How To STOP Your New Hires Leaving

According to survey results revealed by the "Society for Human Resource Management" keeping newly hired employees is a problem for 90% of employers. More than 40% of new hires leave their jobs within six months of joining a company. This means that HR managers are left searching for new talent to fill a glaring company gap, while your internal culture suffers.

Frequent turnover has a negative impact on productivity, company revenue, and morale - not to mention the cost of training and replacing new hires. Finding the perfect employee takes time, so it can easily feel like a huge blow when the candidate you chose for your new position leaves before they've even had a chance to get used to your company.

Here, we're going to look at the reasons why your new hires are leaving you so quickly, and what you can do to stop it.

1. Be Real

Perhaps one of the most important steps you can take when reducing new hire turnover is to communicate role expectations realistically. Write an informative job description, and communicate the details of the career carefully during the interview process. Remember, you should be thinking about not only what the employee will need to do in their new position, but also the challenges they might face.

Consider how you can provide potential staff with a view into a "day in the life" within their new role, and make sure to review any area of the hiring process that might be sugar-coated, or ignored. 

2. Try a Culture Check

Today's professionals aren't just searching for the job of their dreams, but the right cultural fit too. Think about how you convey your expectations, mission, values, and vision to your candidates. Gallup considers making friends at work to be essential to employee retention.

That means it's a good idea to choose a new employee that you believe will blend well with your existing group. If you're not sure about your company culture, try using an anonymous survey or quiz to get information from your existing employees.

3. Be Reasonable

Many companies increase their risk of employee turnover when they approach new hires with unreasonably sized piles of work to be completed without a proper induction plan in place or an understanding of expectations.

Set realistic expectations for your new employees, and make sure that they know they can come to you if they feel overwhelmed.

Think about your onboarding process, and how you can use this as a way to carefully introduce hires to their new role.

4. Acknowledge your Employees

If you've focused on hiring the top talent for your available role, then you should know that other companies might approach youir current super star employees. The best way to prevent turnover is to make sure that your staff are happy and satisfied with work. This means you can't simply look at appreciation as a "possible extra" for your team.

Two out of every three employees would leave a company that didn't give them enough appreciation. Show your staff that you appreciate them by rewarding their hard work, acknowledging their activities, and communicating with them as often as possible.

5. Be More Flexible

There's a good chance that your candidate pool for new employees will contain plenty of millennials. This workforce generation is looking for roles that don't demand a rigid 9-to-5 schedule. Sometimes, asking your employees to maintain a traditional schedule, without any hope for flexibility, can mean that they end up immediately looking for better work/life balance elsewhere.

As technology continues to make remote communication more realistic, some businesses will benefit from thinking about the flexible perks they can give their key staff.

6. Make Communication Natural

Poor communication is a dangerous thing for many relationships - including the ones built between employers and employees. Some companies suffer because they leave their employees guessing about how they should perform certain tasks. Don’t make the mistake of forcing your employees to guess what you expect from them. Instead, make communication simple and open across your work force.

Remember, today's employees want a boss that listens to what they have to say, and respects their opinion. Be open to feedback - even when it's different to what you expected!

When your team feels motivated by the possibility of a successful career, they'll work harder for you, and stay with the organisation for longer.

About First2Recruit

First2Recruit, are an owner managed recruitment consultancy providing a full recruitment service including; permanent and FTC positions in Accountancy Practice and Insolvency across the UK.

Alternatively, visit www.first2recruit.co.uk or call one of their friendly team on 01722 440 168.