Attracting and retaining top talent is tough. It takes real strategy, and in our post-pandemic world, HR and leadership teams must be highly creative with a laser focus on the overall employee experience. Are you ready to start attracting and retaining the best of the best, and enjoying an engaged workplace? There has never been a better time to get creative to retain top-quality talent using these 7 outside-the-box employee retention strategies.
Attract & retain the best of the best!
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There has never been a better time to try out these creative staffing strategies to help you land and keep top-notch talent.
1. Revamp your onboarding and orientation
Making your orientation and training process more engaging and exciting is a great first impression for new hires. Create an onboarding plan that makes your employees feel welcome and provides plenty of information about the company’s culture and core business processes. Connect consistently and often. Company-wide communication plans such as newsletters, boards, apps, etc. are great ways to reach all employees.
2. Offer a competitive salary
We all know that budgets are tight right now. Even if you can’t increase salaries at this time, consider other forms of compensation such as improving health care benefits or the employer-paid percentage, PTO, retirement plan matches and bonuses. The top reason to leave a job in a recent “Future of Benefits Study” from The Hartford was, unsurprisingly, for higher wages, the next highest reason was for a better workplace culture.
3. Prioritize employee well-being
Speaking of workplace culture, make sure that your employees have a healthy work-life balance with corporate wellness programs, stress management, financial planning services, gym or fitness class reimbursement, paid mental health days and/or sabbaticals. Always remember that your employees are real people with real lives outside of work, just like you.
4. Promote a recognition-rich culture
Recognize employees early and often – both performance and effort. According to OC Tanner research via NBC News, 79% of people say that lack of appreciation was a major factor in their choice to resign. Even more surprising, roughly 60% say that employee recognition can be even more motivating than money. Celebrate both wins and losses together and tell employee stories in creative ways.
5. All about the perks
Perks at your office can include things like well-stocked staff kitchens, a casual dress code, parental or caregiver paid leave, on-site daycare, stipends for off-site child or fur companion daycare, pop-up events, and cell phone or commuter parking stipends.
6. Flexibility is where it’s at
As you consider office perks, keep in mind that reports show a majority of employees would be willing to give up at least one traditional job perk in exchange for choosing their own workspace. Today’s workers want increased work flexibility, including remote and hybrid positions. If you can’t go fully remote for a position, offer a mix of on-site work each week and flexible schedule options. Above all, be compassionate and open-minded.
7. Empower employees
In order to help your employees to achieve their development goals, employers can provide continuous learning opportunities, a development stipend, tuition reimbursement, mentorship programs, and coaching resources.
According to a recent Gallup poll, just 32% percent of employees in the U.S. are genuinely engaged in their jobs. But with assistance from a staffing firm like That’s Good HR and our employee retention strategies, your candidates, new hires and seasoned employees can feel more engaged than ever. Our forward-thinking, locally focused firm specializes in making strong temp, temp-to-hire, and direct hire placements in areas like HR, administrative, customer service and accounting.
Not sure where to start? Poll your current employees! Contact our employer partnerships team today and we can help you define polling questions to assess the engagement of your staff as well as develop strategies to help retain them!
