Grow Your Recruitment Company - Top US Recruitment Company Uses Retention as the Key to Success

In today’s labour market, increasingly employers are recognizing the need to focus on employee retention.  Many industry experts have estimated the cost of hiring an employee at 150% to 200% their annual salary.  Despite this increasing focus on retention, not all employers have had success in retaining their top talent. 

 
In San Antonio, Dan spoke about employee retention as the key to success in growing his recruitment and staffing business.  He shared several interesting ideas on how he retains his top recruiters.  One such idea involves giving an employee a Rolex watch upon his or her five-year service anniversary.  On day one, new recruiters at Hire Dynamics are asked to browse a catalogue of Rolex watches and select a watch of their choice.  After the employee makes his or her selection, a picture of that watch is then placed at the employee’s workstation.  Management then explains to the new employee that the watch they chose will be theirs upon their 5-year service anniversary. 

While Dan spoke, the owners and managers of recruitment and staffing companies frantically wrote down the details of the Rolex watch program.  This raises an interesting question, in that if you copied Dan's Rolex watch program or some less expensive version of it, would you experience the same success?  While this would make an interesting experiment, I believe it would be a grave mistake for other recruitment companies to blindly copy the Rolex watch program if they don’t have the other pieces of the management puzzle in place since they may be inadvertently creating a system where employees only stay for an expensive watch.  Obviously Hire Dynamics has found the right formula to hire, train, develop, recognize, reward and retain it's top recruiters.  And their success in retaining their top recruiters is not simply due to the watch program since if their employees were not engaged, they would not stay no matter how nice of a watch they receive.  

Hire Dynamics understands the value of retaining good employees and has found their own formula for retention.  Good recruiters not only make their short-term sales targets, but also build long-term success for your recruitment and staffing business.  Retaining good recruiters means you save the cost and effort associated with hiring and training new staff.  The other benefits include building long-term relationships with your employers and candidates.  By having your recruiters stay with your company, you have a better chance of that they will get to know your client’s unique culture, specific needs, and so on.  Likewise, recruiters that stay with your company will get know your candidate’s career goals, preferences and values.  All of this means making better matches, providing a better service and gaining a competitive advantage in the recruitment and staffing market.

In summary, the lesson here is not so much a lesson in how to choose the types of service anniversary gifts that you give to your employees as much as a lesson in upper management embracing retention as not just a program but a key strategic initiative.  Just as the value of the watch to the new employee is not simply as a watch but as a symbol to them of the employer’s brand promise.