Executive Recruiting - Employers: Use Recruiting Methods to Improve Emloyee Retention!

Anyone who owns a business understands the high cost of replacing people and the painful ripple effect of losing key employees. Turnover is expensive! Moreover, if you lose a great employee to a Headhunter (Executive Recruiter) you are slammed twice. Once for the loss of a productive key person and again with the expense of a new hire.

There are more costs if you consider the time gap while the position is empty and the expense of getting a new person comfortable, knowledgeable, and profitable.

Why not utilize the same principles Recruiters use to keep your valuable employees?

As an Executive Recruiter and entrepreneur it's frustrating to watch my clients lose employees to other Headhunters! And if the employee who leaves is working with a pro, my client won't know a Recruiter was involved. That Recruiter will do everything in their power to prevent a good candidate from discussing their needs with the current employer.

When I have a client I like and respect 'territorial feelings' can develop. I feel protective and want to guard my clients from others in my profession. I want to shut down their revolving door.

The best way to protect my clients is to help them incorporate the recruiting thought process into their interviews and employee conversations. Sounds like I'm putting myself out of business right? Wrong. What I'm doing is adding priceless value to my role as a consultant. I've never lost a dollar by helping my successful clients become more successful.

When an employer asks their employees the same questions Executive Recruiters use to attract 'happily employed' candidates from their competition they gain insights needed to keep that employee longer. The most important thing a Recruiter does is have conversations with candidates who have never really had a good conversation about their professional growth.

As an employer you may be thinking, "I know, I know. We already talk to employees during reviews". If those conversations are simply an exercise, as in, "I've got to get another bogus task done", they'll lose any hope of effectiveness. In fact, these conversations may be most useful if they're not associated with the review process. I say this because an employee retention conversation should be all about the employee! The magic of the conversation and the way genuine loyalty develops is when a few minutes a year are focused on the employee and not the company.

When everything is about the company: the company mission, the company growth, the company policies, the company profits and goals, the company wants this, the company demands that...well the company becomes vulnerable to Recruiters. Recruiters who are successful because they have conversations about the employee. Good conversations; one at a time. Conversations too many employees have never had with anyone.

Recruiters establish rapport and trust with the questions they ask and by listening. Yes, they have an agenda and that agenda is to get the best candidate for their client. What they gain are countless contacts with candidates who were not right for a specific client but who feel so respected, and valued, that they feel a connection with their Recruiter, possibly becoming a key resource in a small world.

If you're an employer who hates your turnover rate, my suggestion to you is learn how Executive Recruiters operate. The best ones follow a step by step process anyone can learn. Not only will you be able to improve your employee retention, you'll use the same principles to negotiate a business deal, buy a company, and persuade your spouse or kids to change a behavior.