The Best Ways to Recruit & Retain the Best Talent

With so much advice out there already on how to recruit staff effectively, it can be difficult knowing who or what to believe. One website might tell you one thing, whereas another might say the complete opposite. It can be incredibly confusing and, especially when it comes to recruitment, confused is the last thing you want to be.

Fortunately, we are here to cut through the jargon and offer some legitimate advice on the best ways to attract, recruit and retain staff. From utilising advances in technology, to simply talking to each other, here are some effective ways of ensuring your recruitment drive doesn’t go to waste.

Recruit

Use AI Technology

More and more recruiters are starting to utilise advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with some of their more routine recruitment processes. AI can now be used to scour the web to source the best qualified candidates, for example, ranking the candidates it finds into an easy-to-use list. This, in turn, helps optimise the entire hiring process, since a candidate is more likely to want to join if a company approaches them directly.

Utilise Social Media

While on the theme of companies actively seeking out candidates, how often does this actually happen? More often than not it’s the other way around – job hunters spend hours scouring website after website in the search for suitable openings, then applying directly to the recruiter themselves.

However, recruiters should turn this around, and use this to their advantage. By using savvy social media search techniques, recruiters could seek out individuals with applicable experience using websites like LinkedIn or Facebook and approach them directly with suitable opportunities.  

Assess, Assess, Assess

One of the most difficult things to know when recruiting someone is whether they’ll actually be a good fit or not. After all, a candidate could talk the talk in an interview but, when it comes to actually doing the job itself, they could be next to useless.

Fortunately, thanks to advances in science and technology, recruiters can now use pre-employment assessments to assess the skills and knowledge of each potential employee. In doing so, this makes it much easier to determine how great a culture fit they will be.

Retain

Nail The Onboarding Process

It can be pretty nerve-wracking and a fairly overwhelming experience when joining a team as a new member of staff. After all, there is normally a lot of information to take onboard, many names to remember, and working processes to get accustomed with. As an employer, don’t expect your new members of staff to be up to speed straight away – give them time to settle in at their own pace.

Having an effective onboarding program can significantly aid this process. These programs not only increase levels of employee engagement, but they can also improve staff retention and reduce the onset of mental health-related issues – one of the workplace’s current biggest issues.

Communicate

One of the easiest yet most effective ways of ensuring an employee stays at a company comes through simply talking to them. Remember they are humans rather than machines, and make sure to treat them accordingly.

If you recognise that one of your more capable members of staff is underperforming, face the problem head on and discuss what needs to happen to get them back to their best. Often, there will be a reason behind why an employee has started to feel disengaged from their work. Therefore, find out what this reason is by sitting down and talking to them face-to-face.

Set Objectives

Most employees become disillusioned without direction from their work. No worker wants to sit there mindlessly ticking tasks off a to-do list – they want to know that their work is contributing to the overarching aims of the company.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is by simply setting targets and objectives for staff to meet. These can range from anything to everything but will need to be applicable and realistic – make sure you aren’t asking too much of an employee by setting unachievable goals. If they feel like they are going to struggle to meet the targets expected of them, they could end up just wanting to leave.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it – some of the most effective ways you can use to both recruit and retain staff.

The most important thing to remember is that staff are humans not machines, so make sure to treat them like you would want to be treated. Don’t expect too much of them, and talk to them when they’re struggling – the quicker you can resolve a problem, the more likely they will be to stay.

Likewise, don’t be afraid to make the most of technological advances – they’re there for a reason. AI and social media can be your best friend when it comes to identifying and recruiting the best talent, so you could save your company a ton of time and money by utilising them both effectively.

Photo credits: coworkinglondon.com

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