Mondays with Rick: How to recruit employees with a plan for retention

Dr. Rick Franza, Professor of Management at the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week, he gives tips on recruiting employees who will stay. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact.

ABD: We’re in a time period when just about everyone is looking for employees, especially those who they can retain. What’s the starting point when trying to recruit someone?

Rick: Part of it depends where you’re recruiting from, locally or from somewhere else. If you’re recruiting from outside the area, use our locational assets. If you’re recruiting locally, it’s all about your company and what differentiates you.

The Augusta area has a lot of natural pluses. Our cost of living is low, particularly housing. Housing here is inexpensive in relation to a lot of other places. Our climate is a big plus because it’s relatively mild, but you still get four seasons – but without the snow. We have accessibility to diverse locations – we talk about that we’re 2-3 hours from the mountains, 2-3 hours from the beaches and 2-3 hours from metro areas. We have access to an interstate and multiple airport choices. So, sell the area.

ABD: Is the area more important than salary?

Rick: From a competitive standpoint, salary and benefits package are important, as are personal time off and working remotely. Those are the tangibles people look for, but you win more on the intangibles.

The intangibles are the work culture and environment – how invested the company is in the advancement of the person. Not only money available for training, but also having mentors available. When we’ve been successful in hiring people for the business school, it was because we had a very good culture. People who saw that culture thought, “This is great!”

Some people chase money, but when you live with it every day, sometimes spending more time with co-workers than with family, culture is important. People can get the impression pretty quickly on how well people get along.

ABD: Culture is important for the person you’re recruiting, but isn’t it also important to recruit people who will fit into your culture?

Rick: That goes hand-in-hand. When we have search committees at the business school, I always tell them I’m looking for the requisite talent but not necessarily a superstar. I’d rather have someone who fits in the culture. Many businesses are so small that one person can upset the culture. It’s not the most talented person you’re recruiting, but the most talented person who fits.

Workplace culture can be the key to landing new employees and keeping them.

ABD: Obviously when you spend time and money recruiting someone, you also want to retain that person. How do you recruit people who will stay with your company?

Rick: Living up to what you say during the recruitment will help retain them. If you tell people you have a good culture or you’ll invest in them to make them better, it better be true or they’ll move on.

When we’re interviewing people, they’re also interviewing us. They’re making a judgement if this is the place they want to work.

ABD: Retention has a lot of benefits over recruiting, right?

Rick: Retention is important because it costs a lot more to do recruiting. It’s not just the cost of recruiting, but loss of productivity and the time in training. There are a lot of issues to not retaining someone.

You always hire with a plan for retention if it’s the right person. But you sometimes have to ask, “Would I rather have someone really good for three years or have someone mediocre for their entire career?”

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