Hiring the Best People: What About Employee Retention?

Some organizations suffer from high turnover. It’s like a revolving door. The organization doesn’t seem to be hiring the right people, for the right reasons, to do the right jobs, and employee retention is difficult.

The most critical step is hiring the right person in the first place. Nothing worse than hiring the wrong person; and punishing them, by having them, try to do the wrong job. That is miserable for everybody. So hire the right person in the first place.

Once you have hired someone, give recognition for every job that is well done. I would rather “overdo” than “underdo” appreciation and recognition.

Communicate openly with your employees as often as possible, one on one, face to face, in staff meetings, responding to questions asked in the newsletters, scheduled quarterly evaluations, and at organization –wide events.

Continue to develop your own conceptual, interpersonal, and technical skills and be a role model for life long learning. Then be sure to support others’ educational opportunities and advancement.

Be the best listener in the organization. Consider others’ ideas and follow-up or follow through with discussions and decisions.

If you want to improve employee retention, then recognize and reward longevity, with anniversary cards, vacation, pay increases, special events, newsletter articles, snazzy shirts, pins, plaques, picnics, or parking spots.

Provide a positive leadership style and get to know the people you lead and what motivates and excites them.  Maintain high standards of professionalism and expect only the best from your staff. Provide the tools they need to be successful.  Then you can promote from within.  And when you have done everything you can to help a struggling employee; kindly let them go.  Or you will lose the most productive people that have been picking up the slack.

It is expensive to have a revolving door with employees leaving shortly after they are hired. Cut costs by investing some time and money in these retention strategies and enjoy the long-term benefits of employee retention.