Hiring for Retention: 5 Ways to Find the Best Candidates

It’s undeniable: Hiring can be a long and time-consuming process.

Then there’s onboarding and training your new employee, who might take weeks or months to get up to speed. Even with all that time and effort invested, there’s no guarantee how long they’ll stay with your company.

Certum Solutions has steadily been building its staff over the last year, so we know retaining great employees begins with the hiring process. Try these five tactics that can help you and your job candidates work from a shared understanding of the role, benefits, and company culture—and ultimately help you hire for retention.

1. Be Clear in the Job Posting

Starting with a job posting that’s crystal clear might be the most important step to hiring for retention. You want candidates to know exactly what’s expected of the person filling the role and what duties are required. Describe the company: What is the purpose or mission, what is the work culture like, and what practices or behaviors are expected? Being specific might mean that fewer people apply to the job—but each application should be a more qualified lead.

If there are absolute non-negotiables in the pay or benefits package, be up front about those, too. Communicating to job seekers the salary range, paid time off, remote work availability, and health care benefits lets them apply being fully informed of what they can expect from a job offer. For example, company healthcare might be a non-negotiable for a job seeker, but it’s not a benefit your business can currently offer, or offer to pay 100%.

2. Create and Communicate a Career Progression

No one wants to be stuck in a dead-end job. If you’re hiring for retention, there must be a clear opportunity for pay increases, professional growth, and career development. It’s important to be able to reward a job done well, whether through bonuses, salary or hourly wage increases, or other meaningful benefits. You should also plan a cost-of-living increase for employees to keep their pay rising with inflation, but ideally this is separate from a promotion- or performance-based pay bump.

Employees are also more likely to stay with a job if they’re able to continue learning and building new skills. Find ways to integrate professional development, whether through networking opportunities, mentorships, or paid trainings. These are great ways to keep an employee growing and engaged. An employee must also be able to identify the next step in their career progression. If you aren’t providing the promotion or new job opportunity, the employee will look for it elsewhere.

3. Hire for Attitude

Remember the information about your company you included in your job posting? It is the culture, or the kind of workspace you’ve created. Your employees are a massive piece of what makes and sustains a company culture. Finding an employee whose attitude is aligned with your business’ values is important in the long run for your business and the employee.

Some managers say that a person with the right attitude, including being open to training on how to do a job, is even more important than a candidate checking off each skill the job requires. You might decide to hire a candidate who’s a perfect-value fit for your company and invest the time in training them to do the job the way you’d like it to be done.

Protip: Hiring someone who gets to learn new skills on the job is a way you’re supporting their career progression. Someone who can do it all already might become bored and leave.

4. Use Your Network

The quickest way to hire might be by using large, established job search sites, such as Indeed, Monster, or ZipRecruiter. These sites can get your job post seen by hundreds or thousands of candidates, but are these really the right candidates for your position? There might be a lot of chaff to separate from the wheat.

Instead, try using your professional network to recruit qualified job candidates. Send an email to contacts in the same business, asking if they know anyone who would be a good fit for your post. Find job boards that are specific to your industry. Share the job posting on your LinkedIn profile, and encourage your contacts to message you directly with questions or recommendations. Reach out personally to colleagues or contacts who you think could be a good fit. A little personal encouragement can go a long way.

5. Take Your Time

The old saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” is true, even today. Sure, the hiring process could take some time or the pieces may quickly fall into place. Either way, remember that it’s okay to wait for a candidate who’s a perfect fit. When hiring for retention, you’ll likely do more work up front to write a thorough job description, create a plan for career progression, hire for fit, and use your network. Finding the just-right person whose job expectations and values align with your company might take longer than you hoped it would.

The  investment should pay dividends. Ideally, you’ll end the hiring process with a new employee who is enthusiastic about their role and your business, and who can see themselves working with you for years to come. Set these employees up for success through a transparent hiring process and a supportive onboarding to work toward a long and happy employment relationship.

Have more questions about managing your services, books, and more? Contact us today for a free consultation. We’re great listeners!