Employee Retention vs. Recruiting Programs

Talent management and the war for talent remain a hot topic for HR, CEO’s and Recruiters as we begin to look at  2013.  Good organizations are exploring ways to recruit, retain, and train their employees.  The rest are making it easy to poach their best talent.  And I love poaching talent.  In the recruitment space, sourcing passive candidates has always been a focus especially with social media.  In 2012, a number of algorithm social media based sourcing tools have arose making searching, evaluating, and engaging top talent easier.  There are HR technology companies right now developing algorithms and big data tools that can determine when and if an employee is in the job market based on their online activities alone.  Imagine as a recruiter, creating a pie in the sky candidate database that new tech will alert you when your top employees are in the market.  All because of updates and posts to their blogs, online profiles, and social networks.  It’s happening. . .

Paycom’s infographic (displayed below) breaks down how to foster what they call super talent at your organization.  I’ve bulleted some highlights and interesting points for you.

41% of companies with poor training programs have employees plan to leave within 1 year.  Companies are struggling with what I call the chicken and the egg problem.  Why invest in your current workforce when the data tells you, they will leave in a year to 18 months?  For many companies, their retention strategy is we can just hire more people instead of focusing their efforts on retention efforts including employee development, training, recognition, and company culture programs.

The top 5 reasons why employees leave organizations.  It’s not just about money.  It’s about 1) Lack of trust in senior leadership, 2) Inefficient pay, 3) An unhealthy or undesirable culture, and 4) Lack of concern for development.  Have you polled or surveyed your exiting or existing employees and asked them why they would leave the organization?  Their answers might surprise you.  It’s not always about money, but sure money is important, but not the only thing that motivates employees to staying work at your organization.

Pay for Performance Programs increase employee retention by 27%.  We like to be recognized monetarily and publicly for our good work.  The challenge with pay for performance programs is they take time.  It’s not a simple one and done.  These take time to develop, research, and design, and in this fast paced world our leaders want instant results.  And a 3% across the board pay raise for our top performers isn’t motivating enough.  Especially for that one guy who’s leaving everyone in his work team in the dust.  A 3% raise is an insult.