Be a Best Recruiter

To most people, recruiting may seem simple. All we do is talk on the phone all day, right? If you’ve been in the industry for more than a minute you’re sure to hear that stereotypical remark. A common recruiter response is, “If it’s that easy, try it.” This challenge often results in the other person backing down. So what is it that makes some people shy away from recruiting? It is fear of the phone.

To be a successful recruiter, you must learn to work the phone effectively. Few people understand the power of a well-placed phone call. In a world dominated by web-based job boards and email, a live voice on the phone is refreshing to candidates.

Opportunity doesn’t knock, it calls. Great companies are built and economies are moved because the right people are recruited for the right jobs. When you place that call, you are opportunity. You are a recruiter. Your countless hours spent relentlessly dialing number after number have conditioned you to anticipate questions, counter objections and generate interest. So, get on the phone and learn to love dialing. Learn to love listening and talking to people. Feel the thrill of making things happen for candidates and the companies you represent. Think of yourself as the catalyst for launching a tremendously successful career for the person you are calling. Who knows? Someday they may even send you a bottle of champagne or a bouquet of flowers to thank you for that initial phone call.

So what does it take to become a great recruiter? Like any new activity, you have to practice, practice, and practice. The phone is no different. Seasoned recruiters, can you remember your first day? Suddenly, an object you have used since childhood looks different somehow. There’s a slight hesitation in dialing the numbers. The receiver feels cold against your ear. You can feel your heartbeat in your chest. The first ring, maybe they won’t answer; second ring, voice mail (c’mon voice mail); third ring, Hello! It’s show time. You stumble through your first call like Dan Quayle at a spelling bee. It’s now 8:05 am and that’s when it hits you – this is what recruiting is all about.

When it comes to motivating a hiring manager or internal recuiter to move on your submittal, remmember the catchy saying….”Time kills all deals”.One of the most frustrating things to a recruiter is the lag time between finding and submitting a good candidate and getting meaningful feedback through the screening process.

Think abut it : How often have you taken a request for talent and spent weeks doing the sourcing, pre-screening, preparing and presenting your candidate’s case? Now comes the exciting part, right? Your hiring manger or internal recruiter calls you right away, excited about your candidate and asks when they can come in for an interview. Yeah, right!

The problem is that it rarely goes like that. You usually end up waiting days or weeks for someone to follow up with you, share their excitement and invite the candidate in for an interview. Why is it that a busy HM or IR, that wants to fill their open position as quickly as possibly, takes so long to get back to you on a candidate?Could it be they are really not as impressed as you? Maybe they disagree that the candidate had a good case? Maybe they are really busy and needs some time to get this task completed? Perhaps the motivation to hire has slipped to the back burner. Or they just need a little push from a professionally aggressive recruiter.Here are some tips on speeding up the client screening process:

• Verbally present your candidate to the HM or IR
  There’s no substitute for the energy and enthusiasm that a good recruiter can add to the equation. Excitement can be contagious. Spark motivation in an HM/IR to set up an interview with a candidate.

• Follow up within 24 hours of submission
  Call to clarify your position and make your candidate’s case. After all, if you’re not excited about him/her, why should the HM/IR be?

• Make sure to focus on the HM/IR needs, not your own
  If you come across as desperate, selfish or uninformed, the deal will break.

• Stay in constant contact with the candidate during this critical period
  You can use the information you learn about them to expand your case and motivate the HM/IR to move on them.

• Check a reference and use this positive information to get things moving
  This is a powerful way to bring credible case material into the equation and can motivate the HM/IR to move on your candidate.

• Keep the HM/IR updated of any changes in status of the candidate
  If the candidate is progressing on another position, or on another company opportunity, let your HM/IR know the fuse is getting shorter.

• Go for the “No”
  This is a very effective technique to get a decision made. If you have tried all of the above and the HM/IR is still not moving on your candidate, you might try to “take away” the candidate by withdrawing them from the process. If the HM/IR tries to stop you, then they are truly interested. If they do not try to stop you, then perhaps they were not interested enough in the first place to move on the candidate. Either way, you will arrive at a final decision.

• Time kills all deals
  Good recruiters know this line and live it every day. If the candidates are not moving through the screening process in a timely manner, chances increase the deal will fall apart.

Remember that the most effective recruiters understand how their HM/IR thinks, how they work and what is going on in their business. They set expectations of the process and apply the right amount of persuasive energy without breaking the relationshipThe next time you submit a candidate for which you have made a good case, use these tips and watch the screening process time speed up! As said by Scott Beardsley, co-founder and vice president recruitment services.

Excellence is a Process: Establish “resilient” mentality – Establishing a mentality of resilience will begin with the leadership and permeate throughout the entire organization.  During a crisis, this mentality can be very beneficial.  Imagine everyone being able to make critical decisions when it counts because of shared vision of the way the business operates.  There will be more success when there is less time spent flowing decisions through the normal chain of command.

Define operational parameters – Because flexibility is an integral part of resilience, it’s necessary for leaders to maintain an “adjustable” relationship with employees.  Clearly articulate where the company is going (shared vision) and provide employees with “operational guidelines.”  I, personally, am not in favor of “rules” because there are always exceptions and it seems to stifle creativity.  Operational guidelines allow the team to use their creativity to overcome challenges while providing flexible limits.

Promote flexibility – Listen to different points of view. It happens to be a great way to deal with complainers and critics. Establish multi-functional teams or make lateral promotions.  There is nothing more valuable when making a decision, than having the benefit of experience in multiple areas within the organization.

My last point, one of which I continue to remind myself, is that achieving excellence is a process not an event.  Don’t look at “resilience” as a project with a start and finish.  Think about it as building a culture over time and constantly improving and nurturing the environment, which will help ensure your company’s success. This is as told by Nick Tubach, Founder, CEO & President of a Recruitment Firm.

Stay connected – Working in a silo may appear to give you the focus you need (because you won’t be bothered).  Unfortunately, it also disconnects you from all the other moving parts of the organization.  Not to mention, being connected and integrated allows you to understand the impact that organizational departments have on the company’s overall success and how it can influence your function.  So when it comes time to make decisions, don’t make them in a vacuum. 
Develop strong camaraderie with coworkers – This will ensure that your “group” has your back.  If I know I have someone to rely on, that might just be the support I need to help push me through tough times.  On the other hand, if it seems that I can’t trust anyone or that I’m on my own, then I’d probably fail at the first sign of trouble or seek greener pastures.

Resilience is a quality that should be nurtured at the organizational as well as the individual level.

So let’s break it down…to identify that the organization is resilient.

Hire resilient talent – We want individuals (leaders) that prove they can bounce back if they’ve been dealt a bad hand. So let’s make sure to take this into account when we are hiring and, also, evaluating performance.

Nurture resilience – Once you find those leaders, it’s equally important that the organization nurtures their resilience. The best way to do that is by creating an environment in which those individuals are constantly surrounded by a group of strong people working together and in support of each other.

 

Monitoring “Cost Per Hire”- Cost Metrics in Recruiting

Measuring success is critical in recruiting. There are four general types of metrics on which to concentrate – cost, quality, quantity and time. This blog focuses on the costs of recruiting.

Possibly the most overused and least-understood metric in recruiting is “cost per hire” (CPH). At its core, CPH should be very simple, right? Identifying CPH can be as simple as noting how much an agency cost you for a hire – agency fee multiplied by the candidate’s salary – most likely one of the highest cost per hires your organization pays.

However, as with many simple things, the complexity lies in the details of the metric and its implementation. For example, Recruiters Network has a CPH calculator that concentrates on six factors while Tek Systems has a 33-factor CPH calculator. Which one is more accurate? Hopefully, this variation allows you to realize that “Cost per hire might just be the great unknown and misunderstood aspect of staffing (Monster.com).”

When you are calculating CPH, there are several things to remember:

First, what is the purpose of this data? It is nice to know that at one time in history, your CPH was X, but remember, it is a metric, and metrics are designed to be tracked over time. This means, whatever method you use to calculate CPH should be repeatable and should always measure a “before” and “after” cost, or a series of costs over time.

Second, your CPH should integrate with your overall recruiting strategy. What should your CPH be? You can spend too little. Keeping CPH extremely low minimizes the opportunity to interview great candidates and maximizes the likelihood of turnover. However, of course, you can pay too much by exclusively utilizing staffing agencies.

Finally, any measure of CPH should include three elements of “costs.”

• DIRECT costs

• INDIRECT costs

• RISKS – noticeably absent from the recruiting literature

Numerator and Denominator of Cost Per Hire

Measuring an accurate “cost” in the cost per hire (CPH) metric must include three separate elements; direct costs, indirect costs and risk costs. Once the cost is established, the denominator of the metric, number of hires, is equally important, and how you define this number will affect the metric.

Direct Costs of Recruiting
These costs are relatively easy to quantify, but it’s often hard to find all of the elements, as they may be distributed throughout your organization’s accounting structure.

• People – Elements of direct costs include the cost of your internal recruiting staff, your contract recruiters and any outside assistance you may have from other recruiting providers. Also included in this category are recruiting leadership costs, such as the director of recruiting and whatever management you may have.

• Process – Analysis of your recruiting process will provide other direct costs. Look at sourcing, screening and selection as sub-processes with costs. For example, agencies are a direct process cost in the “sourcing” area. Other “sourcing” costs are employee referral bonuses, networking events, advertising costs, etc.

Screening costs can include any interview travel and entertainment, and don’t forget about screening tests or guides (Myers-Briggs, Lominger, etc).

Selection costs are background checks, drug screens, relocation, printing welcome packets, etc. H1B Visa costs can be included here, or in the sourcing category.

• Tools -These are items like your applicant tracking system, any job board subscriptions you may have and the cost of creating and monitoring metrics. Don’t forget about document management costs and your telecommunications costs – both of these can become pretty big with the amount of resumes and phone calls that are part of recruiting.

Indirect Costs of Recruiting
Indirect costs can be divided into sub-categories, too. Personally, I use process costs, opportunity costs and intangible costs.

• Process costs include hiring managers that spend too much time reviewing resumes instead of performing their “managing” job. Again, remember to track “before” and “after” costs, as there will always be some indirect costs spent.

• Opportunity costs can be huge. How much did it cost your organization NOT to have that person performing that job? In high-value sales, the opportunity cost for an un-filled sales position can reach into the millions. However, the trick with all indirect costs, but especially opportunity costs, is to make sure you are comparing similar numbers. You cannot compare a dollar of lost revenue to a wasted hour of time – one is revenue, while the other is operating expense. It is always better to drop all costs down to the “profit” line when making comparisons.

• Intangible costs include costs related to employee efficiency and cultural fit, among others. How much does it cost your organization to have a poor cultural fit? Did that manager really spend that long counseling that employee? How much can the organization gain from a more productive employee? Tough questions, but ones you should consider.

Finally, the indirect costs of recruiting should be separated out from the direct costs simply because someone could argue that “they are not real” (even though they most certainly are). In this manner, you can add or subtract costs depending on your audience. After all, it is very important that your numbers be credible.

Risks of Recruiting
Risks are not necessarily costs, but can greatly contribute to the “cost of hiring.” Risks cannot be compared with direct or indirect costs because they are probabilistic – they may or may not occur. While you will spend money on a job board and your managers will spend too much time reviewing resumes, you may or may not incur a penalty for EEOC or OFCCP violations. However, if that does happen, it typically dwarfs other costs. You would be foolish to ignore risk costs.

We won’t focus on risks, except to note that you should make every effort to identify and control them, as they are a very real potential cost of recruiting, especially if you ignore the “process” part above.

The Denominator – Number of Hires
Finally, once you have figured out your “cost,” you need to know how many “hires” you actually made. This seems simple, but I have seen many clients that don’t know the answer to this question. Make it a point to diligently track this number – it is critical.

You can split the number of hires into specific groups in order to calculate and track different CPH. For example, costs for different position tiers (executive, professional or hourly staff) or for different position profiles (remember the CPH of that un-filled high-value sales position). It all depends on what is important to your organization, and what integrates with your recruitment strategy the best.

You may also want to consider if the number of hires is the right denominator. Should you consider the work your recruiting team was forced to do on requisitions that closed prior to a hire being made as part of the costs? Some cutting-edge recruiting providers are measuring the “cost to submit the candidate that eventually gets hired.” You get the point – there are many ways to peel this onion.

Final Note
If you care about the costs of recruiting, and you should, you ought to give how and what you measure around costs some serious thought. Think about getting some professional assistance with your analysis. It will pay for itself many times over.

After all of this analyzing, I’m going to invest in the cost of a cold one at my local networking establishment!

Feed it Forward

For third-party recruiters, maintaining beneficial relationships with hiring managers improves the chances of making a quality hire and creates an open arena for shared knowledge and effective teamwork. When it comes to closing the deal, the candidate’s opinion of the interview process could be the deal-killer.

After a scheduled interview with a potential employer, it’s best for recruiters to get the candidate’s feedback within one hour. This gives us information fresh on the candidate’s mind and a chance to clarify any misconceptions they may have developed during the process. Misconceptions can lead to deal-killers if given time to settle in.

Using a standardized interview feedback form, you can get immediate, meaningful feedback that helps clarify your candidate’s interest after each interview and learn more about the position, hiring manager and the company.

What then? Do we just document the feedback and store it away? No!

The next, and most important, step is to “Feed it Forward.” This is the practice of getting in touch with hiring managers (HM, or your designated contact) after each of a candidate’s interview steps and providing them with critical insight about the candidate’s overall experience. Because an HM often uses hiring staff to conduct interviews, they don’t always get to hear a candidate’s opinion of the process.

The process of “Feeding it Forward:”

Provides the HM with insight about the interview experience from the candidate’s point of view. Good feedback can reinforce the steps the interviewer is doing to impress candidates, and negative feedback can determine which adjustments to the interviewing style and behaviors need to be changed. For example, interviewers might take more time to carefully plan for the next interview if a recruiter tells them that a candidate thought the interviewer was unprepared, which can be a turn-off.

Also, candidate feedback will help managers understand how well their interviewers are doing in terms of “selling” candidates. Quality feedback will allow them to locate breakdowns in their process, which carelessly lead to withdrawal or rejection of quality talent.

Gives the HM an idea of a candidate’s interest in the position, helping to close the deal or determine the roadblocks to a decision.

Provides clarity. If we “Feed it Forward” that the candidate was not overly excited about the interview, it can help the HM decide whether to end the process or try harder to impress the candidate. Either way, you will get action.

Begins the closing process. Once we “Feed it Forward” that a candidate was really impressed and wants the job, it “warms up” the HM towards closure. Hiring managers often favor candidates who want the job, rather than ones that come across aloof or show only a mild interest.

Motivates the interviewer to provide their feedback. As recruiters, we wait days on end for feedback from an interviewer! One sure way to get them to connect with us sooner is to tell them you want to share feedback from the candidate. This technique almost always motivates them to get back to you sooner. Interviewers usually want to know what the candidate thought of them.

For these reasons, among others, the “Feed it Forward” process serves a role in getting a commitment between the two parties. As we all know, time kills all deals, and using the “Feed it Forward” approach to motivate an interviewer to connect with you is, by far, the most beneficial. So, the next time you get some great (or not so great) candidate feedback after an interview, make sure to “Feed it Forward” and watch your interview-to-hire ratio soar!

The last phase of our S4 Methodology is the selection phase. While there are multiple subsets within the phase, the most important is negotiation of the salary and terms of the offer.

Recruiters know that negotiation starts with the candidate’s initial engagement in phase one. But in that phase it’s too early to get specific about what a candidate will accept, in terms of an offer. It’s the beginning of a long and complicated process that ends in the selection phase.

Final negotiations are used to get a clear understanding of a candidate’s expectations concerning an offer. Basically, what would it take for a candidate to accept an offer? To get this understanding use the trial-close technique. This technique attempts to answer three questions.

The Trial-Close Process

To illustrate, let’s assume that a candidate is making $50,000 and told a recruiter they would not consider a move for less. The recruiter should ask:

1. What would the candidate turn down? Ask the candidate, “If the company offered you Rs.25,000 do I have your permission to turn it down?”

Nine out of ten times the candidate will laugh or, at least, loosen up as you begin to discuss the delicate subject. From there, work your way up until the candidate says, “I’d have to think about it.” Now you are making progress because you have a clear understanding of what they would turn down and what they would begin to consider.

2. What would the candidate say “yes” to? Ask the candidate, “If the company offered you Rs.100,000 do I have your permission to accept on your behalf?”

Using a humorous approach generates a response similar to, “Hell yeah!” From there, work your way down until the candidate says, “I’d have to think about it.” You are making more progress now because you have defined the high and low parameters a candidate would consider or accept.

3. What would the candidate have to think about, and what would be some of the factors involved in their “thinking?” Ask the candidate, “Now that we know what you would say yes or no to, what would be some of the factors to making a decision within the high/low range?”

Factors to consider: Would the candidate compare it to other offers? Would they rather not go through the ordeal of a job change? Are they anticipating a counter offer? Would they keep looking until they found something better and if so, for how long?

This will give you a clear picture of what will happen if an offer is made in the high/low range.

Recruiters now have all the data they need to provide hiring managers with valuable information, which helps lead to an offer candidate will accept or, at least, consider. If hiring managers make an offer they know the candidate would accept, chances are high the deal will close. If hiring managers make an offer in the low range, chances are high the deal will not close. If hiring managers consider what the candidate has to “think about,” there is a chance the deal will close. How much of a chance? That depends on the skills of the recruiter! Remember, closing does not happen from trial and error – but starts with the trial-close.

 

Recruitment Best Practices

All recruiting and staffing professionals know that best practices yield the best business results, and the vast majority of experienced recruiters know what those best practices are. So, why are some best practices rarely practiced?

The answer is that recruiters servicing a demanding and disparate group of hiring managers, specifically managing a workload of 20-40 requisitions each, simply don’t have the time.

The unfortunate reality here is that:

• Most recruiting best practices (that remain ‘unpracticed’) don’t really take that much time
• When time can be allocated to these best practices, it will, undoubtedly, free up time in other areas. This is because the impact of these practices on recruiter productivity and the company’s overall business performance can be quite significant.

Here are four examples of recruiting best practices that organizations should consider implementing, or find partners who can implement on their behalf:

1. Proactive, continuous sourcing – Proactive sourcing, ahead of demand – versus sourcing in response to a specific job requisition. This is the well-known, less-practiced talent warehouse concept. Most organizations do not have the staff to manage/maintain a large number of candidates in a talent warehouse, which is much more than a resume database. Others try to employ this concept for the top 5 to 10 percent of candidates that would make great employees.

2. Candidate Value Capture – This refers to the practice of assigning a theoretical dollar amount to each incremental investment made in the candidate screening process. For example, once a resume is looked at ($250), after first phone screen ($750), second phone screen ($1,500), first face-to-face interview ($2,500), second interview ($5,000), etc. Once a company has invested $5,000 – $10,000 (or more) in a particular candidate, that “value” must be captured or retained until a decision has been reached on employment.

A logical implication here is that every candidate that drops out of the process before a decision point, or offer, is a major investment with limited or no return. In summary, process bottlenecks or a sub-optimal candidate experience can cost a company millions over time.

3. Candidate Relationship Management during down business cycles – Some companies find time and resources to steadily communicate with viable candidates to keep them warm until the right opportunity arises. However, only a handful of companies reach out to their competitor’s employees who are being laid off during a down business cycle. Even though a company may not be in a hiring position, a genuine and supportive communication to a displaced employee shows them that they’re well thought of in the industry. Perhaps more importantly, it goes a long way toward demonstrating you are their “employer of choice” in the future.

4. Two-Way On-Boarding – Most organizations collect benefits and other administrative information from candidates during the on-boarding process. However, a few will use on-boarding as an avenue to collect market or competitive intelligence, candidate feedback on how the company or the company’s hiring process is perceived, and/or referrals for potential business or other high caliber employees.

These best practices are foundational to the Talent Acquisition Life Cycle. Proactive sourcing and a talent warehouse will shorten sourcing time, thereby reducing cost to fill, keeping candidates from opting-out of the process, and keeping internal customers satisfied. Implementing Candidate Value Capture will highlight efficiencies (or inefficiencies) in your process and allow you to make adjustments accordingly.

Candidate Relationship Management includes much more than communicating with potential candidates to establish a rapport. It establishes a company’s reputation within the industry as a “great place to work” and helps reduce the cycle time on attracting and closing a deal with best-fit candidates.

Finally, employee’s competitive information and feedback are essential to recruiting process improvements and competitive advantage overall. Learn to leverage the perspectives of candidates and new employees as “industry operatives” versus just engaging them about their role.

HRM PROCESS

HUMAN   RESOURCE   MANAGEMENT   PROCESS: 

HR is a vast field that sets off, builds a strategy, executes and ends with a enduring solution. To deal with Human Resources seems to be very easy, but when it comes to be the player then starts the real snag in handling it. It is always easy to underscore someone or to that matter anyone about anything. However, the best is always esteemed.

HR in a company is always reachable to each one of them irrespective of the levels. To start or make the first move it is the HR department that any one should get in touch with. They strategize the policies and procedures in the company for which it would have been a year, to do so provided the focus is on to Quality processes.

HR includes the following processes:

1. Recruitment & selection

2. Training and development

3. Compensation and Benefits

4. Performance Management System

5. Employee relations

Component should be consistent with the others, organization structure, and strategy.

i.      Recruitment: Develop a pool of qualified applicants.

ii.      Selection: Determine relative qualifications & potential for a job. 

iii.      Training & Development: Ongoing process to develop worker’s abilities and skills.

iv.      Performance Management System: Provides information about how to train, motivate, and reward workers. Managers can evaluate and then give feedback to enhance worker performance.

v.      Employee Relations: Managers need an effective relationship with labor unions that represent workers. Unions help establish pay, and working conditions.

vi.      Pay and Benefits: High performing employees should be rewarded with raises, bonuses. Increased pay provides additional incentive. Benefits, such as health insurance, reward membership in firm.

HR Planning

There are many ways to define HR planning, or explain what it is, but the following definitions, taken from the Government of Canada human resources site, is a good, useful working definition:

Rigorous HR planning links people management to the organization’s mission, vision, goals and objectives, as well as its strategic plan and budgetary resources.

 A key goal of HR planning is to get the right number of people with the right skills, experience and competencies in the right jobs at the right time at the right cost.

Note the emphasis on linkage to strategic planning and business planning in the first sentence, and the emphasis on the arrangement and alignment of staff and employees in the last sentence.

Here’s another definition, perhaps a bit simpler:

The processes by which management ensures that it has the right personnel, who are capable of completing those tasks that help the organization, reach its objectives.

Human resource planning refers to the planning of human resource functions, or in other words, planning how human resource management will be executed.

Recruiting  

Selecting  

Hiring  

Orienting   

Training and retraining  

Motivating   

Coaching  

Mentoring  

Counseling  

Recognizing  achievements

Empowering  

Communicating  

Evaluating  

Promoting  

Laying  off   

Dismissing  

So, in effect HR planning refers to the development of plans in these areas or in similar areas. You may want to develop your own list specific to your organization — a list that reflects the functions that HR does in your company.

Relevance of HR Planning

Many people associate human resource planning with what very large companies do — IBM, or Ford. That’s because, almost by necessity, large companies need to have a much more formal and comprehensive approach to HR planning because of their size and the complexity of their businesses.

That said, even a business owner with a very few employees need to think (that is, plan) about various personnel and human resources issues. Many small business owners do this without really thinking about it. For example, a small business owner needs to think and plan about what benefits to offer, how to manage growth of staff, how to plan how many staff are needed, how to evaluate employee performance, and so on.

So, even if you have one or two employees, it’s useful to “plan like the big boys” regarding human resource and personnel issues. The methods you use may be simpler but you still need to do it, so you are prepared.

Employee Retention

Employee Retention means to retain the employee in the company. This is done either directly or indirectly in the company. We counsel with the employee informally during lunch or while having a cup of tea or coffee.

Formally an employee can be counseled by conducting Employee Satisfaction Survey, in which Employee counseling is done. By having done E Sat Survey, the company would reveal the facts and try to improvise its processes which will bring in those thoughts in the employees’ minds that the company values its suggestions and concerns too. It cannot be taken for granted especially when it comes to senior level people who might feel very dejected when they are not paid upto the market standards.

All of this retention process is considered to be indirect way of retaining the employee. An employee can be directly retained when the company allows that person to sign a legal Bond with them for a certain period of time. This might reduce the attrition rate to an extent but increases the Recruiting rate of keeping the position vacant for a long time.

It is always adviced to follow the indirect process than a direct one. Here are some interesting Retention Tools which I came accross-  

1. Offer fair and competitive salaries. Fair compensation alone does not guarantee employee loyalty, but offering below-market wages makes it much more likely that employees will look for work elsewhere. In fact, research shows that if incomes lag behind comparable jobs at a company across town by more than 10 percent, workers are likely to bolt. To retain workers, conduct regular reviews of the salaries you offer for all job titles — entry-level, experienced staff and supervisory-level. Compare your department’s salaries with statistically reliable averages. If there are significant discrepancies, you probably should consider making adjustments to ensure that you are in line with the marketplace.    

2. Remember that benefits are important too. Although benefits are not a key reason why employees stick with a company, the benefits you offer can’t be markedly worse than those offered by your competitors

3. Train your front-line supervisors, managers and administrators. It can’t be said often enough: People stay or leave because of their bosses, not their companies. A good employee/manager relationship is critical to employee satisfaction and retention. Make sure your managers aren’t driving technologists away. Give them the training they need to develop good supervisory and people-management skills.

4. Clearly define roles and responsibilities. Develop a formal job description for each title or position in your department. Make sure your employees know what is expected of them every day, what types of decisions they are allowed to make on their own, and to whom they are supposed to report.

5. Provide adequate advancement opportunities. To foster employee loyalty, implement a career ladder and make sure employees know what they must do to earn a promotion. Conduct regular performance reviews to identify employees’ strengths and weaknesses, and help them improve in areas that will lead to job advancement. A clear professional development plan gives employees an incentive to stick around.

6. Offer retention bonuses instead of sign-on bonuses. Worker longevity typically is rewarded with an annual raise and additional vacation time after three, five or 10 years. But why not offer other seniority-based rewards such as a paid membership in the employee’s professional association after one year, a paid membership to a local gym after two years, and full reimbursement for the cost of the employee’s uniforms after three years? Retention packages also could be designed to raise the salaries of technologists who become credentialed in additional specialty areas, obtain additional education or take on more responsibility. Sign-on bonuses encourage technologists to skip from job to job, while retention packages offer incentives for staying.

7. Make someone accountable for retention. Measure your turnover rate and hold someone (maybe you!) responsible for reducing it. In too many workplaces, no one is held accountable when employees leave, so nothing is done to encourage retention.

8. Conduct employee satisfaction surveys. You won’t know what’s wrong … or what’s right … unless you ask. To check the pulse of your workplace, conduct anonymous employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis. One idea: Ask employees what they want more of and what they want less of.

9. Foster an environment of teamwork. It takes effort to build an effective team, but the result is greater productivity, better use of resources, improved customer service and increased morale.

Here are a few ideas to foster a team environment in your department:

 • Make sure everyone understands the department’s purpose, mission or goal.

 • Encourage discussion, participation and the sharing of ideas.

• Rotate leadership responsibilities depending on your employees’ abilities and the needs of the team.

• Involve employees in decisions; ask them to help make decisions through consensus and collaboration.

• Encourage team members to show appreciation to their colleagues for superior performance or achievement.  

10. Reduce the paperwork burden. If your technologists spend nearly as much time filling out paperwork, it’s time for a change. Paperwork pressures can add to the stress and burnout that employees feel. Eliminate unnecessary paperwork; convert more paperwork to an electronic format; and hire non-tech administrative staff to take over as much of the paperwork burden as is allowed under legal or regulatory restrictions.

11. Make room for fun. Celebrate successes and recognize when milestones are reached. Potluck lunches, birthday parties, employee picnics and creative contests will help remind people why your company is a great place to work.

12. Write a mission statement for your department. Everyone wants to feel that they are working toward a meaningful, worthwhile goal. Work with your staff to develop a departmental mission statement, and then publicly post it for everyone to see. Make sure employees understand how their contribution is important.

13. Provide a variety of assignments. Identify your employees’ talents and then encourage them to stretch their abilities into new areas. Do you have a great “teacher” on staff? Encourage him/ her to lead an in-service or present a poster session on an interesting case. Have someone who likes planning and coordinating events? Ask him to organize a departmental open house. Know a good critical-thinker? Ask him/ her to work with a vendor to customize applications training on a new piece of equipment. A variety of challenging assignments helps keep the workplace stimulating.

14. Communicate openly. Employees are more loyal to a company when they believe managers keep them informed about key issues. Is a corporate merger in the works? Is a major expansion on the horizon? Your employees would rather hear it from you than from the evening newscast. It is nearly impossible for a manager to “over-communicate.”

15. Encourage learning. Create opportunities for your technologists to grow and learn. Reimburse them for CE courses, seminars and professional meetings; discuss recent journal articles with them; ask them to research a new scheduling method for the department. Encourage every employee to learn at least one new thing every week, and you’ll create a work force that is excited, motivated and committed.

16. Be flexible. Today’s employees have many commitments outside their job, often including responsibility for children, aging parents, chronic health conditions and other issues. They will be loyal to workplaces that make their lives more convenient by offering on-site childcare centers, on-site hair styling and dry cleaning, flexible work hours, part-time positions, job-sharing or similar practices. For example, employees of school-age children might appreciate the option to work nine months a year and have the summers off to be with their children.

17. Develop an effective orientation program. Implement a formal orientation program that’s at least three weeks long and includes a thorough overview of every area of your department and an introduction to other departments. Assign a senior staff member to act as a mentor to the new employee throughout the orientation period. Develop a checklist of topics that need to be covered and check in with the new employee at the end of the orientation period to ensure that all topics were adequately addressed.    

18. Give people the best equipment and supplies possible. No one wants to work with equipment that’s old or constantly breaking down. Ensure that your equipment is properly maintained, and regularly upgrade machinery, computers and software. In addition, provide employees with the highest quality supplies you can afford. Cheap, leaky pens may seem like a small thing, but they can add to employees’ overall stress level.

19. Show your employees that you value them. Recognize outstanding achievements promptly and publicly, but also take time to comment on the many small contributions your staff makes every day to the organization’s mission. Don’t forget — these are the people who make you look good!