Having some staff turnover is just par for the course. But a good employee’s unexpected departure can be difficult to take.
An inability to retain talent often conceals broader management issues.
It bears repeating that recruiting the right people is vital for any enterprise. A well thought-out hiring process helps reduce turnover. Here are some tips to improve yours and thereby minimize employee departures.
Everything Starts With a Clear Posting
Job postings are the typical way of telling people you have a position to fill. A poorly written posting risks attracting inadequate candidates so that you end up wasting your time. In other words, a good offer not only attracts candidates—it filters them as well.
Aim for the Right Personality
Before drafting your posting, have a thorough grasp of the position to fill and of the key characteristics of your team.
A lack of cohesion and internal squabbles are a significant source of lost productivity and resignations.
For example, someone nearing the end of their career might have trouble working in a team made up of 90% students. In the same vein, an employee with low ambition might feel crushed in an environment where performance is paramount.
This means that, beyond just the requisite skills, you have to evaluate what personality types fit with the team. Even if they show openness, some people simply won’t be compatible.
Looking for Affinities
Presenting tasks, expectations, required experience and performance evaluation helps avoid bad surprises… for employer and employee alike. Tasks that differ too much from expectations can easily provoke a premature resignation. Likewise, underwhelming or overwhelming expectations risk demotivating your new hire. For example, a renowned chef wouldn’t be a good fit in a fast food joint.
Revealing Assets
Always remember that work should be a win-win relationship. Offering good benefits, a comfortable work environment, flexible work hours and other quality of life perks will attract candidates that value these things. The idea is to find people who share a common vision of what work is.
Interviews That Say a Lot
Interviews are at the heart of the hiring process. When well conducted, they let you learn about candidates’ skills, personality, and attitude. They also allow candidates to see how they feel about working for you.
A Personalized Conversation
Every job, team and candidate has its own realities. The same position in two different businesses could call for drastically different candidates. Therefore, to craft well-customized interviews, recruiters must collaborate with the team.
Concretely, personalizing an interview means communicating corporate values through the hiring process. For example, a business that lends great importance to productivity could have candidates take one or more timed tests. Candidates who refuse or fail would be deemed inadequate. Another business could, conversely, find this same candidate ideal. Ultimately, personalized interviews are advantageous and give prospects a good idea of what working for you is like.
It’s helpful to keep in mind that the goal of an interview is not only to hire, but also to recruit for the long term.
Paradoxically, a well-led interview that results in a candidate’s refusal should be considered a successful interview. The key is really to give you every chance to assess the candidate adequately, and to allow him or her to do the same.
A Question of Personality
The typical interview focuses on the candidate. This is only natural; after all, the business controls the process. Like the job offer, the interview addresses competence and personality to determine the candidates’ potential and likelihood of long-time retention. Here are some of our favorite personality-related questions:
- Why do you want to work for us?
- What matters to you in a workplace?
- How would you describe the perfect teammate?
- What made you quit your previous job?
- What really makes you happy in life?
Note that these questions always aim to evaluate employees’ affinity with your organization, but also their personality and wishes.
Allow the candidate to ask their own questions; if they don’t have any, suggest some. After all, they also have to make up their mind on your organization. Insist on this especially with less-experienced candidates, young people for instance, who don’t always have a clear idea of what they’re looking for.
Making Up Our Mind… Or Minds
Two heads are better than one. Since making a precise judgment on something in a few minutes can be difficult, don’t hesitate to conduct interviews with someone else present, ideally someone who will work directly with the candidate (like a supervisor). They’ll be able to answer technical questions and see if the candidate would be a good fit with the team.
Building Trust from the Outset
Just because you’ve found the perfect candidate doesn’t mean they’ll be able to work on their own right away. Of course, the support you’ll have to give them depends on the person and the position at hand. But the fact remains that welcoming a new hire properly will help them bond with their team and feel valued.
During their first weeks, take the time to guide, train and evaluate them as much as possible. Both short-term and long-term training are important in order to develop skills and promote personal development. Furthermore, have one-on-one meetings regularly, as they encourage personalized feedback and let the employee share their observations.
Looking for the Near-Perfect Match
Competence is important in a candidate, but so are their personality and wishes. If an employee doesn’t share a bond with the rest of your team, or if their desires can’t be met, the relationship simply won’t work.
Treat your hiring process as the starting point of a long-term relationship. Like for a romantic relationship, dare to show your true colors right away; they’ll come out sooner or later anyhow. Share your needs, your assets, goals and plans, and have your candidate do the same. If you aren’t compatible, that’s also for the better: a happy union requires two happy parties, in business as in life.
