Losing an employee is exceptionally costly, ranging from tens of thousands of dollars per loss to 1.5 – 2x your employee’s yearly wage.

When it comes time for recruitment planning, it’s critical to hire the most qualified employee for the job who is least likely to resign in the near future. Here we’ll highlight the top 6 tips to incorporate into your recruitment strategy plan, with the ultimate goal of increasing employee longevity.

Recruitment Planning For Long-Term Fit

When thinking about the objectives of recruitment at your company, it’s critical to implement the following to ensure long-term fit with new hires.

Highlight Company Culture

The worst hire you can make is one that doesn’t mix with current company culture. According to Built In, employees who dislike company culture are 24% more likely to resign, and 46% of candidates note that company culture is essential when applying to companies.

These statistics mean that being clear about company culture not only reduces employee turnover, but it encourages like-minded candidates to apply in the first place.

Company culture can be made clear across various channels, including:

• Job descriptions
• Social media
• Company website
• In-person

The first step in this part of recruitment planning is to make culture clear in the job description, as that’s likely a candidate’s first touchpoint. Mention details about time off, other perks, professional training opportunities, and more.

Use social media, your company website, and in-person interviews or tours as a way to highlight aspects of organizational culture that matter. Show candidates what’s unique about working for you.

You can also post testimonials and team photos around the office, on your site, or on social media.

By being clear about your culture up-front, you’re attracting the best and most compatible talent. This is especially true when hiring for executive-level positions, as they’ll be a large part of upholding culture in their respective department.

Create A Thorough Job Description

Given the job description is the first touchpoint for many candidates, you’ll want to make sure it’s top-notch. Excellent job descriptions:

• Enable current employees and the new hire’s future manager to decide what traits and responsibilities they want to be made clear to applicants
• Inform candidates of the job’s duties
• Help employees who are interviewing candidates best prepare questions
• May provide a legal safety net by allowing you to prove why the applicant you chose was the best fit for the job, based on the description

To create the best posting possible, conduct a job analysis. This includes researching sample job descriptions for the open position, looking at competitor’s job descriptions, analyzing the work and responsibilities of the future employee, and surveying the duties of current hires.

By making duties, tasks, and desired traits clear up-front, you’re far more likely to hire the perfect person for the job, decreasing the likelihood of turnover.

Offer Commensurate (And Competitive) Salaries

The best employees expect certain pay and perks. New hires who aren’t being paid market rates commensurate with their experience are far more likely to leave the company. In fact, 50% of the higher turnover that results from lower pay occurs in the first 45 days.

Start by using Glassdoor’s salary calculator to determine what a fair wage is for the open position. Conducting salary surveys, doing market research, and using various tools are great ways to stay on top of market trends.

Additionally, make sure you’re flexible and know what your new hire wants. Some candidates would prefer a lower salary in exchange for better stock options. Others may be more attracted to bonuses, such as flexible paid-time-off, rather than the largest salary number.

As part of adequate recruitment planning, make sure to schedule out what you can afford to pay for various positions. This way, no position goes underpaid, as this is far more likely to lead to turnover.

Offer Excellent Benefits

According to Glassdoor, 50% of candidates’ biggest frustrations with the hiring process involve a lack of information about benefits and salary. Thus, along with compensation, you’ll want to be clear about employee benefits. These include:

• Paid time off
• Remote work flexibility
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Professional development opportunities (such as a stipend)
• Gym membership reimbursements
• Pet-friendly offices
• …and more

If you want to stay competitive and attract top talent, your recruitment planning should highlight your company’s benefits. You’ll want to do so in the job description, during the hiring process, and throughout onboarding.

Of course, do research on the benefits offered by your competitors to ensure your benefits are attractive.

Provide Upward Growth

According to a Gallup poll, professional growth and development opportunities are the top priority for 87% of millennials. Further, a LinkedIn report found that 93% of workers would stay longer with a company if it helped accelerate employees’ careers.

The importance of upward growth can’t be understated. Ensure new hires understand precisely how they can advance their careers at your company and do your best to offer professional development. This can include hosting seminars, providing a stipend for continued education, and more.

Learn more on exactly how you can encourage employee growth.

Be Analytical

While it may seem easier to go off gut feelings when selecting new hires, this can be detrimental and increase turnover. The best candidates aren’t always the most outgoing ones or those with the biggest smiles. The last situation you want to be in is having hired the most outspoken candidate, only to find out they’re missing essential skills.

To ensure an objective evaluation of all candidates, first identify your primary hiring criteria. This can include attributes such as emotional intelligence, motivation, coachability, and more.

You’ll also want to create a scorecard during the recruitment planning process that’s based on your primary criteria; this allows you to score your top attributes based on weight (importance) and calculate a weighted score for each candidate.

Further, especially when conducting recruitment for virtual positions, use video calls to evaluate candidates. This allows you to better score their interpersonal skills and get to know them more.

These processes remove any subjective evaluations and better ensure you hire the most qualified applicant.

Take The Guesswork Out Of Recruiting

Recruitment companies reduce lost opportunity costs and streamline the entire process, providing you access to top-notch talent pools that may otherwise be off-limits.

Further, there are times where you can’t afford to swing and miss when hiring new talent. This is especially true for executive-level positions, where poor recruitment planning and hiring has a trickle-down effect on the entire company.

If you’re looking to hire a c-suite employee, let Jennings Executive help. We’ll secure the right executive who can lead your organization to booming success. Learn more about us today.

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