Employee attraction and retention perpetually rank at the top of HR’s priority list.
60% of businesses find it hard to retain employees. Given the change in cultures since the pandemic, and how many businesses now want to go back to working as if it never happened, it’s not really surprising that employees are jumping ship.
But if businesses can prevent 75% of the reasons employees leave, why don’t they work on fixing those issues?
Especially when almost three-quarters of businesses are struggling to attract employees right now?
Let’s look at some of the ways you can boost employee attraction and retention this year.
Share your values
How often do you share what matters to your business?
Are you laser-focused on green initiatives?
Do you work with grassroots organizations to improve diversity in your industry?
Whatever your values are, when people know what matters to you and your business, you’ll attract like-minded individuals who want to work toward the same or similar goals.
This will improve the quality of the candidates who apply for roles.
It will have a positive impact on employee attraction and retention because people will feel aligned with the organization.
Give employees a purpose
Employees want to feel like more than just a cog in a machine. They want to know that what they do matters.
Giving your employees a greater purpose improves their wellbeing and quality of life. It can even help people live longer.
That purpose could be tied to your shared values, or it could complement those values in some way. For instance, if diversity is important to your business, an employee could specifically focus on disability awareness in the workplace.
You could also give employees the chance to volunteer a couple days a year for organizations that matter to them. Social impact opportunities are a great way to boost employee attraction and retention.
Let your culture shine
If someone knows what your company culture is like before they join your business, they’re more likely to be a good fit because they know what they’re signing up for.
Make sure you’re vocal about your culture on your company website, social media, email marketing—anywhere you interact with customers and candidates. This will give them a clear idea of what you’re about as an organization.
It will also nurture the relationships you have with them. Which means they’ll be more primed to apply when a suitable vacancy opens.
To monitor your company culture and make sure it aligns with your values, why not send an employee survey?
With Workrowd, you can send them automatically, so you can act on the results right when they come in. Keeping a pulse on workers’ wants and needs is key to employee attraction and retention.
Ensure job descriptions match your business
One of the reasons employees leave during onboarding is because what they were sold during the hiring process isn’t what the role or company is actually like.
Job descriptions can play a big role in this. Do you euphemize how stressful the role is? Do you talk about being a “team player” when they’ll do a lot of solo working?
All job descriptions should accurately reflect the company culture and what employees can expect from the role and their team (if they’re even part of a team, or if they’re going to be a one-person band).
Otherwise, you risk attracting wrong-fit candidates who will leave sooner and mean you have to repeat the costly hiring process.
Practice true diversity
When a company is truly diverse, it’s more profitable and innovative.
There are no downsides to more diverse organizations, but the term can be met with eye rolls anyway.
Make sure that when you’re hiring, the hiring panel is truly diverse.
If the hiring panel only has one female or person of color, it can actually decrease diversity within the organization.
The underrepresented team member won’t want to look like they’re playing favorites, but the white/male hiring managers are more likely to think they’ve got diversity covered and don’t need to worry about it.
So have more than one female, person of color, person with a disability, etc, on your hiring panels. It can help tackle unconscious bias and ensure that your employee attraction and retention efforts yield the right hire.
Remember: perks aren’t everything
Focusing on perks over payment might’ve worked ten years ago. Now though, employees see perks for what they are: an excuse to not pay them what they’re worth.
Instead, focus on paying employees the market rate and valuing their expertise and knowledge. Don’t bother trying to reward them with tokens like dart boards or free fruit. Those things won’t deliver results on employee attraction and retention.
Nail your onboarding process
The more effective your onboarding process is, the quicker new hires will reach full productivity. And the quicker they can start making money for you. Plus, it can mean 69% of new hires stay for 3 years or more.
But an ineffective onboarding process can lead to confused employees who leave before finishing their probation.
It could also lead to negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor or LinkedIn.
Some things to consider including in your employee onboarding process:
- Business background
- About your product/service
- How you expect employees to behave
- What their role entails
- Company values
- Who to go to for different queries
- Where to find information
- How to use tools
- Social media policy
- Where to find HR policies
- How to book paid time off, sick leave, etc.
Invest in employees’ growth
Employees want to learn more. Investing in their growth can improve your employee attraction and retention success and boost loyalty.
This could come in the form of training to make them better at their role. Or training in a related area to expand their industry knowledge.
You could also run lunch and learns or one-off workshops where employees learn a new skill such as storytelling or public speaking.
While these won’t be directly related to every role, creative skills and confidence-boosting workshops help every area of a business, and every employee regardless of rank. They’ll be more confident, persuasive speakers and having learned something new will be good for their mental health, too.
Conclusion
Employee attraction and retention is a cycle. The types of candidates you attract and hire will ultimately impact your employee retention.
It’s therefore important to communicate your company values and expectations early on, during the hiring process.
That way, candidates who are a poor fit will exclude themselves, reducing the number of resumes you need to filter through, and potentially saving you money and ensuring you hire better-quality employees.
Want to boost employee attraction and retention in one step? Workrowd has what you need. With all your employee programs, groups, and events in one place, it’s easy to showcase your culture to potential hires. And current employees will want to stick around with such easy access to everything that makes your organization great.
Want to learn more and see how Workrowd could plug in to boost employee attraction and retention in your workplace? Drop by our site or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.
