6 Proven Tactics to Attract and Retain Elite Talent

Employee retention is a crucial factor for every successful company. Retaining talented and engaged employees can lead to higher productivity, greater job satisfaction and ultimately better business results. However, many companies struggle with high turnover rates, which can be costly and disruptive. Several organizations estimate that the cost of employee turnover is 1.5 to 2 times the departing employee's salary. This doesn’t even take into account the time it takes to find, hire and train a new employee.

The key to minimizing turnover and increasing employee retention is effective recruitment. When companies hire the right people from the start, they can create a positive workplace culture and promote long-term employee retention. Below, our partners at Fetcher explain how a solid recruiting strategy leads to higher employee retention and share six tactics you can use to improve your candidate recruiting process.

How recruiting affects employee retention

Your job posting, careers page, or recruiting emails are most likely the first thing someone interacts with if they're a potential employee. As the process progresses, candidates get to know your team and some of the people they might work with in the future.

Each of these touchpoints is an opportunity to build trust, set expectations, and show candidates that you want to set them up for success. A negative, stressful, or confusing hiring process signals to them that working at your company will be a similar experience. Unclear job descriptions, lengthy interviews and unnecessary assessments are all red flags from an applicant's perspective.

In contrast, a straightforward, candidate-focused recruiting strategy results in:

Greater loyalty and job satisfaction right from the start

Employee retention ultimately depends on how happy and fulfilled your employees are at work. If a new employee has just been through a stressful, confusing hiring process, they're likely to be stressed and second-guessing their decision as they begin their new job. On the other hand, if they had a positive candidate experience, they probably already feel connected to the company and comfortable in their new role.

New employees who can learn the ropes more quickly

An effective recruiting process sets clear expectations for the candidate regarding their role and how their performance fits into the bigger picture. This means they can be productive in their role and make meaningful contributions to larger goals more quickly. When team members feel valued and have a sense of purpose, this is key to their long-term loyalty to the company.

A healthier company culture

When your hiring processes align with your company values and attitudes, the candidates you attract and ultimately hire are more likely to align with those values and attitudes. By pulling back the curtain on what it's like to work at your company, you'll help potential applicants imagine what their day-to-day work will be like and how they'll interact with their colleagues. Ideally, you hire talent that will enrich and develop your company culture rather than "fit in" with it.

More effective teams

Employees who are overworked and take on more responsibility while a position is vacant are not performing at their best. They may also leave the company due to burnout, which has an even greater impact on remaining team members. A better recruiting process ultimately leads to faster hiring, which benefits both applicants and current team members. In addition, employees who feel comfortable in their role can help to onboard and train new team members in the long term.

6 Recruiting Tactics to Increase Employee Retention

Now that you know how recruiting impacts employee retention, it's time to look at the tactics you can use to improve this process. Here are six recruiting tactics that will increase employee retention and help you create an engaged workforce.

1.Look for candidates whose values and goals align with yours

Searching for passive applicants is about finding candidates who are not currently looking for work. It may sound like an uphill battle, but in fact, a large percentage of people are already considering leaving their jobs for one reason or another.

Strategic sourcing allows you to identify talent who have similar values - perhaps they have worked in similarly structured teams or stated their passions and goals in their online profiles. Passive applicants are naturally more selective in their job search. However, talent teams can view this as an opportunity for your company to highlight what you offer beyond compensation - for example, professional development opportunities, the greater impact they have on a community, or a better work-life balance.

2.Include relevant team members in the hiring process

Everyone has a lot going on, and important parts of the recruiting process (like assessments and interviews) take up valuable time. There is a tendency to leave the work with applicants solely to the HR department, but applicants want to get a feel for the leadership and communication style so that they feel comfortable.

Include a video panel of colleagues in the interview process or invite potential candidates to relevant virtual events your company is participating in. With tools like Fetcher, you can even have your recruiting emails sent on behalf of everyone in your company. The aim is to give applicants an idea of the personalities and team dynamics with whom they will work most closely. Especially for companies committed to hiring people from diverse backgrounds, pairing underrepresented talent with employees from similar backgrounds is a sign of your commitment to inclusion.

3.Get potential applicants excited about your employer brand

Enthusiasm is contagious. Companies that radiate enthusiasm for their product, their customers and, above all, their team members are noticed by top talent. Fetcher has collected some powerful examples of how companies showcase their employer brand on social media, but your employer brand exists everywhere candidates interact with you: on your website and careers page, in emails, on employer review sites, and at events.

Investing in your employer brand pays off: LinkedIn has found that companies with a successful employer brand hire more qualified candidates and reduce the time and cost of hiring.

4.Set up an employee referral program

Referred employees are employees who came through a personal connection to a current employee. From a hiring manager's perspective, referrals save time because they already know your company and are familiar with the opportunities and challenges of the position. Since the person making the recommendation is also familiar with your culture and values, there is a high probability that the recommended employees will quickly integrate into your team.

Employee referral programs are a valuable part of any successful recruiting strategy. Not only are candidates who come through referrals 85% more likely to get hired, but research shows that referred candidates make higher profits than non-referred employees and are less likely to quit.

5.Send personalized, authentic recruiting email campaigns

Especially when you target passive candidates, they don’t want sales pitches. They want to know what you offer them and why they are a good fit for you. This requires precision and personalization, such as: the specifics of the position and the experiences that make you a top candidate.

Personalization is manageable when you're just reaching out to a few candidates, but can be tedious and time-consuming when you're trying to reach hundreds. Fetcher can help you make your outreach emails efficient by automatically filling in candidates' names, desired roles, previous positions, etc. Fetcher's data also shows that consistency is key; About half of the candidates contacted are still interested after an email. And although interest decreases with each subsequent email, the interest rate for the third contact point is still 30%. This means that even with a second and third contact, one in three of these candidates will be interested!

6.Use data to find out where the candidate experience leaves something to be desired

Similar to sales, you can think of your recruiting process as a funnel. The best way to find out what isn't working is to examine the leaks in that funnel, i.e. H. the places where candidates drop out in significant numbers.

At the top of the funnel, you can track:

• Total number of applications compared to number of completed applications
• The total number of passive candidates searched
• How many passive candidates are contacted?
• The open and response rates of your outreach emails
• Interested rates for these emails

Fetcher helps you understand who your hottest prospects are by automatically tracking your email performance and interested responses.

As you move further down the funnel, you should look at how many candidates go through each step of the process. You can think of each step as a "transformation" - for example, how many interviews turned into interviews with the hiring manager?

Direct feedback from candidates (even if they weren't hired) provides valuable insight into what works and what doesn't. Review your recruiting metrics regularly so you can improve your candidate experience accordingly.

Conclusion

Recruiting is the first step in building a strong team. Companies need to find the right candidates who have the necessary skills and experience and who align with the company's goals and values. Once a company finds the right candidate, it's important to provide them with a positive onboarding experience that sets the tone for their entire employment experience. With tools like IceHrm, it's even easy to build rewards into the onboarding process to keep new employees excited about their new company!

Effective recruitment sets the stage for long-term employee satisfaction. With tools like IceHrm, onboarding becomes seamless, ensuring a positive start for new hires.