6 Practical Tips to Attract and Retain Competent Employees

Hiring people used to be an easy task. Some managers and business owners that I have worked with thought that it is easier these days to recruit employees because of the rising unemployment rate. They further assert that we have a lot of surplus talents waiting to be tapped. Incidentally, that is partly true. However, while there is indeed a huge potential number of candidate employees, small businesses are still confronted with a shortage of qualified and competent employees.

But that doesn’t mean that you should just give up on hiring new employee because of the seemingly small odd of getting qualified and competent employees versus fortune 500 companies. IMO, all things being equal, there are many people who would prefer to work for a small business. Here are 6 practical tips to help you attract and retain competent employees for your business:

1. Salary matching. Do not attempt to hire an employee based on your budget. You need to define the scope of the job and compare your salary offering with other jobs in the market, especially those from your industry.

2. Employee Benefits. If you cannot match the salary asked by a prospective candidate or the above industry rate, offer a benefit package that will outweigh the difference.

3. Opportunity to socialize. This is where some small business failed to consider. Employees are social beings. You have to establish a regular social programs for your employees like quarterly dinner, or party, yearly retreats, recognition day or family day, etc., that will foster a camaraderie among them.

4. Opportunity to develop new skills and competencies. Online training and continuing education is now easily accessible. Give your employees the chance to enroll on any of these to enhance their job knowledge and skills, or even learn new competencies. This is a worthy investment. Additional knowledge and skills would mean lesser people for you because if they can multi-task, you don’t need to hire additional helps.

5. Opportunity to move upwards. However small is your business, find creative ways how your employee can move upwards form their current position. As your business grows so should your employees grow with you. If they feel that there is room for them to move upward, they will not attempt to look for greener pastures elsewhere.

6. Reward System. Reward employees for job/s well done. Reward them too when your company is doing well. This will keep them motivated. Besides, the rewards do not have to be monetized always. There are a lot of creative ways to reward employees. Look how fortune 500 companies reward theirs. Learn form them

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7 Reasons Why Employees Must Be Well Selected

Employee selection is an important activity of HRM. For the small business owner or especially those who are starting-up, getting the right employees to join your venture is imperative. Your employees may break or make your business. The very word selection implies the choice of the one best –qualified individual from among a number of available qualified candidates. Hence, there should be a relatively large number of job applicants from which the final candidates are chosen.

There are several reasons why employees must be well selected. Here are the 7 most important reasons:

1. Your business goals and objectives are better achieved by the employees you properly selected for a particular job.

2. An incompetent employee is a liability to your business, an additional expense, or a burden. Proper care should be made in getting the right person with the right competence for the job.

3. Personnel requirements vary from job to job. Meaning, the right employee for the right job. There can be no general requirements.

4. People have varying degrees of intelligence, aptitudes and abilities. Hence, fit the square peg on the square hole not on the round one, so to speak.

5. Labor Laws protect employee, making it difficult to fire incompetent and problem employees. Hiring is always easier than firing because of the laws governing termination of employment. In some states and countries, ‘firing-at-will’ seems to be a norm, in others, it is illegal.

6. Individuals have different interests, goals, and objectives in life. Select somebody whose goals closely align to you business goals.

7. Careless hiring is costly and can cause problems to the company. The hiring process cost you the money for the advertisement, cost for testing, and time for those who made the interviews. More so, in the long run as pointed out earlier, a wrong hire can cost you more in your operations.

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