You might think you have completed the recruitment process by hiring your ideal candidate, but it doesn’t end there.
One of the major challenges for 21st century employers is holding on to top talent and ensuring their long-term engagement in the role.
Recruitment has changed vastly over the years and it is, indeed, a candidate’s market. Unless you put processes in place to hold onto key talent, the skills you need to grow your business may be lured elsewhere by the promise of personal development programmes, opportunities for promotion, flexible working, a better salary… and so on.
Top talent is increasingly hard to find and hold onto, so make job satisfaction a priority. You don’t want to have to repeat the recruitment process all over again.
With that in mind, here are five tried and tested ways to help your new candidate – and other long-term employees – feel valued and increase their likelihood of staying with you for the long haul:

Attract the right candidate
In this increasingly tight recruitment market, attracting the best talent is harder and of more importance than ever.
To increase employee engagement within your organisation you need the right candidate for the job. This goes back to building an employer brand and looking for more than the bare minimum job requirements. Eligibility doesn’t necessarily mean suitability.
By promoting a positive business image and your employment package in job descriptions you open the doors to a wealth of potential candidates.
Making your organisation stand out from the crowd is of paramount importance if you want the best talent. Defining a rigid job specification won’t cut it in such a fast-moving market. You must sell your organisation to the candidate as their ideal place to work. By showing your flexibility you can win the candidate you want.

Introduce an incentives and benefits scheme
An attractive incentives and benefits scheme can often persuade candidates to join your organisation, but remember it’s feeling valued that makes them stay.

Put an employee development programme in place
Fostering a development programme for employees and recruiting from within, where possible, gives employees a sense of importance in the company’s development.

Create a great first impression
A new employee’s first impression of your organisation sets the tone for the length of their employment. Using this period of transition as an opportunity to motivate your new employee and make them feel welcome can make all the difference.

Foster a great working environment
With the days of long tenures coming to an end, personal development can be a great incentive to stay in a role. Promoting an open and honest working environment where employer and employee aspirations are aligned will encourage your best workers to stay.
For more hints and tips, talk to the experts at ESS Recruit.