Tips for Hiring and Retaining the Best Employees

Date Posted: 04/13/2018

The perfect employee is every CEO and Human Resource person’s dream. Hiring the right employees serves not only to improve organizational/work culture, but also boosts employee morale and makes goal setting and achievement a whole lot easier. The big question though is how exactly you go about the hiring process and how to keep the best employees when you do get them. Well, no matter the field you work in, here are some tips that will land you the best employees.

1. Define Clearly What You Are Looking For
Know in your own mind exactly what you want. Put it down on paper then. In your job advertisement, be sure to make clear exactly what you are looking for in a potential employee. This will help to reduce the number of applications you have to look through and generally make the recruitment process much easier.

2. Background Checks
So every potential employee submits a resume when applying for a job. Some employers merely go over the paperwork – big company names, fancy schools etc. – and jump to the conclusion that the person is good for hire. This could land you with an inefficient or downright lazy employee. It is important that you do some background checking before making your decision. Contact previous employers or references and inquire about the individual: What is he or she like? How is their work ethic? How is their relationship with colleagues? It does not necessarily have to be big time employers too! If they worked at their local coffee shop, call and ask about their customer service relationship. This could save you from hiring a person who is constantly unreasonably angry or irritable and thus, a problem to both colleagues and customers.

3. Make Interviews as Personal as Possible
Most Human Resource executives make the mistake of keeping interviews strictly about the job at hand. While it is important for the potential employee to have the hard skills and technical know-how required for the job, there are other factors or “soft skills” which are important to look out for as well. These include team spirit, flexibility or adaptability, creativity as well as many others. A brilliant employee with a bad attitude can negatively influence a good working environment. It’s better and easier to handle or avoid such problems from scratch, rather than have a toxic individual infiltrate your workspace.

4. Get Social
As a recruiter, you may feel a bit awkward asking personal questions and there’s only so much you can get about a person in a few minutes of conversation. The solution to this is social media. You’d be surprised what you can find out about a potential employee by researching their social media presence. If your organization lays emphasis on political views, family life and attachments or any other such details, a social media check enables you to know where they stand on these issues.

Now, it’s one thing to hire the perfect employee, it’s another thing to make sure this employee remains a member of staff. Here are some tips on retaining employees.

a) Make Everyone Feel Important
This does not mean you should make anyone feel indispensable, lest they develop a superior attitude toward their colleagues or work. Everyone likes to feel like they are a part of, and contribute significantly to the company. One way to make every employee feel important is allowing everyone to bring ideas to the table and have input in the whole process. If the organization is a large one, teams may be assigned to certain cumulative tasks with members of management checking up on team progress from time to time. This would go a long way in boosting employee morale.

b) Create a Friendly Working Environment
No one wants to dread going in to work every day because of an unfriendly work environment or a scary boss. One way to keep employees satisfied is to ensure they feel at home in the work place. How to do this? Break down barriers between boss and employee as much as possible. Improve office aesthetic (general interior and exterior design) to boost creativity. Provide basic (running water, electricity) and not-so-basic amenities (internet services, a coffee machine) around the office. Trust me, the little things go a long way in inspiring and keeping employees satisfied.

c) The Perks That Come With The Job
Perks are another way to keep employees happy, satisfied and reduce chances of them seeking to change employment. The basic organization offers welfare plans for employees. These usually include health benefits as well as many others. However, when an organization goes the extra mile to ensure their staff are comfortable both at work and outside the office, employees are inspired not only to remain at such companies, but to perform extremely well. Some perks that organizations can offer include housing, transport, free lunches, bonuses, childcare facilities, in-office relaxation areas as well as many others. Perks are a great way to release burdens from employees’ shoulders and all organizations who wish to retain their best workers should invest in these and watch marvelous results come out of it.

Hiring from Abroad
If your organization needs to hire staff from abroad or does not have an extensive HR team, it is best to use a reliable independent recruitment firm especially if you are hiring staff from a foreign country. Ikon Solutions Ltd. is one of the Philippines’s leading licensed recruitment companies specializing in overseas recruitment for a wide array of fields who will be your ideal partner when hiring staff from the Philippines and from other parts of Asia.

When you hand over your recruitment process to Ikon, you can be assured of no worries! Ikon handles everything including examination requirements, travel processing, government documentations and all other administrative details that could potentially be time consuming for your organization. You can find out more about Ikon at www.ikonlink.com. We operate from the Philippines to Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Saudi Arabia, UAE, U.K. and USA.

There you have it. While the above does not include all the factors there are to consider, we hope this gives you the basic information you need to hire and retain the best workers in your field at your organization.

Need help in sourcing top quality staff?  Ikon is here for you! You can trust Ikon to find the best people for you and be certain that every detail of the hiring process is maximized in finding your ideal candidates.

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