who will stay long term in your business. The problem is, employee retention is a tricky one to balance. We look at the benefits of having a high employee retention rate, plus the best ways to recruit new long-term team members.

 

Benefits of Having a High Employee Retention Rate 

An ever-changing team can be bad for business. Not only does it cost you additional money to recruit and train new employees, but it can also affect the morale and stability of your current team members too.  As an employer, having a high employee retention rate is certainly a goal to aim for. The benefits are many and include:

• Low employee turnover
• Increased company loyalty
• More cost effective
• Higher team member morale
• Increased team performance and productivity
• Higher customer/client retention

One of the key ways you can improve employee retention is to get things right when you are recruiting. Let’s look at how you can do that.

 

Tips on Recruiting People Who Stay 

Finding and keeping good people is a common challenge faced by business owners. All too often, managers or owners fail to hire employees who remain a part of the company long term. As recruitment consultants, we notice that this is often due to poor communication from those in charge of the hiring process. One report showed that 57% of new employees left their job within the first three months because the role was not what they had expected. Had they been thoroughly informed from the start; the candidate probably would never have applied and been hired. This means that the person doing the hiring must be upfront regarding what the role involves and the expectations they have of the employee.


This makes having a solid recruitment strategy in place essential. We’re here to help you with that, so please get in touch. You can also achieve higher employee retention rates by:

• Encouraging employee referrals
• Having a comprehensive onboarding process for new team members
• Offering fair compensation
• Assessing for cultural fit
• Being a fair, consistent and honest employer
• Setting clear job and responsibility expectations right from the start

As in other areas of life, good communication plays an important role in business. It’s vital that your team members are kept informed about what is happening in the business, even if it doesn’t directly affect them.  As a small business hiring new people or even your first employee, you need to be completely open about what you expect the candidate to do. Their responsibilities and your expectations must be clearly shared, then you step back and let them do their job. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but we’re here to help. For great advice on hiring new employees, get in touch.