How Can New Businesses Attract & Retain Talent?

In the past several years, it has become increasingly difficult for businesses to attract and retain talent. Every day, U.S. employers spend $2.9 million on finding and hiring new workers. This high turnover rate contributes to increased costs and hours devoted to finding and training new employees.

With the growth of the internet and online work opportunities, many people in the workforce are turning to freelance work because of the freedom, growth opportunities, and personal benefits this type of work provides. Companies can do a lot to attract these workers by building strong financial foundations, creating a positive company culture, and developing robust benefits packages. If you recognize this trend and take active steps to retain your employees, you will save money and time, and generally become more profitable.

Form your LLC with confidence. Our trusted partner LegalZoom has packages starting at $0 + filing fees.

Make Your New Business Attractive to Winning Talent

If you want to attract and retain talent, then you need to make your business appealing to prospective employees. People aren't just coming to you for a job. They are looking for a rewarding work experience, a healthy work-life balance, and benefits. You can provide this by building a winning company culture, creating an employee referral plan, and offering appealing perks and benefits. And if you're just starting a business, attracting talent is essential.

Create a Winning Company Culture

A winning company culture is crucial. Your culture pervades everything you and your employees do. It is reflected in the language you use in your job posts and onboarding materials, the way you conduct your meetings, and the events you host for employees.

Focus on developing a positive company culture. When you start your business, you should identify your company's core values. Then find ways to share those values with your employees. For example, if you value community, then promote group activities among employees to grow your company's internal sense of community. You can also incentivize employees to volunteer at local nonprofits, which will improve your company's relationship with the people who live in the community you're based in.

Make sure that you stand by your values. Your actions reflect those values and should further the development of a positive company culture. Unless they work remotely, your employees will be spending at least forty hours per week at your workplace. You want to make them want to spend so much time there.

Create a Referral Plan

Encourage your employees to help find new talent. An employee referral program allows your employees to earn rewards when they refer qualified applicants to your company. You can benefit from your employees' professional and social connections, which can help you identify talent that you might not be able to reach otherwise.

The rewards your employees can earn through referring new applicants can include cash incentives, extra days off, an extra-long weekend, or an employee event. Employee referral plans are also great for employee morale.

Offer Appealing Perks and Benefits

When a candidate first interviews for a position at your company, odds are that they are most interested in wages and benefits. However, many employees are also interested in workplace benefits and perks that will promote a healthy work-life balance or improve their mental and physical well-being.

When setting up your benefits package, be sure to offer competitive paid time off, including vacation time and sick days. You should also consider how much parental leave you will offer to your employees. Other possible benefits include health insurance, dental and eye-care insurance, and supplemental insurance.

The perks you offer can help you stand out from other companies. For example, you can provide gym memberships or fitness reimbursements (this is especially important for remote workers) or offer monthly spa visits to promote relaxation and wellness. You can offer commuter assistance by providing help with gas costs. Tuition reimbursement would also help you stand out.

Some companies have even begun to offer flexible scheduling. This lets your employees shift their daily work hours to when they work best. You could even allow for remote work on certain days of the week.

Employer-Employee Interaction

From time to time, employees will leave your company. They may have any number of reasons. But one should never be because their supervisor is toxic. A toxic supervisor can have a devastating impact on a workplace.

An employer or manager dictates employees' schedules, assigns projects, and has a direct impact on workplace morale. Employees have little choice if they are forced to work with a toxic supervisor: they can either suffer in silence, or they can leave the company entirely.

If you find this problem in your company, solve it immediately. If it continues, you will lose good people and potentially your good reputation. Few people will apply to work at a place with a bad reputation.

Ensure that Your Company Is Financially Stable

Bad news doesn't stay hidden for long. If your company is struggling financially, then prospective applicants are likely to hear about it. If you want to attract new employees, as well as keep the ones you have, you will need to make sure that your business is successful.

Pay close attention to your business operations. Strengthen your company's financial health by improving your recording keeping, putting a renewed effort into marketing and advertising, and making sound financial decisions.