If you want to find and keep the best talent, there are a number of strategies that can be used. It is important to consider your industry, size and growth trajectory, types of roles and leadership when developing a strategy.
In addition to attracting new employees, it is also essential to retain existing ones. Here are a few of the top retention strategies that you should be considering:
Partnering with Educational Institutes
When it comes to attracting talent, there are several different strategies that can be used. You need to decide which methods will work best for your business and budget, as well as take into account the type of roles, leadership, and growth trajectory you are looking to achieve.
One strategy that can help you attract and retain a diverse pool of candidates is to partner with educational institutes. This is an effective way to fill roles that are hard to fill on your own, and it can also provide a competitive edge over other companies when it comes to the applicant pool.
Many institutions of higher learning offer a variety of programs and are continually recruiting new graduates, so they can be an excellent source of entry-level candidates. These partnerships can include everything from internships and apprenticeships to co-ops and fellowships.
While some employers are hesitant to enter into these partnership agreements with educational institutions, it can be an effective way to grow your workforce and develop future leaders. The challenge is that these partnerships can be difficult to sustain.
Developing these partnerships requires a great deal of time and effort. In addition to identifying and recruiting the right people, these partnerships can require planning, implementation, and management to ensure they are effective.
For example, employers can partner with universities to offer internships or apprenticeships that allow a candidate to experience their organization’s culture before accepting a permanent position with them. It can be an easy way to find out if a candidate has the skills and passion to succeed in the company, and it can also help them decide whether or not they would like to continue their career at your organization once they have completed their program.
Another benefit of these kinds of partnerships is that they can be highly cost-effective and can save your company time. For example, an institution may be able to offer your employees a forgivable loan if they complete their training and then start working at the company.
When it comes to partnering with educational institutes, you need to be careful not to overcomplicate the process and lose out on valuable talent. These partnerships should be focused on creating relevant training and improving your organization’s ability to hire qualified talent.
Financial Incentives
Monetary incentives are a common way to encourage employees to work harder and achieve more in the workplace. They can also help motivate top performers to exceed company goals and objectives.
In addition, they can increase employee retention and satisfaction. These monetary rewards can be in the form of extra money, bonuses or other perks.
One type of monetary incentive is salary increases, which are typically based on performance. Another type of monetary reward is profit sharing, in which employees are given a percentage of the company’s profits.
These types of incentives can also be in the form of cash or gift cards. These rewards can be selected based on the employees’ preferences and interests.
While financial incentives can be a great way to encourage employees, it is important to understand that they can have adverse consequences when poorly designed. A lack of transparency can lead to misunderstandings and distrust, which can result in low productivity.
Moreover, leaders should take time to design a program that fits with the organization’s context and strategy. They should also make granular choices about eligibility, payout logic and governance to avoid any delays or miscommunications once the program is in place.
For example, at one global organization, leaders decided 80 percent of the financial incentive would be tied to the company’s transformation aspiration, with the remaining 20 percent tied to individual performance for initiative owners. In contrast, a medium-size bank linked 100 percent of incentives to individual performance and split them evenly between overall transformation performance and the workstream performance of the initiative owner.
It is also a good idea to consider non-monetary incentives, such as flexibility in schedules, part-time work, temporary employment, or flexi-time arrangements. These can provide workers with an opportunity to supplement their retirement income or pursue other activities that they enjoy.
In addition, non-monetary incentives can be more meaningful for employees and leave a more lasting impression. They can also create a sense of community and a feeling that they belong. This makes people more willing to contribute to the business and boost employee satisfaction.
Diverse Sourcing Strategies
Creating a diverse talent pool can have a profound impact on the success of your organization. It increases employee productivity, improves innovation and creativity, and helps create an inclusive work environment that promotes teamwork.
Diversity sourcing solutions include partnering with educational institutes, incorporating diverse hiring methods into your recruiting process and using social media to find candidates. These strategies can help your business increase the number of diverse applicants and retain them throughout their careers.
It is also a good idea to make sure that your recruiters and hiring managers understand unconscious bias when it comes to sourcing candidates. This can prevent them from making a decision that is biased towards a specific group of candidates.
Another good idea is to use job descriptions that are written with specific demographics in mind. This can make it easier to source diverse candidates because they will see that your company is looking for people like them.
You can also target candidates by location when writing your job ads. This will ensure that your job ads are seen by a large pool of candidates who might be interested in your company.
A great way to source diverse candidates is by partnering with universities and institutions that have a large population of minority students. This can help your business attract a diverse candidate pool and establish a strong partnership that can benefit both parties.
As a result, you can improve your workplace diversity by ensuring that your employees have the opportunity to network and refer candidates who might be a good fit for your business. This can also help your company create a stronger reputation for being a diverse workplace, which can lead to more diverse hires and retention.
In addition to these strategies, you can also use a diversity sourcing audit to help you identify any areas where you might be missing candidates with a diverse background. This can help you to better understand your current pipeline and determine the areas where you need to invest more resources.
Developing a diverse sourcing strategy is a long-term investment that can pay off in the future. It is important to remember that just like any other strategy, this one needs time to develop before you can see the desired results. However, it is a good idea to start working on this strategy right away so you can attract more diverse candidates.
Employer Branding
A strong employer brand helps you attract the right candidates and keep them happy. You can also use it to increase employee loyalty and minimize turnover. It takes a lot of work to develop a good employer brand, but the results are worth it.
Whether you’re a small business or a global corporation, it’s crucial to create a company brand that is respected and loved by employees and candidates. It’s the only way to build a reputation as an employer that can attract the right talent.
You can start by determining what makes your company unique and what people like about it. This can help you identify what areas need improvement or change in order to make your organization more appealing.
For example, if you’ve been having a hard time hiring qualified candidates for certain positions or you have lots of disgruntled employees who are on sites like Glassdoor, addressing these issues can make a difference. By showing that you care about your employees and are working to fix them, you can improve the impression you have with candidates.
Another important part of building a strong employer brand is to communicate your corporate values and culture. Creating strong corporate values is a great way to show that your company has a positive influence on society and cares about the world around it. It also helps potential employees to understand what it is you stand for and the impact you have on the world.
In addition, you can use social media to share your company’s employer brand. Posting about awards, workplace events and company culture is an excellent way to promote your employer brand.
While many businesses think of marketing and recruiting as two different functions, a well-developed employer branding strategy should be a part of both these efforts. Recruiting managers and marketers need to work together to ensure that they have all of the components of an effective employer branding strategy in place.
For instance, an employer branding campaign that focuses on a positive culture will help to promote the benefits of working at a company and reduce job stress. Employees who are passionate about their work can become brand ambassadors and spread the word about your company to other candidates. This can lead to a decrease in the cost of talent acquisition and a greater return on investment.
