Better recruitment techniques will improve employee retention and help you achieve organizational goals while staying competitive in your market space. Keeping employee turnover to a minimum helps to save money, elevate morale, preserve productivity, and catalyze company growth and development.

Hiring qualified employees is a first and vital step in reducing turnover. Getting the hire right the first time means you won’t have to go through the wasteful exercise of doing it again in a few weeks or months.

How to Attract & Retain Qualified Staff

1. Learn How to Write a Better Job Posting

The overarching goal of recruitment is to attract the best candidate for the job. The candidates you seek are out there, but you might not be successful in piquing their interest if your job advertisement doesn’t speak to them. 

To find a candidate who can (and wants) to do the job, your advertisement should be an accurate reflection of the many facets entailed in successfully carrying out the responsibilities of the position and the role it plays in the successful performance of the corporate function and the business. Talented people want to know what meaningful impact they can have on the organization’s success. 

Knowing what to include in a job posting will attract qualified candidates to your organization. Essential items to include in your job advertisement:

• Summary of the job

• Detailed list of critical responsibilities

• Clear job title

• Accurate depiction of functional interdependencies

• Statement of your company’s mission

Conventional wisdom says you should skip jargon, acronyms, consultant speak and hyperbole. Those pitfalls obfuscate or overinflate the role, and send talented candidates running to your competitors.

2. Communicate Company Culture Upfront 

One of the smartest things any employer can do to improve employee recruitment and retention is to assume that your top candidate has multiple job offers. If they’re that good, they probably do. 

Once you have established their interest, you need to start selling your company. Address the questions your employment candidate has about your organization, including:

• Why is your business a great place to work?

• What about their background appeals to you?

• How do you invest in your employees to help them grow in their careers and as people?

 Don’t just tell them. Show them throughout your hiring process. Today’s workforce, which is dominated by Millennials, is seriously interested in these opportunities, often eclipsing pay and other benefits. 

Communicating your organization’s culture and values will help you stand out from the crowd, thus enabling you to outshine your competitors and enhance the odds of hiring your first choice. If the candidate isn’t interested in your company culture upfront, they’re free to pass before you spend too much time courting them, enabling you to focus that time on someone who won’t leave in three weeks or three months.

3. Get Second (and Third) Opinions from Stakeholders

Hiring qualified employees demand more than sifting through resumes and applications. Whether it’s unconscious bias, personal experience, or even misreading a sentence, hiring managers often miss at least one applicant who deserves an interview. Maybe the person didn’t check off every experience box but may possess certain less obvious attributes that make them a great choice who was originally overlooked. 

Recruiters have a lot of advice to give, but perhaps the best tip is to get a second opinion on the applications you receive from other stakeholders in the process. Combining multiple inputs helps you pick stronger candidates, create more diverse teams, and reduce turnover.  

4. Hire a Staffing Agency to Strengthen Your Hiring Process

The right candidate for your open role is out there, but hiring isn’t a one-way street. In the candidate-employer dance, both sides are selling. An expert staffing agency can help make your hiring process more attractive to attract qualified candidates and ensure any biases or bottlenecks are removed from the hiring process.

Are you looking for an expert staffing solutions partner to help you find the best possible candidates for your business in Washington, D.C., or Maryland? Contact Elite Personnel and learn more about our thorough candidate screening & selection process.