4 tips for retaining top talent

Importance of onboarding, work-life balance, and professional development in retention

As a specialist recruitment agency, CGC Recruitment plays an essential role in assisting organisations to find the right talent. We understand how crucial employee retention is, particularly during this labour shortage crisis where many businesses are experiencing high turnovers and employee deficits.  

The very first step to ensuring effective employee retention is to work with a recruitment specialist to help you find the right candidates. Not only do we take the lead and drive excellence to achieve the best outcomes across the business, we work closely with candidates to help them achieve their career goals and aspirations.

So once you’ve hired your employee, how do you make sure you retain them?    

Below is a list of strategies to help you overcome challenges around engaging, hiring, and training skilled infrastructure workers to strengthen a long-term talent pipeline, and boost job satisfaction for your greatest assets.

1. Recruitment and onboarding

Many employers fail to realise that retaining their employees starts as early as the recruitment and onboarding stage.  

Focusing on retention-based questions during the interview will enable you to determine the candidate’s interest and dedication to the role. Performance based questions could include:

• What’s an important goal you’ve set and accomplished? How did you accomplish the goal?
• Discuss a time when you had to manage several tasks at once - and the steps you took to complete the tasks.

Strong answers can indicate a candidate’s ability to persevere, meaning you could potentially retain them for a longer period.

Similarly, research by  Brandon Hall Group found organisations who have a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82%, making it imperative to engage and retain your employees on day one. When onboarding your new candidate, ensure you clearly communicate the company’s goals so they’re productive and working with a set of shared objectives.

With a positive employee experience in mind, the onboarding process may include:

• pairing them with a mentor to answer questions, as well as helping them with their professional growth
• regular check ins with their manager
• helping them set goals for projects, so they feel accountable for their role

2. Promote a healthy work-life balance

Work-life balance is becoming an important aspect of self care, moreso due to the demanding nature of the construction and infrastructure sectors. Managers need to recognise that maintaining a balance (even when they’re working from home) can be challenging. Therefore, employers need to adopt workplace practices to ensure they’re supporting their employees to get the balance right. Organisations can:

• offer flexible work arrangements
• focus on productivity rather than hours 
• encourage regular breaks
• regularly review workloads

As a result, employees will feel more energised and valued - increasing productivity.  When an individual’s productivity is boosted, the overall performance of the organisation improves as well.    

 3. Offer employee wellness programs

Workplace wellness programs are aimed to help employees avoid illnesses, reduce stress, and improve their general well-being. In a tight labour market where candidates have the upper hand, organisations need to offer perks and extras to retain their employees.  

A holistic program should target physical, mental, social, and financial well-being.  In-office benefits could include on-site exercise classes or healthy food options. And for those mostly working from home, setting up monthly or quarterly in-person events are helpful in providing a more nurturing environment where employees can connect.

 4. Provide opportunities for professional development

According to a recent report, 86% of professionals said that they would change jobs if they were offered more opportunities for professional development.  

In a constantly changing economy where there is a prevalent skills shortage required to deliver projects, organisations must prioritise learning and development in order to retain employees. And it doesn’t just simply mean promotions. For company longevity, there should be a clear career path. Employers need to offer opportunities for workers to acquire new skills and techniques, as well as receive training on new technology to keep up to date with technological advancements.  

In summary

In order to be well-prepared for the constant shift in employee expectations in a post-pandemic world, every organisation needs an effective employee retention in place to retain talent.  

Successful organisations who take the time to understand their employees’ needs can design and implement programs that engage their workers for the long term - and ultimately retain the best workforce, which is key to overall profitability.  

About CGC Recruitment

CGC Recruitment is a specialist construction, infrastructure, engineering, and architecture recruitment consultancy. We view our clients as our partners and work closely with them to meet their business needs. We work with some of Australia’s largest construction brands through to specialist SMEs and boutique consultants. We have proven experience delivering permanent, contract and retained recruitment solutions, consistently providing the right candidates for the right roles at the right time.

If you have an active role you’d like to discuss or just want to talk to a specialist consultant, please contact us. Alternatively, you can complete our  online client form and a member of our team will contact you.