Our team at B2E Solutions recently hosted a client roundtable focused on exploring the biggest issues facing employers today. Among the topics that surfaced, employee retention led to a particularly lively conversation. There was healthy discourse, as everybody acknowledged employee retention is a challenge, but participants were also quick to offer insight on strategies that they’ve seen work.
It doesn’t matter what terms the media applies to the job market: “The Great Resignation,” “Quiet Quitting” or “Act Your Wage.” HR is expected to maintain business as usual in the face of an ever-changing workforce landscape. To keep up with hiring, compensation, career progression and performance management, HR finds itself so busy steadying the wheel of day-to-day operations that it rarely finds time to stop and question it all.
The insights gained from our roundtable discussion are clear: A reactive approach to HR simply doesn't work anymore. Our roundtable cohort shared a range of proactive employee retention measures that we, in turn, would like to share with you.
According to figures from a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost per new hire is approaching $4,700. Moreover, HR professionals know that the real cost of hiring extends well beyond a dollar amount. Factor in time spent throughout the entire process, and that number rapidly starts to increase.
Making sure you bring on the right people is a critical cost-saving measure and first step in your retention efforts. Your new hires must not only meet the job requirements, but they must also be a cultural fit with your company. Otherwise, you may find yourself back at square one looking for the next-best hire — again.
Here are the most insightful recruiting highlights generated by our roundtable participants:
Referral programs: Implementing referral programs can entail short-term costs such as cash rewards and PTO bonuses. However, by incentivizing existing employees to refer qualified applicants, you're gaining a strategic advantage. Referrals often have a deeper understanding of your work culture and are typically pre-vetted, positioning them favorably compared to other applicants.
Job fairs within the community: This is an opportunity to reinforce your company as an important part of your neighborhood, town or city. Fellow citizens already have a vested interest in their community. By positioning your company as a part of the local fabric, you can begin to lay the foundation in building trust and connection with potential candidates.
Open house or weekly walk-in interviews and tours: This is especially important in manufacturing, as removing barriers and mystique to your operation helps applicants put a face (or many smiling faces) to your organization. Equipment demos and same-day interviews offer a proactive – and a delightfully surprising – level of candidate engagement.
Constant communication: Active participation in the recruitment process keeps prospective employees out of the dark. Your ability to retain employees starts the moment you meet a potential new hire, making strong communication essential from the beginning. This is where roundtable participants talked specifically about how our human capital management (HCM) solution, UKG Ready, can differentiate a company’s communication efforts by opening efficient communication doors. Among examples mentioned, auto-triggered notifications, direct-to-applicant emailing, mass emailing and customizable checklists were at the top of the list.
Sourcing from schools: There are areas to leverage for hiring beyond the usual professional circles. Of course, you want to target the talent pool graduating from school. However, by forging a relationship with those still in school, you can build a strong foundation for the future. Target high schools, trade schools, internship opportunities and state programs for specific trades by taking out back-to-school ads and offering flexible scheduling to work around class schedules.
Job board optimization: Leveraging job boards in a way that allows you to build and post job listings in a fast, repeatable way is important, as it gets you in front of candidates and gives you the best opportunity to find a good-fit. Having a strong internal process is helpful, but technology also plays a pivotal role in facilitating speed and repetition. Integrations, such as our UKG Ready Indeed integration, help organizations take advantage of this key job board with greater efficiency and ease.
Our roundtable discussion discovered an important truth about onboarding. HR can become so caught up in remaining compliant during the onboarding process that they can lose focus on delivering a lasting experience. You only get one chance to make a first impression.
These crucial first few days of employment may require more hand holding than previously thought. Departments are often guilty of rushing a new hire’s time to productivity, which inadvertently creates a sink-or-swim atmosphere. Decreased engagement leads to low worker satisfaction and, consequently, higher turnover ratios.
When you make employee retention a priority, new hires can seamlessly transition from day one to year one — and beyond. Thinking about onboarding strategically, instead of transactionally, involves some out-of-the box thinking and a little help from an HCM technology like UKG Ready.
Here are some onboarding strategies that B2E clients offered up during the roundtable:
Offboarding is critical in retention too.
Employee turnover is inevitable to some degree, but there's also a lot you can learn from employees who've decided to leave. Here's how to gain invaluable insights from exit interviews.
From hire to retire. That is the aspirational dream scenario for all HR departments. Throughout an employee’s lifecycle at your company, it’s important that the time, money and resources that you invest in recruiting and onboarding a new hire will result in an employee who continues to deliver ongoing value to your organization.
One recurring theme of our roundtable discussion was: It’s not always about the compensation. Sure, that’s a big part of it, but sustaining an environment for employees to remain (and hopefully flourish) is the bread and butter of what HR does.
The roundtable unanimously agreed that cultivating a positive company culture was more impactful than increasing wages. They emphasized these strategies to help:
It’s clear that employee retention is top of mind for most organizations. Forces outside of your control have altered the employee-company dynamic, making it that much harder to hold on to quality employees. By leveraging insights from our wonderful clients, you can recruit, onboard and nurture employees with a focus that’s sure to help you retain employees for the long-haul.
Strategies for retaining employees come in degrees, and deciding exactly how far you should go from a human to a systematic approach requires balance. An HCM technology like UKG Ready keeps your organization in balance by automating tasks, streamlining communication and, ultimately, supporting you as the “human” in HR.
Delivering solutions to facilitate stronger business-to-employee connection is what we do best (hey, it’s right there in our B2E name!). Have questions about how UKG Ready can help you take your retention strategies to the next level? Contact us today.