This year I attended an event that had a dynamic panel program featuring a technology expert, a marketing & communication expert, an economics expert, and an accounting, tax & operations expert. While they talked about numerous trends, the one that I keyed in on was regarding the current hiring pool.

If you are trying to sell a home, then you probably already know that regarding the housing market, it is a buyer's market. The same holds true for companies that have positions available -- dare I say for sale? -- because with regards to the employment market, it is an employee's market. Why? Because there are fewer experienced employees than are looking for the positions available. It's all about supply and demand.

What does that mean for your company? You will be spending more time and money for recruiting for open positions, particularly those requiring more experience. And, this phenomenon will probably continue well into the next decade as more experienced Baby Boomers begin to retire. Keep in mind, as you bring on newer, less experienced employees, this will most likely translate into additional training expenditures too.

But don't get too caught up on focusing only on the external employees that you will be targeting for hire. There are cost implications for your company from an internal perspective as well. Forward thinking companies will recognize that they will need to spend additional monies on employee retention.

Can't afford to? Better think again. According to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM), it costs a company on average 3 to 5 times an employee's salary to replace them. Do the math. If you can retain two employees with an average salary of $50,000 each, that would result in a cost savings to your company of between $300,000 to $500,000. My suggestion is to carve out some of those savings and put them towards employee retention programs.

Let's get back to our Panel Experts. In addition to trends, they also identified five key focus areas to target with regards to marketing to attract customers. I believe that you can use these same strategies and employ different tactics to solve your employee retention and hiring challenges.

Five Key Focus Areas:

1. More One-On-One Marketing and Less Mass Market Strategies. This includes email, newsletter, and event promotion. Ask yourself, what are we doing today in this area to either attract or retain employees? What other things could we be doing? What can we do less of or get rid of altogether?

2. More Public Relations versus Advertising. PR is one of the most cost-effective ways to attract and retain employees. Evaluate your PR strategies. Don't have one? Then consider hiring an expert consultant to assist you.

3. Interactive Website versus Passive Website. Most companies have focused on creating interactive tools for customers. Consider creating interactive tools for current and prospective employees to engage with your company. Remember, the more engaged they feel the less likely they are to leave.

Page 1 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next