First in a series of three guest blog posts by Judith Lindenberger, President, The Lindenberger Group HR Consulting (See part 2 here and part 3 here)
Hiring quality staff is tough no matter what industry you are in. The unemployment rate is low and employers have to compete for good employees.
In our experience helping hundreds of companies create successful recruiting, hiring and retention strategies, the first place to start is by obtaining data from exit interviews. An exit interview is a structured conversation with employees who are leaving your company to learn why they are leaving you. One of our clients, a local microbiological testing laboratory, learned that their turnover rate was due, in part, to younger workers seeking higher wages in order to pay off their college debt.
We worked with the owner to create and implement a new policy to help new employees, who stay a minimum of two years with the company, pay back their student loans. And, so that all new employees could benefit, we structured the policy so that new employees without student debt, would receive a bonus after two years on the job.
For another client, a nonprofit organization, we learned through the exit interview process, that the organization needed to do a better job of onboarding new employees and making them feel welcome. We created an onboarding guide for managers that included simple, easy to implement, suggestions such as sending out an email ahead of time to introduce the new staff member and to encourage other employees to reach out to personally welcome the new employee, giving the new employee a job description and performance expectations the first week, and creating a schedule of meetings between the manager and the new employee for the first few months on the job.
Employers need to compete for talent. We can help. To learn more, contact The Lindenberger Group at info@lindenbergergroup.com or 609-730-1049.
(See part 2 of this series here and part 3 of this series here)