You’ve heard it a million times; the best defense is a good offense. And, when it comes to recruitment, your best bet to win the recruiting game is retention. Retention shows outside prospects that employees value your company and feel appreciated. In order to maintain a stellar retention rate, it’s really important to know what employees want from their jobs. Here is a short list of top candidate priorities we think that you should use to develop a retention plan.
They Want to Be Promoted
If you’ve ever worked a dead-end job, you know why this is a factor in the back of employee minds. According to a recent article by SHRM, the average employee will wait approximately 2-3 years before expecting a promotion. That being said, if they don’t receive one after that amount of time, you may be looking at a vacancy. There’s good news though, according to that same article, the majority of workers would be happy by simply being promoted even if it wasn’t tied to an immediate monetary bump.
We suggest that you consider auditing your database for 2-3 year mark dates and deciding who should be promoted from there. Obviously, not every employee will earn a promotion, so if you have a few that aren’t quite there yet, consider that they may think about leaving and start budgeting now for new people to fill those roles.
They Want Flexibility
More and more people, depending on their industry are searching for work-from-home options. In fact, GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com reported that, “80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part time. Two to three days a week seems to be the sweet spot that allows for a balance of concentrative work (at home) and collaborative work (at the office).” In addition, the same institution stated that, “50% of the US workforce holds a job that is compatible with at least partial telework and approximately 20-25% of the workforce teleworks at some frequency.”
While not all jobs are compatible with the work-from-home model, employers should consider investing in off-site servers and re-routeable phone technology for those that are in order to stay competitive.
They Want Money
According to data from the Center for Human Capital Studies featured in a recent Forbes article, 2017 is the year to request a raise from your boss or look for a new job. After all Forbes reported, “According to one tracking tool, the pay increase for individuals who switch jobs is the highest it’s been in 8 years,” while “Pay for employees who stay in their current jobs is expected to rise only 3% this year.”
Job seekers are going to be acutely aware of pay increase options and will not stick around if they think they have a better option. If you think your top employees are looking, now may be the time to send a few extra dollars their way.
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