Are You Paying Enough Attention to Employee Retention?

Too Much Innovation?

Our attention to trying new things is what makes our industry so exciting and innovative, however, we also serve as our very own distraction. For example, you might remember the increased attention to employee perks like ping pong tables and gym memberships. While the elements made for really interesting social media posts, the shine eventually faded.

At the end of the day, we had convinced ourselves that these token employee perks were what employees really wanted, we also allowed ourselves to forget that pay and vacation time were still the benefits employees cared about most. Pool tables collected dust while employees negotiated raises.

Schmidt goes on to mention recent LinkedIn findings that show 59% of talent leaders are planning to spend more on employer branding in 2017 while only 32% are making retention a top priority over the next year. His concern is that we’re allowing the candidate-driven talent market to overshadow the necessity of retaining the skilled employees we’ve already hired to support business efforts.

Attention to Retention

There’s no doubt that today’s workforce is more comfortable with mobility, and we don’t just mean mobile technology. One 2016 study found that 93% of Millennials left their employer to change roles. The same study found 21% of Millennials had switched jobs within the past 12 months which was 3 times higher than non-Millennials. Of course, this isn’t completely a generational trend as 59% of US workers said they were likely to leave their new job if offered a new opportunity.

Luckily, when an employee needs and wants are met by their employer, they are far more likely to be engaged in their work and retained by their company. And the formula isn’t all about salary and benefits.

59% of employees would be satisfied at their current company if they had access to projects that sharpen their skills

54% of employees remain with a company because of the strong sense of community

55% of employees would take a job for a socially responsible company, even if the pay was less

Connecting Recruiting to HR

How can you find the right formula for your organization? Unfortunately, there’s really not a standard that suits all employees, industries, generations, etc. It takes understanding the unique workforce you employ and the company culture they help form. It’s for this reason that 27% of employers are using “stay interviews” and an additional 24% of employers plan to with employees. The best offense you have is admitting you can’t read minds and instead actively keeping a pulse on the satisfaction of your people.

Take the time in the recruiting and onboarding stages to truly understand the person you’re hiring and the roles they hope to play one day. Form and record goals from these conversations and don’t let them be forgotten as the employee progresses within your organization. Maybe stay interviews aren’t the best solution for your employees, but feedback loops or satisfaction surveys are. Whatever it takes to ensure you’re holding up your employment promise will benefit productivity and future recruitment.

We found Schmidt’s outlook to be quite interesting. While we can agree the turf war probably does exist in some organizations, the real problem here is probably more to do with our want to build recruiting and HR programs that hold up against the competition, fit budgetary constraints and still compliment all the audiences we’re working with (job seekers, candidates, and employees).

It’s not easy to appeal to such a wide range of people who all have a different outlook on your company and varying personal goals, but that is why it is so important for recruiting and HR teams to work together. We can’t say it’s all one department’s fault, but we can say each step of the employee lifecycle deserves attention and innovation.

That’s why organizations are turning to technology in an effort to streamline recruiting efforts like candidate experience to HR initiatives like onboarding and performance management. One simply will not succeed without the other and until they work together, one will continuously be working to solve problems caused by the other’s oversights.

Do your recruitment and HR functions seem disconnected? ClearCompany’s talent management technology helps teams and employees gain greater clarity and transparency within their organization. Check out our recent post and discover why talent alignment platforms should matter to your company.