A common struggle for HR professionals across the UK is how they attract the best talent for their role, convince them to join their company and then stay for years afterwards.
With an increase in job-hopping and uncertainty around recruitment trends post-Brexit, it’s becoming ever more important to find, recruit and retain top talent. A report by Oxford Economics has revealed that replacing members of staff costs employers on average £30,614 per employee.
This is made up of recruitment costs, time spent interviewing candidates and bringing the new employee up to speed. To reduce the cost of replacing staff, it’s important to learn how to ensure you’re recruiting the right talent and how to make them stay. Here’s some of our advice:
Be clear on your company’s culture and values to attract the best talent
Cultural fit is incredibly important for determining how well an individual is going to perform in the team.
Your organisation’s values set the tone for the company culture and identify what your company cares about. When the people working for you understand this, they understand one another and are working towards the same organisational goals with a common purpose.
When your people’s values align with the company’s then this will help the organisation as a whole achieve its core mission. However, when these values do not align, it can result in miscommunication with individuals working towards different goals and different outcomes.
This can damage work relationships, productivity, job satisfaction, and creative potential. Therefore, it’s important that you have a clear stance on what your company’s values are to position the culture of the workplace. This will help a candidate determine whether this fits with their own beliefs and will help promote your organisation as a great place to work.
You can train people to cover skills gaps and help people to gain experience, but it is really difficult to change their values and beliefs. A key part of attracting the best talent is to ensure your values and culture are promoted and align with your ideal candidate’s principles.
Ensure everyone buys into the company culture and values to retain talent
Once you’ve got a clear idea of your company’s culture and values, it’s time to start implementing them and making sure your entire workforce lives and breathes these principles.
There is no use in having a set of values that no one adheres to and does not reflect the culture of the company. If this is the case, you may find the right talent for your ideal company culture but not the reality.
Therefore, it is important to set values based on the current culture and goals of your workforce as well as what you aspire to be. This means that you can align with your current workforce and ensure the message is being delivered throughout, whilst also ensuring your new hires will fit in with their teams.
Streamline the recruitment process to keep new hires interested
There’s nothing worse (and more costly) for your recruitment strategy than having a long, drawn-out recruitment process.
Whilst some may see it as necessary to screen a candidate thoroughly with 3 interviews and a task, this can put some people off, especially if they start to feel the process may last forever. A long process also runs the risk of losing high calibre candidates who are snapped up by other companies.
It’s important to ensure that the individual is a right fit for the role and often a second or third opinion is of high value when making a decision. But you also have to consider the applicant’s experience and how you can make that as smooth as possible.
This is the first impression of your company and you want to make the best one possible. Be clear on what your process is and stick to it. Two interviews and a task is usually sufficient to determine whether a candidate has the skills and experience as well as cultural fit for the role.
Offer learning and development opportunities to retain the best talent
A great way to engage and retain your employee is through offering them the opportunity to learn and develop their skillsets.
This has been proven to improve staff satisfaction and retention, with a report by AAT finding that offering training and opportunities for personal development makes employees feel valued and more likely to stay much more than a promotion or the offer of more money would.
By investing in your staff, they feel as though their worth is recognised and they are also improving your business by using those new skills. It will help you to create a happy, highly-skilled workforce whilst reducing the cost of finding replacements and improving the perception of the company.
There are also cost-effective solutions for offering training to your employees. The Apprenticeship Levy has meant that large employers with a pay bill of over £3 million now have a ring-fenced training budget. Apprenticeships come in all shapes and sizes with a vast array of roles and levels covered by the Standards.
There is more than likely an apprenticeship training route that will cover the skills development needs of your workforce. For smaller companies, the government will contribute 95% towards the training costs for apprentices. This means that training your team via an apprenticeship will be incredibly cost-effective and far cheaper than other routes to learning.
If you are interested in learning more about how apprenticeships can help you attract, hire and retain the best talent, get in touch by giving us a call 020 3906 7116 or emailing solutions@avadolearning.com
