By Thomas Nelson
In a labor market with an 8 percent unemployment rate, one would think that finding good employees would be as simple as waving around the promise of a good paycheck and a reasonable benefits package. However, although employees are plentiful, good employees—the ones that we are really looking for—are as scarce as ever because as everyone else got downsized, they didn’t. Couple that with the fact that the number of younger workers entering the labor market is smaller than the number leaving and you have the recipe for a full-on talent shortage. Understanding that the talent we are trying to attract, and keep, is scarce should motivate us to do the things that are necessary to find, hire and keep them.
Finding the Talent
Cast a wide net and keep in mind that 16 percent of the population in the United States relocates in any given year. The number of relocations among recent graduates is even higher. Using national and even international job Web sites is standard procedure for filling positions at this point, but going beyond that could yield unique candidates. For instance, if there is a college with an especially strong program in an area your company needs to staff, consider attending their job fair.
Ask your current employees for help because they can be a valuable source for future employees. As human beings we tend to socialize with people who are like us, so if your employees are the types of people you wish to have working for you, it’s a good bet that their friends and associates are too. Some companies even reward employees for recruiting other employees with amounts varying from $100 to several thousand dollars. Referral employees have two distinct advantages over walk-ins. First, an employee is unlikely to refer someone to their place of work that will reflect badly upon them. Second, and far more important from a cost perspective, employees hired through employee referrals tend to have better retention than those hired through other channels.
Don’t overlook the employed. Just because they already have a job does not mean that they—and you—wouldn’t be happier if they were working with you. It never hurts to ask, and if you do it respectfully, it never hurts to ask again. And again.
Hiring the Talent
Once you’ve identified the next potential member of your team, it’s time to convince them that you’re right for them, which can oftentimes be the simplest part if they have asked you for a job. Whether or not that is the case, however, the tone of the hiring negotiation sets the base tone for all future interaction. If the negotiation is stressful and contentious, oftentimes future interactions are as well, so managing the process, especially managing expectations, is crucial.
Distinguishing yourself from other places where they have applied goes a long way towards winning the tug-of-war between your company and others. There are endless ways to do this, of course. Ask yourself what sets your company apart from all the others in your field and use that. Consider the very real advantage of the local geography. Being able to drive to work every day through the mountains is one of the reasons I relocated to West Virginia from the Midwest. For your “wide net” catches, one thing you could consider is paying them to relocate. Compensation for moving expenses is standard in some fields and nonexistent in others, so simply offering to help with the cost of relocation could be the difference between a potential employee accepting and passing on your offer.
Keep in mind that because people only do things they want or have to do, we should all strive to make our workplaces environments in which people want to work. Because all people are different, we must realize there is no way to make our workplace a place where everyone would want to work, which makes it important during the recruiting and hiring phase to be truthful and complete about the workplace. The cost to replace an employee is more than $10,000, so it’s better to not hire someone, no matter how talented, that doesn’t fit.
Keeping the Talent
When discussing hiring and retaining talent, Larry Page, co-founder of Google, explained their hiring and retention goals by saying, “We don’t just want you to have a great job. We want you to have a great life. We provide you with everything you need to be productive and happy on and off the clock.” Most companies don’t have the resources of Google, but they can still enable their employees to have a great job and a great life.
Salary and health insurance are thought of as tools to keep and motivate employees, but even if they are productive, which is questionable, another company can always offer more money or a lower co-pay. In order to differentiate your company from all the others, consider nontraditional benefits as well as overall strategies to promote employee welfare. Paid childcare, a company smartphone or free sodas are perks that top companies offer. It’s probably cost-prohibitive for most companies to offer the entire suite of services that a company like Microsoft, Apple or Facebook offers, but offering one or two makes your company interesting and distinct and will surely be appreciated by your employees.
Besides salary and fringe benefits, today’s employee wants to want to go to work. Earlier I commented that no workplace can be everything for everyone, and while that’s true, there are a few things that almost all employees agree make a workplace better. Involving your employees in decision making, when appropriate, is almost universally appreciated. Having rules, having them equally applied and, most importantly, not changing them repeatedly is very important to workplace satisfaction, as well as recruiting and retention. Not changing the rules is especially important when it comes to compensation. People typically do not quit jobs based on salary, but they do quit jobs based on what they perceive as unfair salary adjustments.
Finally, no conversation about hiring and keeping employees would be complete without a thorough self-examination. The number one reason people quit their jobs is not money, benefits, hours or anything else I’ve discussed. It’s dissatisfaction with their boss. Gallup polls summed it up by saying, “People leave managers, not companies.” If your company seems to have a revolving door, look at yourself and look at others in supervisory positions within your organization.
