Tips for Keeping Employee Retention Rates Down

Human resources consulting firms

A business is only as successful as its weakest employee. This is a true, yet scary fact about business. Although most businesses attempt to hire only the best and most qualified of employees, it can be difficult to accurately gauge an employee candidate based on a few interview meetings. A successful company is often run by highly qualified, highly dedicated and motived employees. An employee that is satisfied with their job is likely to put in more effort and to produce more positive results. What are some things that a business can do to attract and hire the best employees for the success of their business?

Create an extensive and thorough interview process. The interview process is the time period to get to know any potential employees. This is the time that the employer has to get to know the candidates and their skills, before time and resources are used to train them on the specific job. This is the best time for skill testing, multiple interviews, and job training checks.

Approximately 22% of new hires leave their jobs within 45 days of being hired. Reasons include poor performance and temperament issues. An employee who makes it through the interview process that ends up not being the right fit for the job costs the employer money in wasted time and trainings. A thorough interview process can help to weed out employee candidates that are not skilled enough or that will not fit with the specific business.

Design an onboarding process for new employees. Companies that have an onboarding process for its employees tend to see less retention problems. New hires that undergo a structured onboarding program are 58% more likely to be with the company after three years.

When a new employee is unaware of their expected job tasks, they are less likely to remain with the company for very long. An onboarding process informs the new employee of the expected tasks of the position, the goals and values of the company, and what to expect during the typical work day with the company.

Complete exit interviews with each terminated employee. A company can learn a lot of valuable information from an employee who decides to leave the business. Employees who are not relying on the business for a job tend to be more honest than current employees. An exit interview can help an employer understand areas they need to improve in for employee satisfaction and to decrease employee retention rates. An effective human resources company will conduct a thorough and detailed exit interview with each and every employee that leaves the company.

Utilize the services of an outplacement company. Sometimes hiring is best left to the professionals. An outplacement company is experienced in hiring the best of employee candidates. They provide HR consulting services, along with being an executive placement agency. They often have the best marketing methods that will attract the best employee candidates. An outplacement company can greatly reduce the retention and costs of hiring new employees that do not last.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the average cost of a bad hiring decision can equal 30% of the first year?s potential earnings. This is a lot of money and costs that the executive search firms can reduce. The outplacement company will provide the best and most qualified of executive search consultants.

A successful company is often made up of motivated and qualified individuals. Sometimes, the interview process is not extensive enough to easily identify these individuals. A company can reduce their rate of retention by conducting thorough and extensive interview processes, completing exit interviews with each employee that leaves the company, organizing an onboarding process for each new employee, and using an outplacement company for qualified and new employee hires.
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