Small Business Employee Recruitment and Retention

The talent and expertise of your employees is one of your businesses’ greatest assets. This course reveals recruiting and retaining strategies to help you locate, recruit, and retain talented employees. Established business owners know that great employees add value to your business. Whether you are hiring recent graduates or seasoned professionals, having great employees can be a game changer for your business.

Course Objectives

The course has four key objectives:

Discuss the importance of recruiting employees
Identify strategies for recruiting employees
Discuss the importance of retaining employees
Identify strategies for retaining employees

Background

The talent and expertise of your employees is one your businesses most important assets. Recruiting and retaining great employees will improve the value of your business.

Knowing how and where to find great talent can really make a difference for your business. There are some drawbacks to losing employees.

Organizational memory is developed when employees constantly repeat activities within an organization. Losing employees leads to “brain drain” and can lead to the loss of very important process-oriented information. Staff members build up a great manual of knowledge during their time in a job. Unfortunately, few, if any, write this knowledge down, so when they leave, it leaves with them.

Let’s get started!

Recruiting

Recruiting is the process of generating a sufficiently large group of applicants from which to select qualified individuals for available jobs. There are several ways you can go about the recruiting process. But first you must decide on the type of employees you would like to recruit. If you are looking to bring a tremendous amount of experience and time tested ideas to your business, you would tailor your recruiting process to target seasoned professionals. If you are looking to bring more energy or an alternative perspective to your company, you would tailor your recruiting process to target recent graduates. First, let’s talk about recruiting the seasoned professional.

Recruiting Seasoned Professionals

When recruiting seasoned professionals you should increase visibility in relevant professional associations, seminars and other activities to draw competent and involved employees to research your company. Another option would be to establish an employee referral program.

This is a very effective source, especially if those making the referrals are good performers. Your current employees have a vast network of professional acquaintances and people usually make friends with people similar to themselves. This process also ensures that the job candidate understands the culture of the firm through his or her relationship with the referring employee.

Recruiting Recent Graduates

When tailoring your recruiting efforts to target recent graduates, you should organize and attend job fairs to meet with potential applicants to encourage qualified individuals to apply for jobs.

It would also be a good idea to consider the values of the millennial workforce and decide if your business aligns with those values. And if they do, make the values evident to recent graduates.

Recruiting All Potential Employees

A good way to attract potential employees to your business is to establish company values that are attractive to your target workforce. People are increasingly concerned with the social behaviors of companies and want to work for companies of which they can be proud. Very often, the best applicants are those who have conducted a thorough and systematic job search.

You should make the work culture of your business available to them through the Internet and remember that you want employees who want to work for you, not employees who just want a job.

Recruiting All Potential Employees (Incentivize Potential Applicants)

Another good way to attract employees is to incentivize potential applicants. One incentive you could offer is a sign-on bonus along with a time commitment to the company, of course. You could also create a good benefits package that can include:

Health plans
Flexible and dependent care spending accounts
Retirement plans
Paid vacation
And, a flexible work environment

Retaining

After you have recruited an outstanding employee, you want to try to keep him or her with your business. The costs associated with employee turnover can include lost customers and business as well as damaged morale.

In addition, there are costs incurred in screening, verifying credentials and references, interviewing, hiring and training a new employee. Retaining employees can be a challenge.

Companies that focus on the well-being of their employees tend to have higher retention rates. In other words, companies that take an interest in the needs of their employees seem to keep them longer. That need consists of money, job satisfaction, engagement and security.

Retention Strategies

Retention strategies strengthen the ability of businesses to attract and retain good employees. Once the right person has been recruited, retention practices provide the tools necessary to support the staff. A strategic approach to employee retention may include:

Small perks
Open communication
Monetary rewards
Professional development and career paths

Small Perks

Creative strategies that go beyond money and benefits can be employed to attract and retain employees.

Small perks such as breakfast and company bonding opportunities can go a long way.
You can also use contests and incentives like work-life balance, health and safety and wellness programs to help keep workers motivated and feeling rewarded.

Open Communications

Poor workplace communication leads to confusion, conflict, and low employee morale. But when an organization clearly communicates up and down the chain, that all changes. Open communication helps eliminate negativity and shifts people’s attitudes to one of cooperation and mutual respect.

Open and clear communication in the workplace can build a more productive environment. A few methods used to promote open communication is to:

hold regular meetings for employee questions
have open-door policies and
ensure that you communicate your business‘s mission and values.

One way to communicate your business’s mission and values is to conduct stay interviews. During the stay interview you should ask the following questions:

As a tenured employee, why did you stay?
Why did you come to work here?
What are your non-negotiable issues?
How do you feel about your managers?
And what would you change or improve?

Monetary Rewards

Monetary rewards motivate employees to perform at their best and strive to achieve both company and individual goals. Company owners and managers should make sure that rewards are achievable and that product quality is not sacrificed. These monetary awards come in the form of:

bonuses
stock options
anniversary awards and
salary increases

Salary increases are not always the best method, so make sure raises are meaningful by giving those who deserve them substantial raises.

Professional Development and Career Paths

In addition to salaries, retirement accounts, and health insurance, professional development is one of the many benefits companies can offer their employees. It’s also a resource many professionals and trade associations offer their members. With growing levels of employee turnover, employers and HR professionals are expected to use training and development to help build closer relationships and improve engagement among workers. Providing ongoing professional development to your employees demonstrates your willingness to invest in your greatest asset–your work force. A few ways employers can support professional development and encourage retention of valued employees is to:

foster employee development through training
provide tuition reimbursement
get managers involved with coaching employees
use succession planning and career growth as incentives
promote from within when possible, and
consider the cost of hiring new employees verses the cost of retaining existing employees.

Select the blue buttons in front of each bullet for more information.

Challenges Specific to Small Businesses

There are many standard challenges that face every business whether they are large or small. However, there are some challenges that are unique to small businesses. The following is a list of those challenges:

small businesses often can’t pay as well as large organizations, occasionally,
there is a lack of clarity concerning expectations in small businesses because the business size does not require explicit process management,
small businesses sometimes provide little clarity about earning potential because there does not appear to be a need to establish career paths,
when communities within businesses are tight-knit, feedback can be difficult to give and receive,
small businesses often provide limited career growth options and fail to provide a framework within which the employee perceives opportunities for success, and
small businesses may lack brand recognition.

Small Business Advantages or Benefits

We just discussed challenges that are specific to small businesses. Now we will discuss three advantages or benefits specific to small businesses.

Number one, small businesses have the opportunity to create a “family” atmosphere.

Number two, small businesses have the flexibility to hire people who share company values and will make a good fit for the team.

And number three, you can hire a human resources professional to:

streamline employees structure and process,
manage benefits, perks, and reviews and
stay up to date on employment laws and trends.

Summary

We have covered a lot of material in this course. You have learned to:

Explain the importance of recruiting employees
Explain some strategies for recruiting employees
Explain the importance of retaining employees
Explain some strategies for retaining employees

Next Steps

Now what should you do? Follow these steps to begin recruiting and retaining employees for your small business.

Step 1) Define the kind of employees you need in your organization
Step 2) Create a recruitment strategy
Step 3) Examine your options for retaining employees
Step 4) Create an employee retention strategy

Small Business Employee Recruitment and Retention

Course Objectives

The course has four key objectives:

Discuss the importance of recruiting employees

Identify strategies for recruiting employees

Discuss the importance of retaining employees

Identify strategies for retaining employees

Background

The talent and expertise of your employees is one your businesses most important assets. Recruiting and retaining great employees will improve the value of your business.

Knowing how and where to find great talent can really make a difference for your business. There are some drawbacks to losing employees.

Let’s get started!

Recruiting

Recruiting Seasoned Professionals

When recruiting seasoned professionals you should increase visibility in relevant professional associations, seminars and other activities to draw competent and involved employees to research your company. Another option would be to establish an employee referral program.

Recruiting Recent Graduates

When tailoring your recruiting efforts to target recent graduates, you should organize and attend job fairs to meet with potential applicants to encourage qualified individuals to apply for jobs.

It would also be a good idea to consider the values of the millennial workforce and decide if your business aligns with those values. And if they do, make the values evident to recent graduates.

Recruiting All Potential Employees

You should make the work culture of your business available to them through the Internet and remember that you want employees who want to work for you, not employees who just want a job.

Recruiting All Potential Employees (Incentivize Potential Applicants)

Another good way to attract employees is to incentivize potential applicants. One incentive you could offer is a sign-on bonus along with a time commitment to the company, of course. You could also create a good benefits package that can include:

Health plans

Flexible and dependent care spending accounts

Retirement plans

Paid vacation

And, a flexible work environment

Retaining

After you have recruited an outstanding employee, you want to try to keep him or her with your business. The costs associated with employee turnover can include lost customers and business as well as damaged morale.

In addition, there are costs incurred in screening, verifying credentials and references, interviewing, hiring and training a new employee. Retaining employees can be a challenge.

Companies that focus on the well-being of their employees tend to have higher retention rates. In other words, companies that take an interest in the needs of their employees seem to keep them longer. That need consists of money, job satisfaction, engagement and security.

Retention Strategies

Retention strategies strengthen the ability of businesses to attract and retain good employees. Once the right person has been recruited, retention practices provide the tools necessary to support the staff. A strategic approach to employee retention may include:

Small perks

Open communication

Monetary rewards

Professional development and career paths

Small Perks

Creative strategies that go beyond money and benefits can be employed to attract and retain employees.

Small perks such as breakfast and company bonding opportunities can go a long way.

You can also use contests and incentives like work-life balance, health and safety and wellness programs to help keep workers motivated and feeling rewarded.

Open Communications

Poor workplace communication leads to confusion, conflict, and low employee morale. But when an organization clearly communicates up and down the chain, that all changes. Open communication helps eliminate negativity and shifts people’s attitudes to one of cooperation and mutual respect.

Open and clear communication in the workplace can build a more productive environment. A few methods used to promote open communication is to:

hold regular meetings for employee questions

have open-door policies and

ensure that you communicate your business‘s mission and values.

One way to communicate your business’s mission and values is to conduct stay interviews. During the stay interview you should ask the following questions:

As a tenured employee, why did you stay?

Why did you come to work here?

What are your non-negotiable issues?

How do you feel about your managers?

And what would you change or improve?

Monetary Rewards

Monetary rewards motivate employees to perform at their best and strive to achieve both company and individual goals. Company owners and managers should make sure that rewards are achievable and that product quality is not sacrificed. These monetary awards come in the form of:

bonuses

stock options

anniversary awards and

salary increases

Salary increases are not always the best method, so make sure raises are meaningful by giving those who deserve them substantial raises.

Professional Development and Career Paths

foster employee development through training

provide tuition reimbursement

get managers involved with coaching employees

use succession planning and career growth as incentives

promote from within when possible, and

consider the cost of hiring new employees verses the cost of retaining existing employees.

Select the blue buttons in front of each bullet for more information.

Challenges Specific to Small Businesses

There are many standard challenges that face every business whether they are large or small. However, there are some challenges that are unique to small businesses. The following is a list of those challenges:

small businesses often can’t pay as well as large organizations, occasionally,

there is a lack of clarity concerning expectations in small businesses because the business size does not require explicit process management,

small businesses sometimes provide little clarity about earning potential because there does not appear to be a need to establish career paths,

when communities within businesses are tight-knit, feedback can be difficult to give and receive,

small businesses often provide limited career growth options and fail to provide a framework within which the employee perceives opportunities for success, and

small businesses may lack brand recognition.

Small Business Advantages or Benefits

We just discussed challenges that are specific to small businesses. Now we will discuss three advantages or benefits specific to small businesses.

Number one, small businesses have the opportunity to create a “family” atmosphere.

Number two, small businesses have the flexibility to hire people who share company values and will make a good fit for the team.

And number three, you can hire a human resources professional to: