To understand the secrets behind employee retention, you have to figure out what will get your employees excited to come to work in the morning.

It could be anything from friendships with coworkers, the abundance of snacks and coffee in the communal kitchen or great perks such as an annual bonus strategy or a flexible work from home policy. These small things are all very important aspects of your organizations employee retention strategy, because there is no one thing that will keep your best employees for years to come.

In helping our clients develop a formal employee retention plan, Fusion Career Services asserts that it should be built on these guiding principles:

1.  Have Strong Leaders and Managers

It doesn’t matter how many perks your organization has, in order for your employees to stay successful, they’re going to need strong leaders. A strong leader will not only motivate their employees but will also encourage their growth and cultivate loyalty.

2.  Illustrate Growth Potential

Never stop offering your employees the opportunity to grow. It’s not enough to simply have a great employee culture and perks, they want the chance to move up – so give it to them. This is especially true when hiring recent grads. They may start a new role full of excitement, but don’t expect them to stay after a few years if a clear career path has not been developed for them.

3. Always Acknowledge Achievements

Outside of monetary rewards, employees want to be recognized for their work. In recent years, the existence of rewards programs for employees has become very popular and is something that many people are looking for when considering new employment options. The amount of effort put into a program like this does not have to be large, but the constant recognition ensures that employees feel appreciated and helps to promote loyalty.

4. Hire Well

This may seem like an obvious recommendation, but it bears repeating over and over again that employee retention starts with hiring. The consequences of a bad hire can have a negative ripple effect across the organization and could cause some of your best employees to leave. It is also a waste of valuable resources that could be used to train an employee that has long term growth potential at your company or someone who could be a valuable part of succession planning.

5. Give your Employees a Voice

Listening to your employees and what they have to say can help to strengthen employee relations and encourages a better, more respected work environment. A company’s executives should not be the only ones leading and a part of the conversation. Involving the rest of the organization will result in more buy-in and more ideas. These types of conversations can happen during a formal review period or informally during weekly team meetings.

Truly, there is no real secret to retaining your employees. The best approach to take is to always consider what you can do to keep your best people and then make it a priority. Putting some thought into whether your employees are happy and how you can facilitate even more job satisfaction will always be time well spent in retaining the best employees.

Find out how a smaller, boutique staffing agency can adapt to your needs and get you the best candidate possible.

Making the choice to work with a staffing agency is an easy one, but choosing a firm to retain can be difficult. Each agency will have its own expertise and its up to you to choose the firm that reflects your requirements and needs. Many times that choice is a smaller, boutique staffing partner that can adapt to your needs and get you the best candidate possible.

Small Staffing Firm Advantages

The benefits of working with a small firm are plentiful, and will make the difference between getting a candidate or the right candidate for the job. At a small firm, every client contract will impact their bottom line and their reputation. They are dedicated to every client and simply cannot afford to spread themselves too thin. By working with a select few clients, a smaller firm has access to a much larger talent pool than a multinational firm who cannot prospect candidates from its’ large client base.

Smaller firms are often owner operated and ensure their recruiters are highly trained and equally committed to the success of their clients. Dedicated recruiters understand how to identify the right prospects, contact them discretely, and clearly communicate the value of each company they represent and the position they are selling.  This usually results in faster placements with more qualified talent.

This is the exact opposite of large staffing firms who typically have a higher turnover rate and are frequently replacing recruiters within the organization. They also have a heavy client load, which makes it difficult to dedicate the time and effort it takes to research and speak with clients to understand their needs or to research and interview the right potential candidates. Many larger firms are continually scrambling to grow their client list and fill as many job openings as possible. With a heavy client load, this means that not as much individual attention can be paid to each position, and finding qualified and available candidates can take a while.

A common tactic of many of the smaller firms is to assign a team to every position to identify candidates. Working as a team allows them to search from a larger pool of prospective candidates by conducting a more comprehensive search. Recruiting is more of an art than a science and like artists, every recruiter has their own style in terms of their recruiting process.  Once you go beyond the basic recruiting skills, it’s the experience and style of the recruiter that enables them to find, contact and persuasively “recruit” top talent. 

Before you give your next position to a large recruiting firm, speak with a smaller firm in your industry and realize the small staffing firm advantages mentioned above. Smaller agencies understand that even the best recruiters can’t cover all the bases quickly when it comes to discovering the best candidates.

 

Ontario Minimum Wage will Increase on October 1, 2016.

Employment Standards Act Update – ESA Ontario Minimum Wage Increase October 2016. Minimum wage in Ontario will rise from $11.25 to $11.40 per hour on October 1, 2106. This wage will be in effect for 1 year from October 1, 2106 to September 30, 2017.

Ontario Minimum Wage Rates

General Minimum Wage

• current wage $11.25
• new wage effective October 1, 2016 –  $11.40 per hour

Student Minimum Wage

• current wage $10.55
• new wage effective October 1, 2016 – $10.70 per hour

The Ontario Minimum Wage is now linked to the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI). Each year on, or before April 1 minimum wage will be announced. Learn more about Ontario minimum wage increase October 2016 at the Ministry of Labour.

The passive job seeker is a working professional who is not actively looking for work, but when contacted directly by a recruiter is open to discussing new job opportunities.

Finding above average employees who fit the requirements of the role and the culture of your organization is not an easy task. Many times the ideal candidate is already gainfully employed or simply not looking for work. As a hiring manager it’s your job to find the best candidate by looking at all the possibilities, and an opportunity many hiring managers miss is the passive job seeker as a potential source for suitable candidates. A recruiter can help you gain access this group.

A passive job seeker is someone who is a working professional who is not actively looking for work, but when contacted directly by a recruiter these candidates are open to discussing new job opportunities. Understanding the passive job seeker, involves accepting the idea that workers are eternally restless. For many, they see themselves holding a position that may be one or two levels below where they want to be. There are many reasons the passive job seeker may peek over the fence to see what their next opportunity could be. If they don’t have to peek over the fence and that opportunity comes knocking on their door, even better!

Everyone is a potential Recruit

A recent survey states that only 30% of those viewing job postings on their site are coming from passive job seekers. It also states that nearly 1 in 5 of those who already have a job say they’ve been approached by a recruiter for a position they never applied for.  According to the survey 85 percent would be willing to talk with a recruiter, while only 15 percent said they were completely satisfied and wouldn’t change jobs. Most of those passive candidates are interested in achieving a better work/life balance or gaining more opportunities for advancement.

Not only does this prove the value and importance of using a recruiter in your candidate search, but also that the passive candidate can quickly become active if the right opportunity comes along.  How do recruiters attract the passive candidate. The first step to attract passive candidates is to think like one. This means using social media tools like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as well as in-person networking events and industry mixers to scope out potential candidates and to learn their employment motivations.

The bottom line is that all employees are potential future hires. A worker’s current status in the job market has nothing to do with their talent or their willingness to look at other opportunities that present themselves. The reverse is also true, that great performers might be currently unemployed, caught in a downsizing, and very actively looking for a job right now.  A recruiter will make it their job to make sure no stone is unturned when looking for the ideal candidate to fill a role. This means souring and screening both active and passive job seekers to ultimately find above average candidates for the position.  

40% of Canadians Report Working Longer Hours Due to Mobile Technology

According to an Angus Reid poll from 2015, Canadians are working longer hours due to mobile technology. In fact, 40% of Canadians report that they have increased their working hours. Checking and responding to text messages, voice mail and email during off hours accounts for the majority of the extra working hours. Despite the added hours, the majority of Canadians report they are ok with this use of their smart phones. The flexibility offered by using mobile technology seems to outweigh any downside of working additional hours during personal time.

Up to 21% of Canadians check email after hours every day. While another 20% check email regularly. Younger workers in the 18 to 24 age group were more likely to report after hours work than older age groups.

What is the impact of all this “checking in”?

We need to be careful not to take advantage of the 24/7 availability of employees. Employers need to set boundaries and ensure people have sufficient breaks away from work. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that over work results in a decline in productivity and quality.

Resist the temptation to get a quick answer or to share your great new idea that pops into your head at 11 pm. Instead, send yourself a note to follow up in the morning. Just because we are entering a new era where people demand instant feedback does not mean we cannot limit our expectations.

The upside of mobile technology is the increasing flexible workday. Many jobs are no longer tied to the traditional 9 to 5 office hours. Some work can be done at any time of day and allows employees to make effective use of their work and personal time. Many people find their most productive work times are late in the evening or very early in the morning. Others want to take time out during the traditional work day to exercise or to participate in their children’s activities. These employees are willing to work in the evening or on weekends to ensure the flexible schedule benefits everyone.

Interested in more details from the Angus Reid Research?

 

One year delay announced for implementation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).

On February 16, 2016, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced the province will delay the implementation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) by one year. Large corporations will be required to register with the ORPP by next January 1, 2017, but will not be required to remit premiums until January 1, 2018. The delay will give employers more time to prepare for the ORPP.

Minister Sousa also announced the province has reached an agreement with the federal government on administrative support for the ORPP. The federal government has agreed to facilitate retirement plan registration and will work with the province on collecting employer and employee contributions.

The ORPP, which was passed into legislation in 2015, has come under tremendous criticism from business leaders. Although many are against any form of pension plan reform, others believe a nationwide CPP expansion is what Ontarians and Canadians need. The delay will give the federal government and the other provinces more time to “engage in a national dialogue about the enhancement to the Canada Pension Plan” according to Mr. Sousa.

For a summary of the ORPP, read the Fusion Blog from September 2015 – ORPP Implementation and the guide to the ORPP for Employers.

Want to read more about the announcement – Ontario Retirement Pension Plan Delayed – read the latest ORPP news release.