Lower employee turnover by considering the employee’s perspective.
Even before you finish hiring, you should be working to retain your new employee. It may sound like a big jump—after all, you’re still evaluating the candidates’ abilities and looking for the perfect personality for your team. Your focus is hiring the right person – and hopefully, on the first try. How do you also think about keeping your new hire before they’ve been hired?
It’s rarer than ever that employees stay with one (or even two or three) organizations throughout their careers. It’s likely that you yourself have changed jobs within the last five years, and you can probably still pinpoint your reasons for making that move. Entrepreneur and LinkedIn Influencer James Caan recently wrote about why people move jobs, and what employers can do to lower their staff turnover. In the thick of the hiring process, keeping these motives in mind and viewing the position from an employee perspective creates full and mutual understanding.
“To hire the best, you need to offer the best…and that starts with refining”.
Mr. Caan tackles five reasons that motivate people to leave their position. By bearing these in mind, you can avoid “shock departures,” rebuild your employees’ workplace satisfaction, and set up a winning atmosphere for your new hire.
1. Work Content
If a great employee isn’t being pushed or challenged by their work, they’ll lose their focus and their intrinsic motivation—not surprisingly, they’ll get bored. As an employer, make it a habit to actively listen to a person’s ideas from the very first interview. If they know that you’re willing to engage and entrust them with responsibility from the start, they’re more likely to shine.
2. Reporting Relationship
This reason dovetails off of the first. Are you recognizing good work and redirecting areas that need improvement? Are your employees comfortable approaching you and talking with you? If not, then employees are left to speculate, and they may feel underappreciated. By establishing a candid and easy rapport with your potential job candidates, you ensure the beginnings of a positive reporting relationship.
3. Opportunity for Advancement
To keep your best people, you need to “show them a future exists within the business.” This comes
in many forms: promotions, leadership opportunities, professional development opportunities, and additional training. For example, the motivations of millennial employees are often linked to continued personal growth and development. And while you don’t have to explicitly lay out an advancement plan for a candidate, why not introduce them to someone who started in their position and moved up through the company? Never stop encouraging, and never stop inspiring.
4. Money
Caan was explicit with this one; an employee who is solely focused on financial gain won’t stay around for long. But most employees aren’t motivated by money alone. Be competitive and make sure that work is fairly compensated, and money won’t be the main reason that an employee leaves. It’s better to give a good salary and a competitive package to a new employee than to underestimate and risk a far-too-soon departure.
5. Environment
Your workplace has a personality, and it’s created by the sum of its parts. Each employee fills a specific role, and the leadership team plays a crucial part in maintaining that environment. What behavior do you encourage? What habits need to be stopped? How do all of these people fit together to make one unit? As you’re hiring, find the candidate that enhances your workplace’s personality. Have your candidates meet their potential teammates and spend some time in the environment—candidates will appreciate the opportunity to step into your world, and they’ll feel more included and comfortable from day one on the job.
Miscommunication and missed communication underscore all of these motives. Encourage open dialogue from the beginning of your hiring process. View the job opening through your candidates’ eyes, and use these five reasons as guidelines for hiring and keeping your next top employee.
HSD Metrics offers new hire, stay, and exit interview platforms that can help your business improve employee engagement, as well as employee experience and retention. If you are interested in learning more, contact us today.