Hiring for retention isn’t about finding “perfect” people. It’s about hiring candidates who fit into a company’s culture and are more likely to be long-term employees rather than quick vacancy fillers. It’s about building a connected system, where talent acquisition and retention strategies reinforce the day-to-day reality that employees experience after they accept an offer.
If you’re an HR leader, CEO, or CFO at a growing small-to-mid-sized business, you’ve probably experienced this pain:
It’s happening more and more lately, especially when good candidates have choices and what people expect from a job keeps changing.
The answer usually isn’t “work the recruiting machine harder.” It’s being more thoughtful about who you bring in and how you bring them on board, and making sure everyone has the same goals and information.
Early turnover usually gets blamed on a “bad hire.” That’s not always the case. It’s also entirely possible the entire hiring process was off from the beginning. Maybe the job’s description, the team’s needs, and what the candidate walked into weren’t at all the same.
There are usually three culprits:
Sometimes a job posting says “here’s our dream candidate,” and the interview paints a similar picture. When the new hire arrives on day one, the position is not what they expected.
Suddenly:
The new hire doesn’t quit because they can’t handle the job. They leave because it’s not the job they applied for.
According to recent polling, only 12% of employees think their company does a good job with onboarding. It’s a large gap that shows up later in the company’s retention rates. When the new employee is thrown into their new position with little context or training, they don’t build the confidence and connection they need fast enough. In the first eighteen months of employment, employee turnover can be as high as 50%.
Most people expect a learning curve when they start a new job. When they receive little to no feedback on their efforts, it can leave them feeling anxious.
Especially when no one has told them:
Retention truly starts the moment you write the job description. When it’s done well, when your job post includes tasks and clear outcomes for the role, you’ll draw candidates who can picture themselves succeeding. Clarity upfront takes out the guesswork and helps people start with confidence.
Aim for transparent, consistent communication about:
Benefits are particularly important in employee retention because how they are handled influences how employees view their value to the employer. A well-managed benefits package builds trust, particularly when there’s clear communication. Plus, when employee needs are met by their benefits package, they’re better able to focus on their work.
It’s also important to understand an employee’s skills fit versus their cultural fit and how each impacts retention.
Finding a candidate who possesses both skill sets is the goal. If you find a candidate who is a good cultural fit, there’s a good chance they can be trained to acquire the technical skills they need. But, if you’re candidate has the technical skills but isn’t the best cultural fit, they can do the job but might not get along with the rest of the team. This could damage your team’s morale.
The first 90 days of employment are a “golden window.” New employees are deciding if they’d like to establish a long-term career while their employer evaluates their performance. Onboarding is important because an estimated 30% of new hires leave within that first 90 days, and around 20% leave within the first 45 days.
One strategic approach many employers find effective is connecting talent acquisition (TA) data to onboarding workflows. Using insights gathered during the recruiting process like candidate expectations, skills, and motivations, they create a personalized and welcoming onboarding experience that gets better results. The tailored approach makes new hires feel understood and valued from the very first day.
Managers can do the same. They have a substantial impact on employee retention because they shape that employee’s experience and build engagement. Between 50% and 70% of employees resign either because of their manager or for reasons their managers can influence.
Data can also improve a company’s future hiring decisions using quality-of-hire metrics (QoH). By analyzing performance, retention, and time-to-productivity metrics, businesses can go from “gut feelings” to data-backed strategies. They can pinpoint sourcing channels, interview techniques, and more to identify the best employees. The data can also help perfect job descriptions and optimize the onboarding process.
The data also helps organizations identify patterns in early turnover. It can help an employer determine that high turnover in a given department isn’t a lack of candidate skill but an unrealistic job posting or poor onboarding procedure. The data can also pinpoint performance, cultural fit, ramp-up, and performance trends, and much more.
Your organization can make continuous improvements to your hiring and retention efforts using a strong platform like isolved analytics. This dynamic solution can help you find the best talent and keep it by transforming historical data into predictive insights that identify skill gaps and elevate your entire talent acquisition process. Using integrated AI-driven insights with benefits, payroll, and employee lifecycle metrics, your company’s hiring process can go from reactive to proactive.
Small teams have a limited number of employees. Each team member’s performance, personality, and skill set have a huge impact on the company’s productivity, culture, and overall success. There’s little room for error on a small team, and one bad hiring decision can drain a company’s financial resources and destroy morale. A great hire can drive significant growth and innovation.
Businesses in Asheville can build sustainable workforces, even in today’s competitive, high-turnover market. Using a solution like isolved can provide the insights they need to reduce costly turnover and improve both their recruitment processes and employee experiences. The platform uses dynamic suite of tools to optimize the entire employee lifecycle from onboarding to offboarding.
When your company shifts from a “filling roles” mindset to a “building teams” mindset in recruitment, the result is a paradigm shift from a transactional, short-term process to a vital, long-term investment. Filling job vacancies quickly may restore your headcount, but building actual teams involves creating a cohesive unit that drives growth, builds a robust organizational culture, and gets results.
With isolved, your hiring process and employee experience come from the same playbook. Everything is in one convenient dashboard, so you’re not working from stitched-together spreadsheets and separate systems. You can get the information you need quickly, so you can detect problems early and make smarter decisions in real-time as people journey from candidate to full employee.
If your hiring and employee experiences feel like two separate tasks for your company, it’s time to bring them together. When everything is connected in one place with the insights you need at your fingertips, it’s easier to deliver on what you promised. Schedule a discovery call today with Platinum Group and let us show you how isolved can help you hire smarter and keep great people longer.