It appears qualified candidates aren’t beating anyone’s door right now. Long-term employees are getting burned out or suddenly leaving because they are finding better opportunities elsewhere.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink your company’s recruiting and retention strategies. It’s more than advertising or fruitless job fairs. Organizations must develop a workforce plan to help your company’s successes in finding and retaining a high-performing quality workforce.
Here are six steps to help your organization achieve this.
Step One: Review your company’s strategic goals and objectives with your entire management staff. Having discussions in the C-Suite does nothing for those managing the day-to-day with your teams. If the whole team doesn’t know the mission, the plan will not succeed.
Step Two: Conduct an internal inventory of the available workforce resources. I often say, right people on the right bus and in the right seat. You may have an employee looking for another job because they don’t enjoy what they do anymore. Be bold enough to hire within first.
Step Three: Scan for external environmental changes affecting the labor supply. Perhaps a large corporation is coming into the area; what can you do to attract talent from those deep pocketbooks. What are candidates looking for with an employer? Does your strategy align with a changing environment?
Step Four: Forcast shortages and surplus. Managers can’t look at the staff they have now and say, “we’re overstaffed,” without looking at the growth in the future. It takes time and resources to get someone up to speed. An injury or an illness could take out an employee in the blink of an eye. Are you prepared with a backup plan?
Step Five: Develop your recruiting and retention plan. Write it on paper, not just in your head. Visually seeing your company hiring needs on paper (or whiteboard) will undoubtedly clarify your successes and show where you need to change strategies. Retaining is the second important part. There is nothing more frustrating for tenured employees than to see all the new plans for hiring and forgetting those working for your company the whole time. Take time to have one on one encounters with your employees. Conduct “stay interviews” and see where the pulse of the company currently resides.
Step Six: Create a benchmark progress plan and ensure you’re meeting with your management staff regularly to see if anything has changed or shifted. Listen to the new employees you bring in for new fresh ideas. It’s important to push boundaries and eliminate phrases like, “that’s just the way it’s always been,” and replace them with, “let’s try that.”
Life changed in one year. Workforces have changed, and companies that didn’t evolve may have had to close their doors forever. Now hiring signs are hanging on every door, along with signs asking patrons to be patient as they are short-staffed. How do you intend to hire qualified candidates and retain your most valuable assets?
Rise Above Solutions is here to help you create a workforce strategy as unique as your company.
Rise Above Solutions 