You’ve seen this equation throughout our website. If we’ve met you in person, you have heard us talk about it.  We are passionate about the process of building teams and retaining employees. And we want to make it easier for others to do it!

If you can get this equation right in your organization things become much easier. But, it seems like this equation is increasingly difficult for organizations to get right. We understand the challenges. We have seen the trial and error from Fortune 10 companies to start ups hiring their first employee. Today, we want to talk about how these four things work together allowing you to retain your top employees.

Attract:

If companies can attract top talent, you have a better pool of candidates from which to choose. If you have a strong pool of talented individuals interested in joining your team, you are more likely to do great work. That all make sense, right? So why do companies spend very little time building a strategy around how to attract the right talent for their organization? We strategize for nearly everything else in a company, but we don’t consider how to attract the right talent. Hiring becomes much easier if you can identify the right strategy to attract talent and put in place the right teams to implement it.

Hire:

Once you have done a great job attracting top talent, you can’t stop there! You need clearly defined hiring practices that allow you to identify the best person for the job, both in terms of skills and experiences, but also in terms of cultural fit. This is done by asking the right questions, observing behaviors, checking references and in some cases, providing hands on opportunities for candidates to demonstrate their experiences. You need to be personable and recruit them; you want them to be able to see themselves as a part of your team. Then you have to properly offer, negotiate and close a potential employee on the job offer.

Onboard:

Trial by fire is a perfect recipe for a disaster. Do you really want a new employee to feel undervalued or see dysfunction only weeks into the job? After putting in the time to attract and hire the best person for the job, don’t stop there. Be thoughtful. Prepare. Plan. When you properly onboard employees, they feel valued, you set correct expectations up front, they start building relationships and you learn more about how they work. Each of those things is important for the engagement of your employees.

Engage:

Show true intent with your employees. Know their skills and abilities and their likes and dislikes. Focus on building relationships across teams through open, transparent, purposeful conversations. Provide constructive feedback. Support and create opportunities for professional development. And most importantly, trust your teams. When you do these things from the moment an employee is hired, engagement is much easier. When you don’t, it takes time to shift the mindset to get employees engaged.

By getting these four things right, you are able to retain your employees for longer periods of time. Think about it. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t hire top talent if you aren’t attracting top talent. When you hire someone but don’t properly onboard them, it will be difficult to engage them. If any one of these things is missing, you risk turnover and therefore do not retain the best employees. If you would like an audit of where your company stands on any of these four areas, we can help. Contact us today.