Lazy, entitled and flaky – just a few of the stereotypes given to millennials in the workforce and wider community. While data is increasingly indicating that these stereotypes are untrue, it’s also showing us that they are very unhelpful, especially for hiring managers and employers.

Born roughly between 1981 and 1996, millennials are predicted to make up the bulk of the workforce by 2020 – and they’re driving change at a rapid pace. This is something that employers can no longer afford to ignore, especially when it comes to hiring the right people and nurturing talent.

So, what do employers need to do to keep up with the changing paradigm, to source, retain and nurture millennial talent?

Read the full article at Dynamic Business.

The post How millennials are changing how we source, retain and nurture talent appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

High staff turnover within a business can result in huge costs. The fact is that there is no line in your profit and loss that captures the cost of lost customers, lost opportunities, and dips in morale so it’s very difficult for businesses to track the real cost.

A study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that it can cost the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary in order to recruit and train a replacement. When you consider an employee with a salary of $100,000, this means it would cost over $50,000 to replace them! When that employee is a high performer, the costs are even greater as a result of lost productivity, lost customers or clients, and other opportunity costs.

Failing to retain high performers also impacts the rest of your team through increased stress within the workplace, dips in employee morale, and drops in productivity that can spread company wide. Even when a new employee has been trained, it can take months, if not years, for them to be as productive and high performing as a long term high performing employee.

So, it makes sense then to do everything you can to keep these top performers in your business. It’s not enough anymore to just assume that people are happy in their job because it puts food on the table. People require much more to be happy and engaged at work, and it’s our job as business owners and leaders to facilitate that.

Retaining your best people

The best way to retain your top performers is by understanding who they are as people, how they fit into their roles and your business as a whole, and what is likely to keep them engaged and happy. Essentially, you need to know what makes them tick.

Would a flexible working arrangement or free lunch bring out the best in them? Would above average pay or an extra week off in the year make your employee work harder? Would promoting from within and offering training and upskilling ensure that your employee remains loyal to your brand?

While all of these ideas are great for keeping employees happy and content, sometimes it can feel a little like throwing it all at the wall and hoping something sticks!

If you knew there was a way to learn everything you need to know about your employees, so that you can help them fit in and stay in your business, wouldn’t that be better? A directed and tailored approach to retaining your staff can help your business soar.

How to know what makes your employees tick

If you’re looking to understand more about your current employees so you can nurture and retain them successfully – a good, objective assessment tool can help you do this, such as the ProfileXT assessment.

ProfileXT gives you a full understanding of an employee’s abilities, personality traits, behaviours, and preferred learning styles. In addition, you also gain insights into the employee’s interests which helps you understand what motivates them and which parts of their role they are most interested in.

Overall, you’re learning whether or not the employee fits within their role and the overall culture of the team – we call this the JobFit. Now, the goal isn’t to pit your team against one another, but rather to understand them completely so that you can ensure they fit into their role, remain fulfilled, and optimise their strengths and skills.

Ensuring you have the right fit within your business is the most important aspect. When a person is the right fit in their role, they enjoy the work they do and as a result productivity and employee engagement increases. This leads to improved retention, better business outcomes and improved profitability.

The next steps

Once you better understand your employees, you can take informed steps to keep them happy and motivated. This will vary between workplaces and employees, so it’s a good idea to have a few branches to your ongoing retention plans.

You’ll get an understanding of what tactics will work best with your employees once you have assessed them using an objective tool. However, there are some common actions which contribute effectively to retention. According to a study by the Australian Human Resources Institute, the most effective ways to retain employees are through offering effective management and leadership, providing opportunities for career progression and promotion, and facilitating a positive workplace culture.

By implementing a strong retention plan within your workplace, you can reap benefits for your business such as significant cost savings, higher productivity and improved quality of work, along with boosts in employee morale and team culture. In short, everybody wins.

To find out how you can retain your top performers and ensure that they are fulfilled within their roles, contact us today.

Of course to retain top performers, you need to source them in the first place! To find out how, check out our posts on how you can source top performing talent for your business and how to avoid a bad hire.

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