Some people think there is some great mystery behind retaining good employees, but I think it's quite obvious...keep them happy. In most cases, companies can keep their employees happy by offering competitive salaries and benefits, good work-life balance, training and development, promotion and growth opportunities, and positive boss/co-worker relationships. These are among some of the best ways to keep your employees happy, but the retention process begins when you are recruiting. A company can offer an employee a high salary, extensive training and growth opportunities, and a flexible work-life balance, but if they are not a good fit for the company or the job, then chances are that they will become unhappy at some point and leave anyways.
Of course no employee is guaranteed to stay, but there are some things you can do to increase the likelihood. To begin, you can make sure that you are up front with potential employees about the job and the company. Make sure that they have a clear understanding of what to expect on the job, along with their responsibilities so they aren’t surprised a few months later. It is also a good idea to provide them with details on the culture of the company so that they know what to expect when they start working there.
There are also personality/skills assessments and screening options that can help identify candidates that might be the best fit for the job and the company. I know many people are skeptical of using assessments, but if used alongside other validation methods, they can be a good resource for screening candidates.
HireDown offers an option that allows companies to post jobs on multiple job boards and match an unlimited number of applicants to their job opening based off a personality, skills, and intelligence assessment. The results of this assessment can be used to validate those candidates that could potentially be the best performers and that are the best fit for the job.
Once a few of the best candidates are selected for interviews, it is important to get more of an understanding about what they want. At this point, I would assume most of the candidates are qualified for the job, so you can try to dig a little more to find out who could be the best long term asset based off their goals and preferences. It might also help to use resources like
LinkedIn to find contacts that can verify the information you receive from your candidates.
I don’t think it’s any secret what keeps employees around once they are at the company, it’s just a matter finding the preferences of each employee and balancing them to make sure your employees happy. The real challenge begins with getting the right people through the door.
