Hello and welcome to our Friday blog on employee retention tips. Today we will have a look at the topic of employee selection for the purpose of retention.
Employee selection is about ensuring you have chosen the right person for the job for the long run. Voluntary turnover is a natural part of all organizations, but it is possible to prevent and minimize it. Research studies suggest that it is possible to select applicants who are more likely to stay with the organization; therefore, it is worth investing in effective recruitment and selection tools that can help to identify employees who are most likely to remain with the organization. There are two parts to employee selection: the first is attracting the right candidates and the second is then selecting the candidate with the right “fit.”
Four Rules for Successful Selection
1. The job description should be well planned and clear about the position
Retention starts well before the employee joins an organization, and in fact, everything you do before the employee’s first day will affect the future retention of that employee. Creating a job description is the beginning of planning for employee retention. The job description is the foundation that will set the tone of the entire recruitment process. It will be used later as a basis for recruitment and selection aspects, plus it will be used as an on-the-job reference for employees to check job expectations.
If a job description does not express who you are looking for, then you will not attract the right person for the position. Writing a clear, concise, and attractive job description is the key to attracting employees that will fit within the organization. Here are some tips for building your job description:
- Use language that is precise, engaging, and informative. Make it understandable and steer clear of overly bureaucratic or technical wordings (except if you are in an industry where this is to be expected).
- Sell yourself by communicating your organization’s culture, goals, and brand. Show them why your organisation is a great place to work.
- Focus only on what is essential to the job when listing duties and functions. Do not make it a list of tasks, rather a list that describes the functions and results desired. Paint them a picture of the job.
- Use compensation and benefits to really highlight the positives of your organisation and the position. List the best perks available — they could be the deciding factor.
2. Recruitment strategies should be professional and targeted
The recruiting strategy will help you to attract quality candidates. In highly competitive job markets where positions outweigh the number of suitable candidates, a creative and directed recruitment strategy will serve your organization. Marketing and recruiting within professional associations, seminars, and other events provides exposure to high quality job seekers, and shows that your organization is reputable. More ways to recruit include job fairs, building relationships with colleges, schools, and universities, and offering programs such as internships, mentoring, and work experience that will attract qualified applicants.
As mentioned earlier, the job description is the foundation of the recruitment process and can serve as a basis for language used in job postings, job fairs, and advertisements, as well as for executive recruiters. Also we can use the key elements of the job description to brainstorm strategies on finding non-traditional candidates.
3. The interview should be used to look for skills for the position and “fit” for the organization
This is your chance to meet applicants and assess whether they will have the right “fit” for your organization. Depending on the position, an interview may be held just once or two to three times to assess applicants. Here are the interview essentials:
- Plan ahead — the interviewer needs to be just as prepared as the applicant. It is essential that you know the job description thoroughly.
- Know which skills are critical for success in the position and be specific in looking for them. The interview is the time to probe for specific examples and ask about specific competencies.
- Look for the right “fit” as well as skills. Andrew Staite from Hudson’s claims that employers “hire on skills, and fire on fit;” most interviews focus too much on skills and overlook candidates’ abilities to assimilate into a given organization. So if you haven’t run the candidate through a career and personality assessment system such as that used by us here at ClearFit, the interview is your first real chance to get to know the applicant’s personality.
4. Organizations should use job fit assessments for better selection
Job fit assessments are great tools for more accurate employee selection. It is used to match a candidate’s abilities and experiences to the needs of the job description and the working environment of the organization. Job fit assessments will provide employers with the information that they need to make a decision on selection. Here at ClearFit for instance, our job fit solution is five times more predictive than traditional hiring for this very reason.
Seven Characteristics to Assess in Candidates
It’s difficult to give an overall prediction of suitable personality traits and to determine exactly which traits are more likely to follow voluntary turnover, as each position requires different characteristics to be successful. Therefore, it’s important to research each position you’re hiring for to see which characteristics will have an impact on turnover.
Nonetheless, a study showed that these characteristics in general are most associated with voluntary turnover (within six months of first being hired):
- Applicants’ motivation to obtain that particular job
- Applicants that know current employees
- Applicants who had a longer tenure in their previous job
- Conscientiousness personalities
- Emotionally stable personalities
- Personal confidence
- Confidence in decision-making
Up to two years later, the level of an employee conscientiousness and emotional stability still predicted signs for voluntary, avoidable turnover. So next time you’re hiring, keep these important considerations in mind, and make sure you choose wisely!
Join us next week as we look into work roles and job rotation.
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