One might think that by its title, this article refers to clients or candidates. But no, I’m talking about your internal workers — those people you recruited, trained and entrusted your business to. Those who, over the years, formed very close business relationships with you, your customers, candidates and competitors in your ecosystem.
They are the ones you or someone in your organization is talking with daily regarding the multitude of fast-moving, dynamic forces at work in the staffing business.
But sometimes, busy staffing executives don’t pay attention to what is close to home. Here is a list of do’s and don’ts to help you re-recruit your key employees.
Don’t get bogged down. We understand that if you are like most managers, the week’s typical interaction with your people involves update meetings where you review a variety of key metrics important to your business success. You throw in some one-on-ones with team members to go over individual plans that focus on process and output. The week is flooded with highs and lows. While the cycle might look slightly different at month- and quarter-end — and annually — it’s fairly consistent and repeatable throughout the year.
Talk, talk, talk. In an industry as relationship-oriented, demanding and fast-paced as staffing, there’s no such thing as overcommunication. Pick your communication tool; there are so many out there. Then use metrics, business intelligence reporting and analytics, and 360-degree performance reviews to weed out the nonperformers. As a result, the people you have on your team are the ones you want, need and have invested tremendously in. They are highly connected to your marketplace and essential to the ecosystem of your branch operations.
The one that got away. I’m not saying you have to play Big Brother or monitor all of your employees’ moves, but don’t be oblivious to their needs. As managers, we don’t keep these at the forefront of our discussions with our key employees. In some cases, managers don’t have the time. In others, managers don’t want to address the uncomfortable issues.
For example, a colleague of mine got an email from a very valued employee requesting the “time to talk.” In the conversation, he learned that his employee was leaving to join a competitor.
As the days and weeks passed, he learned that this employee had been not only talking and emailing with the competition for weeks (or longer), but had gone to lunch, visited their office, and had many interviews, etc. He realized the employee and competitor were friends on social media and probably held more conversations about career development in a short courting period than he had with the employee in years.
The lesson here is to have the hard conversations with your employees more frequently and check in with them often. Create an open and trustful environment where they can tell you when they are struggling and seek your coaching and advice.
Pay close attention to career development. Many surveys indicate the main reasons people move on. Among the top reasons are feeling valued, making a difference, management, career progression, compensation and culture. While the descriptions of the reasons and the order in which they appear on the surveys change a bit, these have been the same top reasons for years. You may be too busy to have that talk, but news flash: The competitors are having these conversations with your people. They are talking to them about feeling valued, making a difference, career progression, increased pay and the joys of working at their companies.
Face it: Losing a good employee (at any level) is costly and disruptive. And the fact is, everybody has options. Retaining positive, successful, knowledgeable, connected, inspired and motivated employees has a halo-like effect on your entire business, including helping increase revenue and profits. Start re-recruiting today.
