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(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at isolved, a trusted leader in human capital management technology solutions. Their Predictive People Analytics solution was recently awarded best talent intelligence solution at the HR Tech Awards. Congratulations to them and enjoy the article!)
I recently participated in a lunch and learn session with the isolved People Heroes Tour team and some of their clients on the topic of employee retention. It was a very informative session, and I hope you’ll check out the recording.
While I was a speaker, I also had time to be a participant and hear a panel of isolved clients talk about their recruiting processes. It occurred to me as I was listening to their stories, that employee retention really starts before the job interview. Here are four components of the hiring process that link to employee retention.
Employment Brand. Organizations should be constantly promoting their employment brand, even when they do not have job openings. Hopefully, this will attract interested individuals to your career site where they can opt-in to hear about company information and openings. Recruiters can use this data to build talent pipelines and stay in touch with potential candidates.
Learning about company culture and expressing interest in a job should be easy. The link to employee retention is two-fold. First, if the organization’s brand is less than desirable, it will result in fewer people wanting to engage. Next, if the company’s technology is difficult to use, it will result in fewer people actually applying. The good news is that today’s technology allows organizations to have customized applicant tracking systems to suit their varied needs.
Recruiting Strategy Meetings. When a job opening does occur, the hiring manager and recruiting team can meet to put together a strategy. This is a great time to discuss the job requirements, team dynamics, possible recruiting sources, and the overall hiring process. It’s also important to confirm a timeline for the hiring process because delays can be costly in so many ways – losing great candidates to another offer, stress and frustration on the current team because they’re picking up extra work, and possibly additional sourcing expenses.
I believe that good processes yield good outcomes. When organizations conduct recruiting strategy meetings, they create and utilize a good process. If managers are rushed to finalize hiring, they often make decisions … well, that they probably wouldn’t have made otherwise. You know what I mean. These bad decisions impact employee retention.
Job Descriptions / Job Postings. I mentioned in the last section that one of the topics to discuss during the recruiting strategy meeting is the job. This can be the perfect time to have the hiring manager confirm the job description. Even when we recruit for the same roles on a regular basis, I would still have the hiring manager confirm the job description. It shouldn’t take long, and the job description is what we use to write job postings, draft interview questions, screen applications / resumes, and ultimately make a hiring decision.
I’ve learned some lessons about job descriptions the hard way. Some of you might have too. I may have assumed that the job description was accurate, only later to discover that the hiring manager had “made a few small adjustments” – which translated to something bigger. Obviously, if you’re recruiting for the wrong job, that impacts hiring and potentially employee retention.
Candidate Experience. Like employee retention, the candidate experience starts before the interview. It includes interacting with the company’s career site, applying for a job, and all the subsequent interactions. Organizations will want candidates to have good first impressions of the organization. For example, just scheduling an interview should be easy. Candidates should be able to confirm interview dates and times that work with their schedule.
Organizations cannot forget that the candidate is interviewing the company as much as the company is interviewing the candidate. What candidates experience has an impression on whether they will take the job. It also sets the stage for the employee experience. It’s not unreasonable for candidates to expect everything they were told during the interview is true. And if it’s not … well, that will have an impact on employee retention.
Regardless of what’s happening in the job market, the organization’s talent acquisition process is a first impression of the company. Make it the best it can be. While organizations might not be able to completely eliminate turnover, it is possible to manage it effectively. By looking at the organization’s talent acquisition process, it is possible to improve in areas that will positively impact employee retention.
- Create and monitor the organization’s employment brand.
- Conduct recruiting strategy meetings.
- Confirm the accuracy of job descriptions.
- Cultivate a positive candidate experience for all.
The good news is that today’s talent acquisition technologies can provide you with features to manage these four critical areas. From a tech standpoint, the plus for the company is that the information gathered during the candidate experience (i.e., the interview) seamlessly transfers to the employee experience (i.e., onboarding and HRIS platforms).
If you’re looking for a deeper dive into the connection between the candidate experience and employee experience, isolved’s fourth-annual HR Leaders Report: Champions of Change analyzes the employer-employee divide and how HR decision makers are delivering employee experiences that matter even before the job interview.
I also encourage you to check out isolved’s upcoming events and live and on-demand webinars. Some of the sessions are eligible for recertification credits with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI).
No one wants to spend a ton of time and company resources hiring an employee only to have them quit after a few weeks or months. As organizations are looking at their operational goals and budgets for next year, this is a perfect time to review talent strategies, so the company hires and retains the best employees.
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