The average cost per new hire is $4,425, and it takes 36 to 42 days to fill an average position. All this time, money, and effort you invested in hiring are wasted if your new employee quits within a year or two.
Hiring new employees is undoubtedly a challenging process. While speed and productivity matter in your job, it is also vital to get the right fit. You don’t want to hire someone who accepts your job temporarily or leaves even before a year is out. Having a recruiting strategy that focuses on finding long-term employees is much needed to reduce unnecessary hiring costs for the company. When you hire, you need to ensure you don’t fall back into the hiring process again for quite some time.
So, how do you develop a recruitment system that helps you find long-term employees? Before we get into that, let’s see the primary challenge in recruiting long-term employees.
Challenges in Recruiting Long Term Employees
One of most recruiters’ biggest mistakes when hiring is approaching recruiting as a task. Most employers don’t have a strategy that adheres to company needs and long-term goals. Also, recruiters often fail to understand that great employees don’t just look for a job but need flexibility, benefits, and career growth. You should also see whether the candidates fit your company culture.
Six Tactics to Hire Long-Term Employees
Developing a long-term recruiting strategy might seem overwhelming as it needs a lot of time and effort. But that is all worth it as it brings suitable candidates who stay longer with your company. While most recruiters feel an interview is crucial in the recruiting process, other aspects such as screening and candidate engagement will help you stick to the company goals.
Let’s see some strategies that can improve your recruiting and help you hire better employees that are likely to stay in your company for longer.
Start with your Company’s Needs.
Most recruiters step into the game without knowing their company’s long-term goals. This will lead to hiring the wrong candidates. Recruiting teams should focus on what the company needs now and in the future rather than filling the position faster. You need to know what type of candidates fit your company’s culture, support its goals and grow their careers with you.
Create Clear and Accurate Job Descriptions.
Job descriptions play a crucial role in hiring quality candidates. So, ensure you don’t use the same old descriptions that have never changed for a long time. Create new and unique job descriptions that reflect your company. The job posts should also be accurate to the role you’re hiring for. This way, you attract the already qualified applicants that stick to your company longer.
Leverage Applicant Management System.
Today, hiring can be an even more complicated job without proper tools. The job market is candidate-driven, and every organization wants high-quality candidates faster; hence the competition is hectic. The traditional way of sourcing candidates and engaging with them will only delay the process.
So a company needs the right applicant management system to streamline its business’s most crucial and daunting function. The right ATS or talent management tool matches candidates that meet your requirements perfectly. The tool also automates some tasks and helps your HR teams to focus on other essential tasks. One of the most significant advantages of an ATS is it keeps all your team members on the same page and speeds us hiring without compromising the quality.
Prioritize Personality over Experience.
A candidate is only eligible to apply if he has the relevant skillset. But many experts say a candidate’s personality is more important than their experience. As Peter Schutz says, “Hire character, train skill.” If you find a candidate capable of learning and growing with training, he is a better fit than someone with years of experience but with different expectations.
Enhance Employer Brand.
Your employer’s brand plays a key role in the quality and speed of your recruiting process. Today, qualified candidates check with the company reviews and online presence before applying for the job or accepting the offer. This is why every company must focus on boosting its employer brand.
Although building an employment brand is a long and forever process, it brings you, quality employees if you have taken the right steps towards branding. Your positive employer reputation can grab you highly qualified talent and make them ready to apply for a job at your company.
Ask for Employee Referrals.
An employee referral scheme is the best way to build a talent pool that will likely stick with the company longer. Studies show nearly 45% of referred employees stay with the company for over four years. Introduce or improve your current employee referral program by offering monetary incentives or rewards.
Bottom Line
Most recruiting strategies focus on filling the positions faster and meeting the short-term company needs. While it costs a company huge time and resources, it has to develop a recruiting system that will allow the human resources team to find and hire long-term employees. Although implementing a recruiting strategy targeting long-term employees might seem tiring, it will help your company and employees succeed and grow in their careers. It is also critical to implement proper employee retention strategies to have happy employees in your team for a long time.
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