The battle always results to finding talent. Therefore, good recruiting should lead to qualified candidates. And while good candidates are hard to catch, they can be even harder to keep. Recruiters shouldn’t lie to acquire coveted talent, or they run the risk of seeing them leave in 3-6 months when the truth to the exaggerations is finally discovered. It stands to reason then, that recruiting is in fact responsible for retention, albeit indirectly. A good acquisition program should be linked to a retention program, so it is understandable that about 50% of companies have a formal retention program.

How is recruiting responsible for retention?

Truth is, a poor recruitment strategy costs companies more than the average disengaged employee. It costs the replacement of the employee who decides to quit and then some. If a candidate is misled during the recruitment process, the organization runs the very real risk of losing them in the near future. In the United States, the actual cost of losing an employee due to a poor recruitment program is:

• At least $450 billion in disengaged employees per year
• 6 to 9 months salary to replace the employee when they leave 
• A damaged company reputation and a less reliable employer brand

Even though the third isn’t a financial cost, it is damaging because 60% of candidates believe employer reputations are important when applying for jobs. Companies who are reluctant to spend the time, energy, and money dedicated to the growth of their employees are more apt to lose them. Here is where the retention program plays in.  A company can really only have retention programs once they have a reliable and established presence in recruiting. Once hiring managers and recruiters perfect recruitment and hiring strategies, then the focus can begin to shift to how they will retain the candidates they just gained.  

Retention strategies should include the following tactics:

• Identify retention barriers
• Provide solutions to retention barriers
• Create learning and career development opportunities

Candidates actively seek companies who offer prospects for career development. That means 86% of the talent pool want to see retention efforts from the organization span into educational opportunities. The accounting and finance industry, for example, experiences a high turnover rate. Why? It is because there is no push for career advancement or learning development for their employees. If career development is a key factor in retention, then why isn’t the industry focusing on retention rates.

Pre-onboarding deception directly affects morale, which in turn, leads to disengaged employees and a higher turnover rate. Recruiters who don’t accurately describe the ups and downs of a job are more likely to have new hires that are unhappy and unprepared for the downs. Employees are more likely to be accepting of the downs if they know what they are beforehand so they can plan for them.  Paul Slezak of Recruiter Loop says:

“Thousands of dollars per year can be drained from your budget with low staff retention rates. The costs don’t just come from direct expenses associated with hire a new person but also in the loss of productivity around the resignation, rehiring and retraining processes.”

Without quality recruitment and retention programs, hiring new employees becomes a never-ending cycle of wasted time and money. They go hand in hand, and the quality of the recruitment program directly affects the issues that retention faces. Over one quarter of candidates say that potential employers did not convey why they are good places to work. So, at least 25% of employers don’t have a strong enough recruitment program to begin to worry about retention.

Recruitment is responsible for retention.

Recruiters lay the pavement for the employer brand from the beginning of the scout for new hires. Recruiters are the brand ambassadors and the first impressions of the company. Recruiters and hiring managers are responsible for making sure the job descriptions and company culture are clear at the beginning so there is a smooth transition during the onboarding process. You can only keep the employees who are happy enough and engaged enough to stay.

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