Successful retention begins during pre-employment

Employee retention is among the most important responsibilities of human resources professionals, managers and leaders alike. The financial and operational advantages of maintaining strong engagement and keeping employees with the company longer are immense, while not doing so can have a tremendously negative impact on the average organization. Unfortunately, many companies are struggling to hold onto their staff members.

With this in mind, the following two statistics should be pretty concerning:

• Depending upon rank, the average cost of employee turnover can range from $20,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Zane Benefits.
• A Gallup study revealed that 87 percent of the global workforce is not engaged in their current job.

At the same time, Gallup found that the organizations that have the happiest, most engaged employees enjoy an average earnings advantage of 147 percent per share compared to the rest of the businesses in their industry. This should make it clear that retention is important, and while there is plenty of conversation regarding what to do once the employee has been with a company for a while, HR can actually start the battle for retention during pre-employment processes.

The pre-employment challenge
First, all businesses should be utilizing pre-employment tests to ensure that their candidates are the right fit before making a hire, and focusing their recruiting policies on matters that go far beyond simple skills assessments. Then, having a plan in place to immediately engage the applicant – even before making the final hiring decision – can get the ball rolling in the right direction, gathering good momentum right from the start.

Forbes recently suggested that businesses leverage what it calls an “Employee Value Proposition,” which should actually be very similar to the types of propositions companies give to their clientele. Think of this as a roadmap and mission statement of sorts that is meant to guide the employee through the various stages of tenure. The news provider noted that this can actually help companies take more responsibility for the success and retention of an employee rather than putting the onus on the staff member.

Providing this type of proposition to serious applicants will show them that the business cares about their success, and is taking measures to ensure that they remain engaged the entire time. Again, this gets good momentum going into the on-boarding process.

Make sure you focus on the new hire’s career during on-boarding.

Keep the ball rolling
Robert Half recently argued that the first couple of weeks will tend to be the most formative for a new employee, and will also have a major impact on the staff member’s entire time at the company. As such, the organization urged human resources departments to go above and beyond the call of duty to make the new staff member feel comfortable and confident from the first day on, hosting helpful orientations and introducing the hire to co-workers.

Remember here that there will need to be both cultural and skills-related orientation, as each can be very difficult for a new employee to adjust to in those first few days. Easing them in, but ensuring that they are being productive and getting accustomed to the daily flow of work can give staff members the type of start to their tenures that retains them far longer.

As always, leveraging pre-employment tests is a smart idea to ensure that an employee is retain-able even before being hired. Behavior-focused tests, as well as administrative skills assessments and other more specific talent-related evaluations can give human resources departments a much more definitive perspective on their applicant pools.