The best companies attract and retain top talent. Finding the best people takes time, but it is an investment that can save you money over the long haul. The more effort you put into finding the right people, the less likely that they will move on when another opportunity arises. Here are some strategies for attracting and retaining top talent.
Give Yourself Time
A senior manager has quit, leaving a gaping hole in your business. It is a hole that you desperately want to fill and you will make every effort to fill that position as soon as possible.
Hiring anyone under trying circumstances can be stressful. You cannot afford to take shortcuts, otherwise you risk hiring someone who is not a good fit for the position.
You need to employ your regular hiring procedures when replacing a key individual. That means carefully reviewing applications, speaking with other managers, setting up interviews and going through the entire screening process. References must be checked, background checks performed and a salary package carefully put together. Rush the process and you may have a wrong hire on your hands.
Offer Competitive Remuneration
You are more likely to keep an employee around if you offer them a competitive package from the start. It is nearly impossible to make up a salary deficiency down the road. And by that time a key employee may leave for greener pastures.
You should understand what a competitive salary represents for the position. Government data can provide details about thousands of positions. You can generate localised reports too, what will give you a good indication for how much a job prospect should be paid.
Beyond salary, there may be a list of benefits that can make a difference in attracting top talent. Consider offering health and dental benefits and other perks.
Skills and Profiling
It simply isn't sufficient to interview potential employees. You need to have your managers meet with them too. You must assess their skills to determine whether they have what it takes to perform their job. You may need to work with a third-party agency to have those skills assessed.
Another area of concern is their personal temperament. This individual may be smart and able to get the job done, but she could be impossible for some people to work with. This deficiency may not show up through normal interviewing means. Again, you may need to call upon a third-party service to help you vet this candidate.
Elicit Feedback
Once a new hire has been put into position it can be easy to overlook how they are doing apart from their workplace performance. It is important that you maintain an open-door policy with your best employees to ensure that they feel comfortable in bringing whatever troubles or concerns that they have directly to you.
If an employee feels overworked or otherwise overburdened, he may begin to look for work elsewhere. The cost of losing top talent can be large. So it might be worth your while to hire a temporary individual or a part time person to provide some relief.
Feedback is also a two-way street. You may commonly provide annual reviews, but with top talent you should offer your feedback much more frequently. You want to help these individuals grow and succeed - make a point to stay involved to help them be most effective.
Top Talent Considerations
Employees who feel that they contribute to a company are much more likely to stay put. Even so, you will always lose top talent no matter what you do.
It is important that when your best workers leave, that you also perform exit interviews. You want to uncover the reasons why they are leaving, including problems that were not addressed earlier. From there, you can make changes to reduce your turnover rate going forward.
