The cold hard truth is that we are in a candidate-driven market. Yes, employees often want more pay and flexible schedules, but there’s more to it than that. Today’s candidates value transparency and responsiveness, and they expect immediate engagement with their potential employers.
Employers who recognize this are more successful in their hiring and retention efforts. Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workforce report says that highly engaged business units achieve 59% less turnover and 21% greater profitability.
There are a variety of things you can do to make candidates want to come to work for you and stay:
Create a positive candidate experience right out of the gate.
Make it company practice to create a great interview process. From your very first conversation, be transparent, intentional, and responsive. Align all internal stakeholders at the onset to avoid scheduling delays. You can no longer afford a 3-week interview process. In that time your best candidate will have taken a job somewhere else. Make every interaction with them meaningful and continue this engagement after they’re hired. Create an experience they want to keep having.
Remember that culture is a huge factor in retention.
Employees stay at companies where they feel like they fit in. When you’re interviewing potential candidates, be mindful of your company culture and anticipate how that candidate is going to mesh with it. Even the most qualified candidates aren’t going to stick around – and could damage your existing culture – if they don’t like coming to work every day.
Be creative with incentives.
As a baseline, your pay rates need to be competitive. But what if they already are and you can’t go any higher? Maybe you can offer a remote work environment, or a hybrid/flexible schedule. If your schedules are fixed, think about other incentives you could provide. Training and development? Employee events? Onsite yoga? Development opportunities? Career pathing? The options are virtually endless. If you need ideas, go right to the source; ask your employees what they’d like (and make them feel even more valued in the process)!
