Development 4 Managers.com

Employee Retention

Is it too soon to talk about it?

Retaining good employees starts earlier than you might think.

Do you have an employee retention strategy? How early after hiring a person do you start worrying about keeping that employee in your ranks? Surely you realize that keeping good employees is part of a successful business strategy and a sound financial tactic.

A dedicated employee that is productive, efficient and talented represents a much higher value to your organization than a new hires. Training new employees can be expensive, slows down productivity and you risk having an uncooperative worker in your hands. You need to make sure you retain the right employees for as long as possible.

To succeed in your strategy, you need to start as early as possible. How early? Before you even hire the individual. Does this sound counterintuitive to you? Consider this, are first impressions important? Most people will agree that first impressions have a direct effect on most relationships we build. So then, when do you form a first impression of your employees? Is it during the interview? Or is it perhaps while reading their resume or job application?

Remember, these are YOUR first impressions of THEM, not THEIR first impression of YOU. Employees often start their relationship with you long before you meet them. Their first glance at you happens when they read the post for an open position. Prospect employees judge your organization based on what you write in the job description, and the caliber of your candidate will often reflect the quality of your post.

TIP: Are you putting your best foot forward with every job posting? Review your job postings and make sure you speak of your corporate mission and vision. Identify clearly who you are as an entity. Describe the kind of employee you would want to see, but also talk about the kind of good employees you already have. Go ahead, show off a little.