Recruiting new employees can be problematic. There’s the financial cost of advertising vacancies, the time required from your HR team and the difficulty of finding suitable candidates.

The headache of recruitment is real. Research shows that one in five HR professionals expect significant problems when filling vacancies. A scary 38% have long term, hard-to-fill vacancies in their organisation. This jumps to 51% in the private sector. (Personnel Today 2024)

The best way forward? Retain and engage your staff rather than risk the recruitment process. Effective HR within a positive and productive company culture can achieve this. Is your organisation ready?

Aim for retention over recruitment

Many people jump to the conclusion that money matters. However non-financial benefits are often incredibly important to workers. 40% of employees would leave for better benefits with 10% prepared to take a cut in salary to achieve them. (Forbes Advisor, 2024)

The benefit to note is statutory holiday pay. It’s not on most employers’ radar as we take paid leave as a given – but do your employees take all their holiday? And when they are on holiday, do they take a break from work? What is your organisation’s culture around annual leave?’

Work-life balance is incredibly important to 51% of employees and 47% of employers. With these views aligning, work-life balance is an opportunity for organisations to engage with and retain employees.

What’s your X factor?

Offering key benefits is a big step forward, but how do you know what’s working … what employees truly feel about their role and their work environment? You need to understand why people work for you … this forms part of your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) … the unique value you offer your employees. You need to talk.

Some feedback will give you quick wins/fixes – such as more parking spaces or better coffee options. Other issues may surprise you and offer a golden opportunity to resolve potential problems (such as more training provision) or showcase highly valued perks (such as enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay). It’s important to involve everyone … at every level.

If recruiting is required …

Some organisations struggle to fill their vacancies because of how they are recruiting, not the vacancy itself. Maybe you’re advertising in the wrong place, or your advert is too wordy … or needy! Investing time in your recruitment process is worth every minute if it finds the right candidate.

Do you have an employee retention issue?

Talk to the team at Henoem HR. From working on retention to helping with recruitment, we’ll support you every step of the way. Start with an initial discussion without obligation. We’re here to help.