Getting (and Keeping) Great Employees

How Can I Get and Keep Great Employees? 8 Sure Fire Tips:

1) Make every hire a good one. Formal background checks should be standard practice. Due diligence is important for your company's legal protection and for its competitive edge. Comprehensive background checks help ensure a safe work environment and a productive workplace - both of which are attractive to employees.

2) Grow your own employees through internship programs with local (or not-so-local) universities.

3) Train, and retrain, to retain. The top two reasons employees leave jobs are to earn more money and to gain additional opportunities. By offering cross-training and job rotation, employees can learn new skills that both increase job satisfaction and make them more valuable to the company.

4) Perk up! Pierre Vedel, senior vice president and chief information officer of ELM Resources, told The Wall Street Journal, "It's not to the point of giving out cars again, but it's really competitive." Before incentives reach that point again, figure out what perks are important to your employees - from health club memberships to free movie passes and offer what you can.

5) Protect your company's intellectual property. Employees are more likely to stay when they have signed formal noncompete and nondisclosure agreements.

6) To keep them, keep them comfortable. Make sure working conditions are as comfortable and convenient as possible. Can you offer onsite child care? Allow radios at work? Maybe not, but simple creature comforts - like keeping the office air conditioner in good working order - should not be overlooked.

7) Let them go away. Encourage employees to consider training seminars in other cities (especially if you have an office there) or even in other countries. If the stint is particularly attractive or long-term, you may want to ask the employee to sign an agreement to stay on for a certain time after his or her return, or to reimburse the company for his or her travel expense if he or she should leave before an agreed-upon amount of time.

8) Have fun! Employees benefit from attending company-sponsored social gatherings, sports outings and other after-work entertainment options. Even better, those who participate tend to develop more productive relationships with co-workers and are less likely to entertain a headhunter's call.

Practice doesn't guarantee an increase in your hiring "batting average", but by adapting the best practices in recruiting, selection and retention, you'll be able to identify the candidates who can form a winning team.

To Your Success,
The Tamster