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Turning turnover on its head

The simple science to increasing employee retention.

If you’re a small to medium-sized business involved in hourly hiring, telling you that turnover is a problem is like telling you that sometimes when your employees call in sick, they’re actually not. (Especially if they recently purchased a Wii.)

The problem is that as soon as you lose an employee, you can’t afford to wait weeks to get a new employment ad circulated, interview and hire. You need someone who’s qualified tomorrow. And heck, sometimes you needed them yesterday.

Here are a few tips for making sure you never get stuck in the hourly hiring slow lane:

Set up a pipeline.
If you’re relying on simply sticking a ragged cardboard “Help Wanted” sign in the storefront when you need to fill a job, the odds aren’t good you’ll get the turnaround you’re seeking. In terms of smaller businesses that lack the name recognition of some of the bigger fish, it’s less likely job seekers will even see your plea for applicants with a simple sign or obscure newspaper ad. That’s why it’s important to be proactive, and to always have quality applicants who can start a.s.a.p. in the hopper so you’re prepared if someone suddenly walks out on the job. This means when you tell a job seeker you’ll “hold onto their application,” you actually do it.

Filter and focus.
Small business owners have a lot on their plate, and usually aren’t afforded the luxury of a personal assistant to take care of all the little things that eat up time—basically, they’re crazy busy. Wouldn’t it be great to never waste your time interviewing applicants who aren’t of the caliber you’re seeking? You can…very easily. By getting your job descriptions on the Web, many online recruitment partners can set up screening capabilities so that only pre-qualified candidates make it to the chair on the other side of your desk. Just imagine how much time that would save you, especially for those interviews that you wish you could end after two minutes...without being rude.

Act fast.
Recruiters in the corporate world can afford to string along candidates for weeks with a follow-up email here and a phone message there. But you can’t be so patient with hourly recruitment, particularly if you’re a smaller company. Because of the aforementioned turnover in the hourly employee marketplace, the best and brightest hourly workers are snatched up quickly by eager employers.

Tackling turnover is just one of the tenets of an effective hourly recruitment strategy – a strategy with a consistent, proven foundation that works wonders when tailored to specific client needs. We’ll continue to explore more of these hourly hiring disciplines and how they can help streamline your recruitment practices in future blogs.