How to Reduce Employee Turnover with Better Hiring Practices
Are you struggling with poor employee retention rates? The current economic climate has made hiring new workers more challenging and costly than ever, so progressive human resources teams will try to retain staff for as long as possible.
How? At least some of your staffing efforts should focus on how to reduce employee turnover — fewer staff departures means fewer positions to fill. Working to minimise employee turnover is an investment in making your life easier.
The Connection Between Recruitment and Churn
What does the recruitment process have to do with employee turnover? More than you might think. Obviously, some employee departures aren’t something you can prevent — your staff have lives outside the workplace, and sometimes a change in personal circumstances means leaving your job.
But optimising your recruitment process can still reduce churn among your workers. Today’s employees have a lot of employment options. They expect more than a regular paycheck from their jobs and aren’t afraid to leave when those expectations aren’t met.
One-third of European workers anticipate quitting their job in the next three to six months, despite fears of an economic slowdown. Factors driving employee attrition include:
- Inadequate compensation
- Lack of development or advancement opportunities
- Uncaring leaders
- Unsustainable performance expectations
- Lack of meaningful work
How do you minimise this type of employee departure? By making sure they’re the right fit for your organisation. Strategies to reduce employee turnover must begin when you start hiring.
Here are seven ways to improve your recruiting process to help reduce employee turnover.
1. Get Everyone Involved
Recruitment and hiring should be a collaborative process. If the responsibility of choosing new members of your organisation falls to a single person, the risk of human error, unconscious bias, misjudgments, and missed details increases significantly. Involve all relevant stakeholders in creating job descriptions, screening applications, and interviewing candidates to help ensure you find the right person for the job.
2. Screen Candidates Carefully
Screening potential new hires can be a tedious, time-consuming process. But it also plays a vital role in strategies to reduce employee turnover. Screening isn’t just about disqualifying candidates that don’t meet minimum requirements — it can also help you identify traits that signal an applicant will be a good fit for your corporate culture.
3. Consider Workplace Culture
Finding candidates with the appropriate education or experience is important, but when considering how to reduce employee churn, it’s essential to consider how successful recruits will fit in your company culture. What are your corporate values? Are you looking for a team player or a superstar? Do your staff work remotely, or are employees on-site every day? The most qualified candidate won’t last long at your organisation if the way you work doesn’t align with their style.
- What motivates you to succeed?
- Do you consider yourself a leader or a follower?
- How do you handle conflict with co-workers?
- What do you find stressful about your current work environment?
- Why do you want to work for us?
4. Keep Candidates Informed
Almost two-thirds (64%) of candidates will share negative hiring experiences with friends and family, and 27% will actively dissuade others from applying at a company where they had a bad recruitment experience. Keeping applicants waiting for a long time without any communication about your hiring process and their status in it will hurt your efforts to minimise employee turnover.
Your employees probably share job postings with friends and family. If those people have a bad experience with your company, your staff will definitely hear about it — and it may make them rethink their relationship with you.
5. Don’t Overlook Existing Staff
Gen Z and millennials make up a significant portion of the European workforce — and unlike some previous generations, they’re not content with a regular salary and a pension plan. They’re looking to advance in their careers, and if they don’t see that opportunity at your company, they’ll go elsewhere. Searching for candidates within your existing workforce demonstrates your commitment to internal mobility (and provides you with employees that already know and understand what you do).
6. Build a Diverse Workforce
Workforce diversity is a high priority for today’s job-seekers and employees. 76% of workers cite diversity as a top consideration when considering employment options, and 32% will not apply for positions at organisations that don’t have a diverse workforce. More than three-quarters of European employers have declared their commitment to diversity and inclusion, but few have implemented programs to ensure workforce diversity. Develop inclusive hiring practices to build a team that both current and future employees will feel good about.
7. Automate Your Recruitment Process
Hirematic’s multi-channel job advertising platform helps you optimise your recruitment process to reduce employee turnover. Our technology makes it easier to collaborate on hiring, streamline the recruitment process, track candidates, and reach a diverse pool of applicants — all while delivering the maximum return on your recruiting dollars.
Want to know more about how to reduce employee turnover with innovative hiring strategies? Get in touch with our experts today.
