Employee Retention:

A Good Retention Strategy Is Also A Good Recruitment Strategy

by Roger Campbell
Director, Human Capital Strategy, Monster Government Solutions

If you are to believe the experts, recruitment will continue to be one of the most difficult functions in human resources for the foreseeable future. The limited supply of candidates for jobs will make recruitment not just hard but almost impossible. Statistics suggest that the net addition of new “human” resources to the workforce will continue to drop, making the task of finding qualified candidates even more challenging. According to Workforce 2000 and Workforce 2020, the percentage of new additions to the workforce peaked at 3% during the late 70’s and early 80’s; it is now less than 1%, and it is estimated to continue on the down slope through 2020.

So what is your plan? How does your organization plan to handle this scarcity of talent to meet your staffing needs? The answer could be right in front of you.

Most organizations play little attention to employee attrition, assuming that a certain percentage of people leave jobs every year. However, there are some government agencies that experience attrition of less than 2% a year. How do they do it? What makes them different?

And what is the true cost of attrition? How is attrition impacting on productivity and employee morale? Are you doing enough to keep the employees you already have in your organization? And what about the people who stay? Why do they stay and others go? Today many organizations are taking an in-depth look at who is leaving and why, and what steps they can take today to retain more employees in the future. The more employees they retain, the less money they need to spend on recruitment, new employee training and all the other “startup costs” associated with new hires.

There is, however, a cost associated with retention: To retain employees, you need to invest in them. Investment takes the form of training, continuing education, support for professional certifications and conferences and seminars, and management time. While the first three might be self-explanatory, the reference to management time is maybe not as clear. Management time is often the key to employee retention. You can have the best fully funded “career development” program in the country, but if your managers are not effective in how they manage their employees, you could still lose your best workers to your competition. Exit interviews often reveal that good employees leave not because of career advancement opportunities but because of problems with management.

Effective management programs include regular and periodic meetings between management and employees. Meetings to discuss employee performance and to take the pulse of how the employee is integrating into the organization are positive interactions that can increase employee retention. Providing opportunities for employees to communicate their concerns, issues, or ideas are also key to employee retention. Climate surveys, brownbag lunch sessions with management, all-hands sessions with employees to discuss issues of common concern are all positive communication opportunities that employees need and highlight as reasons they stay with an organization or leave an organization.

The key to reducing the cost and strain associated with hiring at a time of a diminishing pool of available resources is to take care of the employees you already have in the organization. Invest in continuing education; provide in-house training and learning opportunities for employees to gain new competencies and advance within the organization. Provide an open, consistent communication system that allows for employees to be heard and to actively participate in the strategic direction of the organization. Establish a mentoring program so employees can learn from those who have had success in the organization. Finally, establish an effective exit interview program to gather information on why employees are leaving and use the information to improve the environment for the current employees.

Monster Government Solutions has a team of experienced former federal HR managers and directors who are available to consult with you on your retention/recruitment strategy. Roger Campbell is the Director of Human Capital Strategy for Monster Government Solutions. He is the former Director of the Office of Human Resources for the National Reconnaissance Office. He is available to consult on any HR related issue. He can be reached at Roger.Campbell@Monster.com or at 703-269-0440.