Why is employee retention so hard to achieve

While it used to be commonplace decades ago for people to stay with a company for 10 or 15 years, now that is very rare. The ideal of job security has been replaced with career progression so staying at a company for more than 5 years’ is almost unheard of. A job is no longer just about a pay cheque, people want to enjoy their work and be challenged by it. They want to be able to expand their knowledge and industry network so being able to attend training courses and industry events is valued. But perhaps one of the biggest trends is that people want what they do to have a purpose. To either be contributing something to the community, to industry or to the environment.

Keeping up with all of these expectations is a tall order, so it’s not surprising that most people stay in a company for 2 years or less. If people see something more favourable on offer they’re not afraid to go for it. The problem is that when they walk out the door, along with them goes all the knowledge and training that has been invested in them.  Then there’s the task of finding a replacement which can take a great deal of time, money and effort. Estimates are that rehiring can cost a company between two and five times the person’s annual salary. It’s not just the hiring costs, the time getting the new recruit up to speed and fully productive also needs to be factored in.

Financially, investing in employee retention is worth it, but with exponential and ever changing employee expectations, how does one go about it?

It’s not surprising that in a Forbes magazine article on employee retention, hiring right is at the top of their list. It seems logical enough, find the right people and they won’t want to leave, but it’s the process of hiring that makes all the difference. Here at Waste Recruit we are rather proud of our retention rate for candidates that we place. Our 2.9 years is well above the national average and we believe it is because of our evidence-based approach to hiring.

Evidence based hiring doesn’t just involve sifting through CV’s and conducting interviews, it digs much deeper, conducting a thorough analysis of a candidate’s skills, expertise, personality, and work history. As much as people like to hire on instinct and gut feel, it simply leaves too many gaps, and the only way to fill those gaps is with detailed science based testing. There is a debate whether hiring is art or science, and in truth it’s a bit of both. But when it comes to discerning is someone can actually do the job and will fit with the company culture, science based testing provides detailed information that can help make more informed hiring decisions. And when you hire right it increases the chances of employee retention.

Our average time to hire is 42 days because we follow a detailed and systematic process. Our in-house business psychologist, Ben, creates the interview questions based on specific outcomes and helps to manage the process which takes the weight off for hiring managers.  It’s a big responsibility to hire right and it’s one of the reasons we partner with our clients in the process, getting a detailed understanding of the business, the culture and hiring needs. This is then used as a benchmark for the hiring process.

If you’re looking to achieve higher employee retention rates, start with how you hire. When you get the right people in who are right for the role and a good fit in the company culture, then you already have an advantage ad retaining great people becomes easier.

If you want to find out how our evidenced based approach to hiring can help your business, contact us on [email protected] or call 01252 353 080