HR Tips – How to Select and Retain the Best Employees

Recruiting the top talent in your industry is only half of the equation. If you want to save yourself the time and expense of having to duplicate your efforts in six months, there are steps you need to take now in the beginning of the process. Go back to Step One, assessing your needs. That’s where you should have begun before you ever placed an ad or posted on a job board. Do you know exactly what you need for a new employee? Just replacing someone who left or filling the same old positions might not be the solution. The business world is changing. You need to change along with it.

The leading applicant tracking systems used by recruiters and human resource departments allow you to tag your prospects to reflect the skills and experience they bring to the table. If you have a position in your company that has seen a history of high turnover through the years, maybe it’s the position that needs to change before you hire the new person. Create an accurate job description and match it to the candidates in your database. The other skills they have might tell you what to add or subtract from the responsibilities of the job you’re hiring for.

There are also instances where a recruitment drive could bring you qualified candidates for other jobs, so you’ll want to keep accurate records when these folks apply. Use your job recruitment software to log them in and make notes about which jobs you think they’d be best for. When positions become open, the recruitment tracking system should be the first place you check for prospects. Those who have been in for an interview before and get called back often become your most loyal employees. The extra effort makes them feel that you went the extra mile for them.

Employee retention is another matter entirely. How many people have left that department you’re hiring for in the past six months? One year? Five years? The turnover rate over time can tell you a lot about where to place someone and whether or not you need to make other changes before you hire them. If everyone you send to that part of the company is washing out in three months, the problem is the department or the job itself, not the employees who are leaving. If you figure out what’s wrong and fix it before you hire someone new your retention rate will be much higher. 

Don’t change the job to suit the individual; find the right individual to fit the job. That one piece of simple advice will raise your retention rate. Far too many companies attempt to fit a square peg in a round hole when it comes to recruiting. Don’t fall into that trap. The right person is out there, especially in this economy where unemployment has been so high in the past few years. Know what you want and don’t stop the recruiting until you find it.