When staff turnover is symptomatic of poor recruitment practises…

Paul O’Loughlin

How often have you felt after hearing about the high staff turnover within an environment, “I wonder what is going wrong here?”

More often than not there will be a glaringly obvious reason for it like toxic culture, lack of leadership, non-existent or superficial on-boarding, unreasonable corporate expectations, financial instability… it could be a multitude of reasons in fact.

Poor talent acquisition protocols however may not be as glaringly obvious as some of those other reasons but can be equally as devastating when it comes to staff retention. You see many organisations today still utilise flawed or outdated processes to attract and then engage staff. Often damage is done even before a candidate accepts a position with the company or institution. For instance, we are often guilty of presuming that the interviewer has the necessary skills to engage with a candidate, in effect has the ability to extract information that is necessary for the organisation to make a calculated decision regarding hiring that person. Equally as important is the ability to “sell” the attributes of that organisation to the prospective hire, accurately! If the interviewer understates how good an environment is to the prospective hire, then you may not get acceptance when an offer is made. Similarly, if the environment is over-sold” than false expectations may arise.

Colourful breakout areas, company funded lunches, outstanding city views… it all sounds wonderful, but what about career advancement! The look and feel of an environment are important to most people but not all! Selling the total package to a prospective candidate can be key.

It is imperative that to be successful when it comes to talent acquisition, those charged with this responsibility possess the skills, the presence, and the capabilities to make an effective hiring decision as well as present the organisation in the best most accurate light! There is skill required when interviewing prospective employees and this is often an undervalued aspect of talent acquisition.

Effective talent acquisition goes to the absolute core of staff retention. When it is treated as a key component in an enterprise’s corporate strategy you will find that it is well resourced, managed efficiently and holds a “valued” place in a organisations ability to attract and retain staff!