For any business, having the right people working for you can mean a whole lot in terms of success. Yet assembling a team of top talent can be quite the challenge, especially since there are other businesses competing with you for these hard-to-find workers. So how do you assemble a strong workforce to support your business’ growth ambitions?
To build a strong workforce, you not only need to find and recruit outstanding individuals to your company, but also retain them for incremental workforce-strength improvement. Blue Collar People suggests six tips to help you recruit and retain the best employees.
- Strengthen your employer brand. In a cut-throat job market like the one we have today, building a strong employer brand is crucial to attracting top talent. Leverage the internet to create company profiles that stand out and to advertise job positions to a wider audience. To this massive audience, provide job descriptions that will give your candidates a sense of the company culture, and an overview of the business and its values to set yourself apart from competitors.
On your job descriptions, make sure to include the benefits of working for your company such as a good company culture, advancement opportunities, or fun technology tools for work – in additional to the skills and experience required. Get the candidates excited about the role without overpromising.
- Be competitive on pay and benefits. To attract and retain top-notch workers, you need to offer competitive pay and benefits. Make sure the salaries and benefits package of your employees matches (or is better than) that of similarly sized competitors in your industry. If you can, introduce profit sharing programs that reward employees based on performance. This will motivate employees, improve engagement and attract more talent to your business.
- Improve your recruitment process. Work on your recruitment process to ensure that only qualified candidates who are eager to work for the company are hired. Make your job application process simpler while still ensuring that enough information is acquired through it to identify candidates that deserve an interview. Use technology on this front too to make it possible for candidates to apply via digital platforms.
If recruitment is not your company’s strong suit, consider enlisting the help of a recruitment company to exploit their extensive experience and more refined recruitment processes.
- Train continuously. Provide continuous training to your employees to keep them on the cutting edge of their jobs and well versed with best practices. By providing continuous training to your employees, you effectively keep them engaged, happy and efficient. Ongoing training ensures that the talented workers you hire perform at their peak throughout the time they will be working for your business.
- Thorough onboarding. No two workplaces are the same. It’s, therefore, important to ensure that new employees adapt to your company’s way of doing things with comprehensive onboarding. Assign mentors to new employees to work with and learn the ropes before they can take on full responsibilities. This ensures that the values and culture of the organisation are imparted on every single hire.
- Let go of bad employees. A big part of building a strong workforce is “weeding out” bad employees. Holding on to underperforming employees can be damaging to your business as well as other employees. Some workers might show great promise at the beginning but not live up to expectations even after you’ve put a lot of effort into developing them. Letting go and starting again is sometimes the best solution.
A robust workforce is a company’s best asset, while a poor workforce can lead to its demise. Build a strong workforce to ensure your business achieves its goals.
