Attracting and Retaining Talented Employees
As a business owner, you know it is essential to staff your business with the best and brightest. We all know that attracting and retaining talented employees is a feat that requires organizations to work strategically and evaluate their processes on a continual basis. But just analyzing how we do things will not always be enough.
Attracting and Retaining Talented Employees: Two Sides of the Same Coin
If you struggle with attracting and retaining talented employees, you are not alone. For so long businesses focused on recruitment but neglected to think about retainment. We understand that attracting and retaining are equally important. In fact, more often than not, the two inform each other. Talented workers are more attracted to a company that has the ability to retain its talent. High turnover rates will be a giant reg flag to highly qualified prospective employees. It can be a vicious cycle, or it can be a large benefit.
If your business is attracting, but not retaining, talented employees within the organization, it may be a sign that your business is not as healthy as it could be. If this is the case, then further steps should be taken to evaluate and understand the specific issues your business is facing.
Attracting talent to the organization is crucial for the success of any business. Employees are the backbone of your business and without talent on the team, you can not reach your goals. And any business that can attract talented employees should be able to fulfill its end of the bargain by providing a stimulating, challenging, and rewarding work environment for its talented hires.
The advantages of attracting and retaining talented employees may seem obvious. Nonetheless, it is important that we dig into exactly what is at stake if your business is not able to find and keep your talent.
If productivity is one of your major concerns as a business owner, then you are in good company. A myriad of business studies have been conducted on the matter and they show quite clearly that jobs that offer complex work projects and proportionate compensation that is commensurate with experience are often filled by highly talented and productive employees. In these cases, productivity really skyrockets.
Of course, we all want our productivity to skyrocket. That much is obvious! So how do we get from A to B?
Here is where you really need to get critical about your business recruitment and retention initiatives. Sounds like a complex job for a talented employee, doesn’t it?
Even Top Organizations Struggle
Many companies report issues with attracting talent to the organization. Without talented recruits, there are no talented employees to retain. You may be surprised to hear that even Fortune 500 companies report having issues with recruitment, an overwhelming majority, in fact!
Did you know, job descriptions are one of the first ways companies lose out on attracting talented employees to the organization? Take a good look at your job descriptions before you post an opening. Pay special attention to the required and preferred qualifications you are listing. It is vital that you not list required qualifications if they are not absolutely essential for the job. Those qualifications can be listed under preferred to avoid losing out on talented employees who do not hold those specific qualities/skills but might be more than able to perform the job nonetheless (and learn!).
For example, does the job you are filling require an advanced degree? If you cannot justify the requirement, it should not be listed and should not be a part of your rubric once you have begun the process of filtering through resumes and interviewing prospective employees. You may be wondering why this is so important. Here is one example: women are statistically less likely to apply for jobs where they do not meet ALL of the requirements whereas men are less deterred and will often apply for a job where they only meet some of the requirements stated on the job description.
If your company does not employ strategies for increasing diversity on your team (and retention will be a major part of this later on) you will want to seriously consider forming a committee to take on the hefty task of reviewing all of your job descriptions. A qualified Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity consultant can work with your company to ensure that you are on the right track when it comes to writing your job descriptions and job postings. Don’t let your company miss out on talented and highly productive workers by having antiquated hiring practices and procedures.
As mentioned earlier, attracting and retaining talented employees are part and parcel of the same thing. Not all companies are the same just as not all employees are the same. There is, however, ample evidence to show us what employees are looking for in a job and what makes employees want to not only stay with a company but continue to work in a highly motivated and productive way to meet the goals of the company. Luckily, much of the work you do to revise your recruitment practices will lay the groundwork for your approach to retaining said employees.
If you think that, as the leader of your business, you could benefit from having a business coach with decades of management experience, then contact us today.
