Strategy #4: Recruit to retain

How do you know when an organization might be headed for real trouble? One sure sign is that vacant positions are filled with the first available warm body (or, worse yet, with the first available cold body that happens to have a heart beat). While this might get the work done short-term, it usually plants the seeds of problems down the road.

Turnover is expensive.  In the hospital field, for example, the total cost of replacing one single registered nurse has been estimated at between $40,000 and $60,000 (more for nurses with highly-specialized training).  Putting thought and effort into how you can recruit to retain might be the best investment you could make in your organization’s future productivity and profitability. An important part of recruiting to retain is convincing people that they have a great future with the organization.
I mentioned my client Auto-Owners Insurance, which has explicitly included Loyalty as one of their core values. Another of their core values is Opportunity for Associates. This is reflected in several specific practices. The company does “reverse job posting.”  Rather than post open jobs, associates can enter their desires with regard to the work they want to do and their desired geographic location; when a job meeting those specifications opens up, the associate is notified. If a good person is promoted and it does not work out, rather than being terminated, the company’s leaders do everything they can to find another spot (“the right seat on the bus”) for him or her.

Try this:  Ask new employees to chart out their ideal career path over the next 5-10 years, then outline the commitments you’d be willing to take in order to help them follow that path. Make it clear that you will notify that employee any time they’re not doing their part, and will welcome their comments if they think you are not supporting them. The comment that Douglas Atkin makes about how companies create cult-like customer loyalty (quoted below) applies equally to creating employee loyalty.

“Overwhelm [new employees] with welcome…  Make a potential recruit feel that he or she is the only important person in the room.  Their well-being is the source of yours.  It’s not about you; it’s about them.”

Douglas Atkin: The Culting of Brands: When Customers Become True Believers

Interlude: A note on knowing the competition

As competition heats up for the best people, it pays for you to know who your future competition is likely to be, and is especially important to not underestimate how seriously they might drain your talent pool.  Some of this competition will come from non-traditional sources. For example, it’s likely that as banks continue to diversity, they will increasingly compete with independent insurance agencies for both producers and customer service representatives. And high expectations of aging and affluent baby boomers are already radically transforming the long-term care industry. Whereas “nursing homes” were not a serious source of competition for hospitals, as beautiful new facilities with nice amenities are created, they will increasingly appeal to nurses and other health professionals who previously would have worked in hospitals.

Next >