How To Attract and Retain Top Talent
If you are to Attract and Retain Top Talent, your Employee Life Cycle is very important. Did you know that your employee life cycle, actually begins with prospective employees in your recruitment process? Furthermore, it continues until the day they leave your company.
Employee Life Cycle Essentials
HR Reviews
Client Testimonial
Fully understands our business
We have been outsourcing our HR to SVC for over 10 years, our dedicated HR Consultant works closely with our management team and fully understands our business. The fact that we have a dedicated HR Consultant who we can contact whenever we need to, takes away the burden and pressures that HR issues can sometimes bring. Our dedicated HR Consultant will often work on projects onsite to help our business and will always respond promptly and swiftly. We always get 100%, HR and commercial knowledge is fantastic. The advice and support given is always highly professional.
Does This Describe Your Current Situation?
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the above, then read on.
Spending the next few minutes reading the following may save you a lot of time, expense and frustration.
The Employee Life Cycle Stages
The key and essential life cycle elements of your employees that we go through below are:
The Employee Life Cycle Starts With Recruitment
"On-boarding is a process you should begin as soon as you have made the decision to recruit a new employee. It officially starts with your offer of employment to the successful candidate."
On-boarding
On-boarding is a current popular term in Human Resources. But what does this actually mean?
If you want to attract and retain top talent, attracting the right people to job offer stage is only part of the process. After this, retaining them starts straight away not just months later. Therefore, whenever possible make your job offer by a phone call.
Why a phone call? In the first place, it's personal and welcoming! And on the other hand your chosen candidate may have competing job offers! Consequently the sooner he or she knows your ready for them, the better.
Once you have verbally confirmed this, and follow up your conversation with the offer letter.
Offer Letter Checklist
Your offer letter must include the following:
About the Start Date
For the most part, if the start date is going to be a few weeks away, or even months, it's a good idea to keep in contact with your new recruit!
Due to the Employee Life Cycle having started, the occasional email or phone call will help to make your new recruit feel part of your team - even before they start.
Also, it's an opportunity to answer any questions they may still have. In particular tell them how much you and your colleagues are looking forward to them starting. Subsequently, this will:
Getting Started - The Induction
The induction process is essential both for the new recruit and you the employer. In the Employee Life Cycle it is one of the most visible elements with impact. In particular, plan your induction process ahead. To begin with, it's much easier if you have a consistent and structured plan to use with all new recruits.
Make it Consistent!
A consistent approach and exchange of up to date information with all new employees is important. It supports staff retention.
In particular, some areas of the induction process are mandatory by law. Thus it's good practice to have well documented procedures to cover these.
Check out the Checklist below, it's the minimum you should cover in your induction:
Induction Checklist
Usually you must include the following:
1. Health and safety information:
2. Human Resources information including:
3. Company information, such as:
The Induction Process
A good induction process is important to all new employees. As they have a lot of details to consume, guide them through the raft of information they need to know.
This is also the best opportunity to provide a timetable of how and when they will receive additional information. For instance, this could be happening over the coming weeks or months - but let them know the plan.
Plan Your Induction
Planning the induction will make your new employees feel welcome. Furthermore, it reduces the risk of losing them before they have had time to settle in.
Put yourself in the new employee's situation. For example, they don't know what their new co-workers know. Indeed, they don't really know:
As a result you the employer must take charge of information dissemination and questions. As helpful as it can appear, co-workers can at times confuse new recruits.
Use a Probationary Period
Sometimes, things don’t work out for either party for whatever reason. Therefore it is important to include a probationary period in your Contracts of Employment. This allows you enough time to assess the new employee’s performance and suitability to the role.
The length of a probationary period varies. Consequently, it is important to have the right amount of time which works for your business. SVC's Human Resources team are happy to provide guidance on:
- The length of probation periods, and
- Creating a positive implementation.
What if the New Recruit is Not Working Out?
Where a new recruit has not fulfilled the expectations of the job role, there may be a valid reason. For example, has the employee had the support to achieve the standards you set? Your decision will be to either:
Employee Retention
Another important part in the attracting and retaining of top talent, is their personal development. Both training and staff development are essential components of retaining staff. For instance, do you and your company prove commitment to staff by investing in their development? Also, this is another key component which will make you more attractive as an employer when recruiting.
Don't forget that flexibility is also essential, for example flexible working hours, and enabling Hybrid Working.
Development and Training
The right mix of training and development will have a positive impact on staff and your bottom line. To begin with it improves:
The Return on Investment Can Be Significant
Your Winning Formula
What's more, Training, Development and Coaching will:
The correct training and development can provide a massive return on your investment. For example, it costs much less than under-performance. It can save a huge amount of precious management time. Furthermore, you will reduce the cost of resolving staff issues, employee churn and recruitment costs.
Performance Appraisal
An effective and regular appraisal or performance management process is also essential. Specifically, it will help you to:
These are all important criteria. But here's the thing, in day to day management, it's easy to overlook succession. This is an essential part of any business strategy. Your business growth also depends on continuity of staff in all business areas. You will be able to mitigate any unexpected, or indeed planned changes in your workforce.
Training Advice
As well as HR support, SVC Training and Development can help you improve your business performance.
Managing Sickness and Absence
People do become ill from time to time, and each period of absence has a direct and indirect cost to your business.
"Sickness absence costs the UK economy over 14 billion pounds a year. That's £554 (pounds) per employee"
Report "Growing the health and well-being agenda"
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
The annual cost of sickness absence for UK businesses in 2017 was £554 per employee. But this does not take into account other indirect costs such as:
A Good Absence Process
Consequently, another essential element of the Employee Life Cycle is to manage your sickness absence with an effective process. By tracking, identifying and resolving issues, you can avoid negative impact. In other words, you can mitigate this impact which can otherwise cause detriment to your business and other employees. In other words, this really matters if you want to attract and retain top talent.
Reminder
You need to determine an absence process that works well for your company and employees. Or you could adopt a prescriptive approach such as the Bradford factor.
In particular, the key here is to handle long-term and short-term absence differently. Short frequent and unplanned absences are generally more disruptive than longer absences.
Whilst you must adhere to statutory legislation, you may decide to enhance it. Regardless of the process you choose, let your employees know how it works when they start with your company. This will make sure there are no misunderstandings at a later stage. By the way, having an easy to understand document also helps managers or supervisors. Hence it will assist them in handling difficult and uncomfortable situations with employees.
Sick Pay
The law specifies your employee entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay. If absence from work is due to sickness and injury, they qualify for this from their first day of employment. But there are certain qualifying conditions that apply:
Employee Medical Records?
You can if necessary have access to an employee's medical records with their consent. However, how much help this will be to you depends on the specific questions you ask their doctor or consultant.
You may encounter circumstances that need further advice to decide on:
In this situation you may find it helpful to use an Occupational Health Adviser.
Return to Work
It is advisable to carry out a return to work interview in all cases of absence. In particular, this is to:
Also, your managers or supervisors may need training in this area. People in these positions are often unsure what they can and cannot ask. With the skills needed to deal with such interviews, they will be able to handle them with confidence.
Dealing with Leavers
You will have people leave your Company, it’s part of the employment life cycle. It is generally straight-forward if your employee resigns. For example, they may be:
Client Testimonial
Fully understands our business
We have been outsourcing our HR to SVC for over 10 years, our dedicated HR Consultant works closely with our management team and fully understands our business. The fact that we have a dedicated HR Consultant who we can contact whenever we need to, takes away the burden and pressures that HR issues can sometimes bring. Our dedicated HR Consultant will often work on projects onsite to help our business and will always respond promptly and swiftly. We always get 100%, HR and commercial knowledge is fantastic. The advice and support given is always highly professional.
Resignation
Resignation needs to be in writing from your employee. After receiving written confirmation, acknowledge their resignation in writing. This is the time to confirm information you may wish to add, such as:
You may need to decide if you want the employee to work their notice or not. If not, consider whether you would prefer they go on ‘garden leave’, or have their notice paid in lieu.
Don't Forget!
To do this you must:
Exit Interviews
It is always a good idea to carry out an exit interview. This way you understand better why an employee has decided to leave your Company. Also, it will help highlight any areas that you may wish to consider improving.
Therefore, retention of staff is important because:
Knowing why staff are leaving helps you identify issues causing them to leave. Consequently, you can minimise others leaving, and enhance your status as an employer of choice. This will help you to attract and retain top talent.
Analysis of HR data
Capturing and analysing data in the Employee Life Cycle is an important HR activity. For the most part, knowing the costs to your company, you will make more informed decisions in the future. In addition, it may help you to monitor key performance indicators to attract and retain top talent.
Consequently, many companies like to know certain aspects of the Employee Life Cycle, what it is costing them, and what benefit they gain. Also, some companies track such data to maintain a specific business accreditation.
Here Is a Basic Data Checklist
HR Data for Employee Life Cycle Analysis
You can measure any data that you feel important to your business. For example:
The choice is yours, but SVC Human Resources can help you understand what to measure, why and how.
Do You Need More Help?
Throughout the employee life cycle, you may face obstacles which can be daunting. The HR team at SVC are here to help you with any Human Resources related issues or obstacles.
You may also need to seek opinion on whether or not you are an employer of choice. There are several purposeful leadership and values-based criteria that can ease the employee life cycle from recruiting to retaining your people. Take a look at our article The Benefits of Being a Purpose-led Company, and How to Become an Employer of Choice.
Take Action Now
Sometimes talking an issue through with an expert will help to ease any concerns. Whatever you do, do not ignore issues in the hope they will go away. They won’t! Generally, an issue will only get worse and more difficult and uncomfortable to deal with.
Contact the SVC HR team who will be happy to help. They can put your mind at ease and find the right solution to your situation.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this web page is provided for general information purposes only. It should not be construed as legal advice. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included on this web page without seeking professional, legal or other specialist advice by qualified practitioners. If you have a specific human resources issue, please contact SVC Human Resources team for individual advice on your particular circumstances.
