Increasing New Hire Retention

In the current climate of employers vying for the best-qualified candidates in the limited pool of those available, it is of utmost importance for hiring parties not only to gain access to those candidates, but also to engage in the interview and subsequent offer process in a manner that ensures that the individual will remain in the position, once hired. Following are some best practices for increasing new hire retention for your firm or company.

• Offer a clear and detailed description of the overall and everyday duties and responsibilities of the position. Include the long- and short-term goals sought by the company from the person in the position, and ask candidates during the interview to compare these against the goals of their current position and how close they came to meeting them.
• If you are replacing someone in an existing position, look at the evolution of the position’s daily and longer-term duties and compare them to the duties of that position when the departing person was first hired. The longer the vacating person was in the position, the more likely it is that the job description has changed and needs updating before being sent to your recruiter. Also, ask the departing employee not only why they are leaving, but also what the single most important change is that could realistically be made to improve the circumstances for the next person in that position.
• When reviewing resumes, don’t think of them in terms of “yes” and “no.” Think instead in terms of “possibility” and “not a possibility.” Doing so will make it easier to eliminate those who are truly not right for the job, and will make you look more carefully at all aspects of those who could potentially be a good fit, even if their resume is not one you would normally think of as an absolute “yes.” Make this a standard practice and over time, you will be surprised at how many of your best hires would have often gone into a “no” stack, as these will often be the people who work hardest for you and your company because they have to justify your hiring them into a “better” position than the one they previously held.
• During the interview, take care to limit discussions of “potential” and “possible” aspects of the position, instead confining the discussion as much as possible to current facts relative to it. Many new employees have been disappointed when they begin a new job and these possibilities don’t materialize. Additionally, future trust in the hiring party can be damaged, if the candidate wonders what else might not come about.
• Ask candidates about pre-planned vacations or other necessary time off that would occur after the start date of employment. Granted, the burden for bringing this up should fall on the candidate. However, candidates are often either concerned about this costing them a job offer, and don’t volunteer it; or, being a bit nervous in the interview, sometimes simply fail to think about this, even with every intention of mentioning it. Better to proactively ask and be able to factor the answer into a decision before making it.
• Don’t make the mistake of bypassing a terrific candidate because of a short time period they would not be available per the above. Unless the time period in which the candidate would be unavailable is absolutely critical relative to the duties needing to be performed in the position for which they are being hired, hire them anyway. No hiring party ever regretted hiring a great person under these circumstances, but plenty have regretted not having done so once that time period had passed.
• Clarify your offer in writing – not just the financial points of it, but a general overview of duties, hours, and benefits. It can be as formal as on letterhead or as informal as an email. Having it in writing and on file eliminates any future disputes regarding any aspect of it.
• Be actively involved with their work and responsibilities for the first few days to ensure their understanding and correct comprehension of work being given and what is being asked of them.
  
  New employees may have been hired predominantly for prior experience and knowledge of the work they were hired to do. Nonetheless, company practices and procedures vary from firm to firm. Don’t equate a question about how your company does something to a question about how a job function is performed.
• At first, ask the new employee every few days, then in increasing intervals for the first few months, how they feel things are going. Ask questions that are both general and specific, and that do not command yes or no answers – you want more clarified responses than that. Listen, not just to what is being said, but also to what is not being said. Are you hearing anything proactively positive from the candidate, or just variations on the equivalent of “fine?” A new employee who is enjoying and understanding the job will happily say so when asked. One who isn’t will not, but will often also not be voluntarily forthcoming about the fact that they aren’t. A good HR manager will preempt a new employee’s decision to cut and run by proactively flushing out and working to resolve a new employee’s concerns before those concerns turn into reasons to leave.
• Establish pre-set, informal sit-down meetings with all new employees to discuss the responsibilities and goals of the position and the employee’s progress toward them. The employee’s advance knowledge of these meetings will not only provide an incentive to proactively meet those goals prior to the meetings, but also will provide you, the hiring party, with the benefit of the neutrality of these pre-set meetings. This helps avoid the impression that you are harping on a candidate when production is not quite where it should be when the meetings take place. It also provides a neutral and standard built-in timeline for probationary purposes, if necessary.

Finally, keep in mind that those leading from above a group do not have the same view or see the same things as those leading from within a group. For every position that falls to you to fill, look at the job, the co-workers and the environment from the perspective of one working in the position. If you worked in that role for a living, would you want that particular position? If not, why? Difficult boss? Unreasonable workload? Catty co-workers? Insufficient resources?  Change what you can and work on the rest. Keep this lateral perspective in place not just for hiring purposes, but on an ongoing basis to try to preempt issues that, were you in the position, would potentially give you cause to leave. You will increase new hire retention, and bring yourself closer to potential employees in the process.