6 Strategies for Retaining Employees: How to Keep Your Perfect Hires

You work so hard to find the perfect employee. On average, it takes between 33 to 49 days to find the right person for the job, depending on the industry. Within that time, there are countless hours of vetting candidates.  With so much time and money invested already, how do you get them to stay? Here are 6 strategies for retaining employees from the recruiting process through the lifetime of the person’s employment. 

Success within the Recruitment Process

The first strategy to retain employees begins with your recruitment process. Identifying the right fit for the role and your organization will minimize the risk of a new hire resigning prematurely. By assessing both hard and soft skills as well as integrating the proper candidate screening tactics, you will set up the role for success by finding the perfect match for the job description. 

First Impressions

Another consideration is that impressions work both ways; how are you portraying the culture and climate of your organization? Is your portrayal clear and accurate? By clearly communicating the role, organizational objectives, and company culture from the beginning, the candidate should walk in knowing what to expect. If this is not communicated properly, it leaves room for that new hire to feel misled. 

The Best Onboarding Experience

When developing strategies to retain employees, there is much importance in focusing on the onboarding process. If a new employee has a terrible onboarding experience, they might feel a sense of regret for accepting the position, thus creating a negative viewpoint from the very beginning.  By investing time in creating a positive and effective onboarding process, you may save time re-filling the role.

Communication is Key

A recent poll of 1,000 employees showed 91% believe communication is a skill that management and leadership lack. When developing strategies to retain employees, look to your management training opportunities and talent management and optimization processes. By holding supervisors accountable for consistent communication and employee evaluation, relationships and employee growth can be built and nurtured. One strategy could be to format a workforce development program with continuing education and training that can be driven by HR but managed and delivered by the supervisors.

Setting up a mentorship program with another team member from the onset of employment could also help build relationships and communication with the new hire’s peers. Feeling supported and heard by someone other than HR and management is a great nurturing tactic to support an employee.

Customized Professional Development

By providing customized, upskilling opportunities for all employees, you will naturally boost your chances for employee retention.  There are many ways to accomplish this that begin with understanding the needs of each role, the professional goals of each employee, and the status of their soft and hard skills. Building a workforce development program that is easy to manage and ensures the inclusion of all employees will improve your chances of nurturing and retaining key employees.

Employee Value and Experience

Investing in your staff as one of your strategies to retain employees can be extremely effective. By giving time and resources to those supporting organizational objectives, productivity and engagement will naturally increase. This can be in the form of workforce development, setting up comfortable workspaces, offering flexibility, or boosting your benefits package. 

A non-monetary way of improving employee value and experience lies with the simplest of tactics, such as making sure they feel seen, heard, and respected. 55% of employees feel like their opinions and perspectives do not matter to their employers, and 50% do not feel supported during important life events. By building a culture of open communication and employee support led by leadership and HR, the retention benefits could greatly improve along with truly increasing employee engagement and the feeling of value.

Cangrade’s products have the ability to support finding and retaining the perfect hire while you work on developing strategies to retain your existing employees.  Contact us to see how we can help you hire candidates who will succeed and stay.