Recruitment and retention: Which one to choose?
Recruitment and retention are subjects which go hand in hand when expanding your business. But is one more important than the other?
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The truth is recruitment and retention go hand in hand. Your business needs to attract new people, but once someone is on board, retaining that person should be just as important as attracting them in the first place.
If you want to keep your company staffed with great employees, then good recruitment strategies aren’t the only answer: staff retention also needs a specific focus.
- Why is employee retention important?
- How do I improve employee retention?
- So, should I put hiring on the backburner?
Why is employee retention important?
There are plenty of reasons why employee retention is just as important as your recruitment strategy. The benefits of a lower employee turnover vary from the financial side of things to the overall vibe within your company.
Continuity and team building
Employee retention will ensure continuity within your company and ensure your team members are getting the best opportunity to form bonds and develop good working relationships.
While newer employees can, of course, become integral members of the team and gain the trust of older employees, this takes time. Therefore, constantly hiring new staff and neglecting to retain older staff can be detrimental to the way your team works.
Alongside this, having a revolving door of employees will degrade trust among employees that have been on the team for longer. They may become overworked from constantly picking up other colleagues’ tasks and onboarding new employees. This can then cause a ripple effect of more employees leaving.
Employer branding
Of course, having a high rate of staff retention will also do wonders for your employer branding. Having long-standing members of your team won’t go unnoticed by candidates or new hires. And, it shows a true sense of belonging among your employees, which indicates they feel cared for and valued within their team.
It is also off-putting for candidates to see the same roles being advertised time and time again. Showing a high level of turnover like this can really impact employer branding.
Reduced hiring costs
Hiring employees comes at a price. From writing a good job ad, and posting it to multiple job boards, to bringing the new hire on board, setting up their equipment, and training them — there’s plenty of costs involved!
Therefore, keeping an employee on board is in your best interests. It can often be a better financial choice to upskill or promote an existing employee than to bring a new employee on board. This way, you save on promoting a job and training a new employee, as well as improving your employee retention!
How do I improve employee retention?
There are plenty of excellent techniques you can use to improve employee retention. The common thread between them is getting to know your employees better, and understanding their unique thoughts and feelings, as well as their goals.
The following activities are great ways to do this:
- Conduct stay interviews
- Introduce workplace coaching
- Offer upskilling or reskilling support
- Help create Employee Resource Groups
- Introduce an open feedback culture
So, should I put hiring on the back burner?
Now you understand the importance of prioritising staff retention in the workplace, you may be tempted to put your recruitment strategy to rest. However, this isn’t always necessary.
Hiring is still a huge matter of importance in a bunch of different situations. Bringing new staff on board can be necessary to:
- Avoid overworking employees
- Bring new talent into the team
- Expand into new markets or areas
- Fill positions of those who have retired or are going on temporary leave
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list and there are plenty of unique situations where a business needs to hire. So, the best advice we can give is to treat retention and recruitment with equal importance.
Need help with the recruitment side of things?
Luckily, we have plenty of articles to help you start your hiring journey, whether you’re a beginner, or just looking for new tips. Why not check out the following articles?
Amber Denwood
Amber Denwood was a Content Manager at JOIN. She mostly wrote about employer branding, trying to help companies to understand how they can improve their image.
