Employee Recruitment and Retention

Three out of four employees are either actively looking for a new job or open to moving if they’re approached—yes even your employees! This means that you cannot focus all of your efforts on finding new employees. You must also put significant effort into retaining the employees you’ve already invested in so carefully. Frequent and varied employee communication, an active feedback loop, and both formal and informal recognition are critical to building trust and honesty—and increasing retention.

• List all of the ways leaders communicate with employees on a formal basis and how often. Surveys? Newsletters? Blogs? Meetings? Performance reviews? Individual recognition and celebrations for meeting goals and creating success? Others? How often do you analyze why you are communicating, and measure how well your formal communications are received as well as how useful they are?
• Now list all of the ways you communicate informally. How often does the CEO spontaneously walk around and ask how things are going? How often do leaders meet with small representative groups? What flexibility do managers have to recognize employees on the spot? In what ways do you solicit employee feedback? What percentage of employee suggestions are acted upon and how do you communicate about changes made—or the reasons not made?
• How robust are your sales and candidate pipelines? (Find useful examples on pages 4041 in the book, Solve the People Puzzle.) Once customers and candidates are on board, how do you compare your strategies to retain customers versus employees? Evaluate the success of your strategies for each.

Kathleen is an accomplished performer, business owner and leader. Find out more about how she can help you solve your “people puzzle”.