RECRUITMENT & RETENTION STRATEGIES By Chris Chuks O.

Offokansi, Phd, ACIPM, CMNIM

Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited

Introduction
Best Recruitment Strategies & Steps to Do It Right Recruitment Made Easy Four Steps To Recruiting Right Recruitment Methods Retention Strategies Major Complaints of Employees Personal Responses from Colleagues

Recruitment & Retention Strategies

Hiring a new employee into your team involves much more than simply posting a job. With this in mind I have tried to develop a hiring/recruitment guide; a definite know how-to-guide us smoothly through the ins and outs of the recruitment process. Thereafter, we shall do a followup on the retention strategies.

 For a thorough guide, we know that Recruitment is the process of finding candidates, reviewing applicant credentials, screening potential employees, and selecting employees for an organization.

Effective recruitment results in an organization hiring employees who are skilled, experienced, and good fits with your corporate culture.

BEST RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES AND STEPS TO DOING IT RIGHT

The recruitment of employees has become both easier and more challenging. The advent of the online world of job boards, recruitment websites, and social media (Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc) increases your likelihood of finding world class candidates.

 The online world also gives you so many candidates to consider that weeding through applications is time consuming. In a fast growing company, employee recruitment can take up much of the HR departments time.

RECRUITMENT MADE EASY

1. Specify the candidate you want and advise those who did not meet your requirements not to apply. 2. Organize an interview for those who met your specified requirements. 3. Make them comfortable during the face to face interview. 4. Ask them questions regarding experiences and quiz for information they have about your Company. 5. Select those who listen well before they answer your questions for further discussions.

RECRUITMENT MADE EASY CONTINUES 6. Avoid making your choice based on their looks only, let it be based on their intended contribution to the organization. 7. If you can play the tape of the interview again, you may make a better judgement in your choice of candidates. 8. Call the candidates by their names during the interview; you will get the best that is in them. 9. Give some time to other society issues and see their reflection on it. 10. Do not bore them with long questions; be brief and target oriented.

FOUR STEPS TO RECRUITING RIGHT Recruiting is a critical element of any managers job.

There is no joy in reiterating the importance of recruiting right theres enough and more that has been said about the price of making the wrong recruiting.

FOUR STEPS TO HIRING RIGHT CONTINUES

1.

Understand the requirement of The Job:

Draft out a quick job description if you dont have one already. Youll be surprised at the insight that you get into the role. It not only helps you understand clearly what questions you should ask during the interview, it also allows you to remodel the role. Read the job description thoroughly, and get the role clear in your head first.

FOUR STEPS TO HIRING RIGHT CONTINUES

2. Thoroughly Prepare For This Assignment. For this, the foremost requirement is for you to have read the candidates CV many times over know him well before you start interacting with him. It is not only bad manners to start looking at the CV for the first time in front of the candidate, it also enables the candidate to take charge of the interview flow, something that you dont want ever to let happen.

FOUR STEPS TO HIRING RIGHT CONTINUES

At the same time, know the questions that you must ask the candidate. Structuring the flow of the interview enables you to stay in control, minimises the chances of something critical not been covered, and allows you to get a comprehensive feel of what the candidate has done in the past, and what is he capable to doing in the future.

FOUR STEPS TO HIRING RIGHT CONTINUES

3.

Follow a structure: the interview has three parts the opening, body and the closing.

the

It is important to understand that each one of these is an important piece in the jigsaw. While 80% of the time is spent in the body, the opening and closing bits leave perhaps a more lasting impression in the candidates mind. In the opening, greet the candidate, set the tone of the interview, build rapport, make the candidate feel comfortable so that he is able to showcase what he is fully, and clarify the structure of the interview.

FOUR STEPS TO HIRING RIGHT CONTINUES

In the body, gather behavioural information, dont rely on gut-feel, sell the position to him, ask if he has any questions, clarify elements of the role and organization that he might have questions on, and always keep control. In the closing, thank the candidate, and tell him clearly what the next steps are Watch out for a firm handshake from the candidate that connotes confidence.

4.

Follow behavioural model: The best indicator of future performance is past performance this is the dictum that you should always keep in mind while interviewing.

There is a simple model to follow EAR. a. E is for example, continuously ask the candidate about examples of what he has done in the past. Hypothetical questions (what will you do if) do not necessarily tell you how he will react in real-life situations, but a recount of his actions in the past under similar situations will give you an idea of what to expect in future. b. A is for action, continuously probe on his actions in the example (stay away from we, my team, etc.). c. R is for result, continuously seek the outcome of his actions in the examples that he quotes.

Merely knowing the example and the action is not sufficient, you must know what happened as a result of his actions. Putting together, the EAR model helps you gather information thatll be useful in the final decision.

Recruitment Methods

Effective recruitment methods should ensure to engage competent and productive employees who will be loyal to your organization. The most common and effective recruitment strategies include: Obtain referrals from current employees. Participate in online social networking at sites such as Linkedin, twitter, facebook, etc. Tap into the online and off-line social networks of current employees. Offer an effective, informational, exciting corporate recruiting website. Participate in in-person networking at and professional events.

Recruitment Methods Continues

Attend and exhibit at job and career fairs at colleges and universities and organization-sponsored events. Post job openings on job boards. Advertise job openings in newspapers and their associated websites. Sponsor scholarships, activities, class projects and events at local universities. Contract for the services of a recruitment firm or head hunter.

Schedule a recruitment planning meeting to ensure a successful recruitment approach. Also, use your team for recruitment.

RENTENTION STRATEGIES

Recruiting the right employee and keeping the right employees matters, especially now and immediately after the current economic meltdown.

In a recent survey of Fortune 500 companies, 33% turnover is expected at the executive level in the next five years. One-third of respondents said they werent confident about finding suitable replacements.

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Tips and Tools for Employee Retention:
Employee retention, especially of your best, most desirable employees, is a key challenge in organizations today. Reducing employee turnover is dependant on the total work environment you offer for employees.

Competitive salary and benefits, and tuition assistance are three basics in employee retention. Especially for millennial employees, these are the Holy Grail (ultimate ideal or reward) for recruitment and increasing retention. Employee retention is dependant on the total work environment you offer for employees.

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Pride, Recognize & Celebrating Success Give your employees the opportunity to be proud of their work. Reward team members publicly for a job well done. Give them an opportunity in a team meeting to explain how they accomplish the job. Give recognition to these employees by personally sending a note recognising them in an organizational or team meeting.

EMPLOYEE RETENTION IN AN IMPROVED JOB MARKET

A recent Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) press release revealed the answer to the question of what people plan to do when the job market rebounds. The majority of the Human Resource (HR) professionals and managers surveyed agreed that turnover will rise significantly once the job market improves. Both groups felt that the job market will improve within the next year, according to the latest Job Recovery Survey.

The survey was produced by SHRM and CareerJournal.com, The survey results include responses from 451 HR professionals and 300 managerial or executive employees.

Employees cited the following three top reasons they would begin searching for a new job:
53 percent seek better compensation and benefits. 35 percent cited dissatisfaction with potential career development. 32 percent said they were ready for a new experience. HR professionals were asked which programs or policies they use currently to help retain employees. The following three are the most common programs employers are using to retain employees: 62 percent provide tuition reimbursement. 60 percent offer competitive vacation and holiday benefits. 59 percent offer competitive salaries.

In addition to the three retention tips offered by HR professionals in the SHRMCareerJournal.com survey, ( ie competitive salary, competitive vacation and holidays and tuition reimbursement), these are your key retention strategies. Select the right people in the first place through behaviour-based testing and competency screening. The right person, in the right seat, on the right bus is the starting point.

Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package with components such as life insurance, disability insurance and flexible hours.

Provide opportunities for people to share their knowledge via training sessions, presentations, mentoring others and team assignments.

Demonstrate respect for employees at all times. Listen to them deeply; use their ideas; never ridicule or shame them.

Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results.

People want to enjoy their work. Make work fun. Engage and employ the special talents of each individual.

Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible.

Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance.

Provide opportunities within the company for cross-training and career progression. People like to know that they have room for career movement.

Provide the opportunity for career and personal growth through training and education, challenging assignments and more.

Communicate goals, roles and responsibilities so people know what is expected and feel like part of the in-crowd.

According to research by the Gallup organization, encourage employees to have good, even best, friends, at work.

MAJOR COMPLAINTS OF EMPLOYEES

Knowing what makes employees unhappy is half the battle when you think about employee work satisfaction, morale, positive motivation, and retention.

Listen to employees and provide opportunities for them to communicate with company managers. If employees feel safe, they will tell you whats on their minds. Your work culture must foster trust for successful two-way communication.

MAJOR COMPLAINTS OF EMPLOYEE CONTINUES

HR Solutions, Inc., a Chicago-based management consulting firm specializing in employee engagement surveys, analyzed recurring themes in employee surveys and compiled the following top seven list. These are the items employees consistently complain about on surveys and in interviews. We shall try as much as possible to find out how many are true in your workplace. Higher salaries: Pay is the number one area in which employees seek change. You can foster a work environment in which employees feel comfortable asking for a raise, or at best have act proactively. Internal pay equity: Employees are concerned particularly with pay comparison, the differential in pay between new and longer term employees. In organizations, with the average annual pay increase for employees around 4%, employees perceive that newcomers are better paid and, often, they are.

Human Resources department response to employees:

The Human Resource department needs to be more responsive to employee questions and concerns. In many companies, the HR department is perceived as the policy making and policing arm of management. In fact, in forward thinking HR departments, responsiveness to employee needs is one of the cornerstones. Pay increase guidelines for merit:

Employees believe the compensation system should place greater emphasis on merit and contribution. Employees find pay systems in which all employees receive the same pay increase annually, demoralizing. Such pay systems hit the motivation and commitment of your best employees hardest as they may begin asking whats in this for me? As you adopt a merit pay system, one component is education so that employees know what behaviours and contributions merit additional compensation. Employees who did not must be informed by their manager about how their performance needs to change to merit a larger pay increase.

 Favouritism: Employees want the perception that each employee is treated equivalently with other employees. If there are policies, behavioural guidelines, methods for requesting time off, valued assignments, opportunities for development, frequent communication, and just about any other work related decisions you can think of, employees want fair treatment.

Communication and Availability: Lets face it. Employees want face-to-face communication time with both their supervisors and executive management. This communication helps them feel recognized and important. And, yes, your time is full because you have a job, too. But, a managers main job is to support the success of all his or her reporting employees. Thats how the manager magnifies their own success.

Workloads are too heavy: Departments are understaffed and employees feel as if their workloads are too heavy and their time is spread too thinly. I see this complaint becoming worse as layoffs; the economy; your ability to find educated, skilled, experienced staff; and your business demands grow. To combat this, each company should help employees participate in continuous improvement activities.

 Facility cleanliness: Employees want a clean, organized work environment in which they have the necessary equipment to perform well. This job satisfaction study included over 2.2 million respondents with 2,100 organizations representing various industries, all surveyed by HR Solutions, Inc.

Knowledge of each of your employee helps you to achieve the goal of retention; for the simple reason that they all have their strengths, weaknesses, like, dislikes, goals, motivation and learning styles. By understanding and acting on these differences, you will be able to bring out the best out of your team.

Here are some of the opinions from my colleagues; Ijeoma Chidi Osuji (Mrs) more money Promotion Better conditions of service Recognition Appreciation More power!

Elfreida Agbonrofo (Mrs) Recognition/Appreciation Good Structure of Company/Management Good benefits Equity

Chinyere Nwandu (Mrs) Pay increase/amendment Feeling valued as an employee Promotion Clearly defined career structure Development and engagement

Sam Onyefuosaonu (Mr) Recognition Well laid out career path Structure/Image of the Company. A good reward system that is visibly implemented. Equity and fairness. Non-discrimination of any sort be it race, gender, location or department.

Jacob Moses (Mr) In all the points, I will add more opportunities to work within and outside home country.

THANK YOU