Great news! You just hired a much-needed new person to join your team.
But if you don’t do a good job making them feel welcomed, they likely won’t stick around.
In a competitive job market, hiring people is tough enough, but keeping them is even more difficult. And organizations with lower wages and more grueling work will have issues with high turnover.
Your recruiting team does a good job of getting new people in the door but then they leave. Sometimes they leave during their first shift!
How do you keep new hires?
As a leader, constantly training new team members becomes frustrating and it makes it harder to get results where you need them to be. If keeping people is a priority, then you need to recognize the one thing you can control.
You can’t control the wages, you can’t control how difficult the work is but you can control the emotional experience they have while working for you.
For many people, a job is a job. They work for you or they could work for someone else. You want to “hook” them emotionally into a positive environment.
In the beginning, it’s important that you give them extra care and attention, especially if the job is more difficult.
Companies need to spend time making people feel good about doing difficult jobs.
There are some jobs in your building that have a higher turnover compared to others. Broad-based turnover reduction strategies are not going to help in the departments where the jobs are the most difficult.
Because some jobs in your department can take longer for someone to become proficient, you need to check in with your new hire and let them know how they’re doing during their training period. “Your speed is coming along. Your accuracy is getting way better. Your quality is getting close to the standard.” This is important because they might be thinking, “There is no way I’m going to be successful in this job.”
In order to build your new team member into the social fabric of your team, introduce them to your coworkers and call them by name. Treat each one like you’re anticipating they’ll be sticking around for the long haul.
Remember, at the end of the day, people don't usually quit companies. They quit the boss that they have. Share on XBe the kind of manager or supervisor that brings out the best in people and creates positive emotional experiences. If you create that, not only will they stay, they’ll realize there is no other place nearby that they could work and have the kind of experience that you’re giving them as a leader.
