Forget recruiting high-flyers; instead, re-recruit your current best

You don’t have to do crazy things — and spend gobs of cash — to recruit the best. Forget virtual reality tours, huge signing bonuses, and sports car test drives. Take a look at your best employees and re-start the conversation.

It’s called re-recruiting.

And it was my esteemed colleague and Staffing Industry Analysts’ SVP of marketing and operations, Ursula Williams, who re-introduced it in our vocabulary. Some easy advice from her on how to do this in this video.

Here’s your short list of what to do:

  • Tell them that their work is valued.
  • Track their growth: raises and promotions over time.
  • Know what concerns might impact this employee’s satisfaction with work. (Long commutes, commitments with children or parents, special needs etc.)
  • Be sure the employee perceives the company or department as fair and equitable in issues of salary, bonus and other recognition.
  • Try not to burden the employee with excessive and perhaps unnecessary administrative work that detracts from the ability to spend time on the real tasks at hand.
  • Put the employee on a career development plan, so they know their progress is being tracked and recognized.

Anecdotally, here’s the scoop. “If you are like most managers, the week’s typical interaction with your people involves update meetings where you review a variety of key metrics important to your business success. And this is fairly consistent and repeatable throughout the year,” Williams says. Career development plans are put on hold unintentionally. But unfortunately, your competition is not neglecting it. Those firms are happy to discuss career plans with your best talent.

By the way, re-recruiting applies to all your workers, contingent as well as W-2s. The fact is media abounds with tales of talent shortages, and those who need talent are hunting right now for the best workers, including your best. Our workers have choices. When it comes to keeping good staff, as managers we need all the help we can get. The re-recruiting concept may just be your best defense.

For a chance to explore innovative ideas like these and many more, come talk to SIA experts in person at our upcoming CWS Summit and GigE conferences. I look forward to seeing you there.

Subadhra Sriram

Subadhra Sriram
Subadhra Sriram is Staffing Industry Analysts' editor and publisher, media products. She can be reached at SSriram (at) staffingindustry (dot) com.

Subadhra Sriram

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