Over the past couple of weeks, I have been recruiting a couple of roles for one of my clients. If you are running a business or a leader of a team, I am sure you are aware how difficult this is! So, we decided to do it ourselves rather than go through a recruiter.
During the pre-screening process I would chat to the candidates to get an understanding of what motivated them to apply for the role, what they were looking for from an organisation and what their career aspirations were. This is my favourite part of the process because it enables you to get a good feel for what is important to the candidates.
I had prepared myself for the hard question about salary. What would the salary package be, did I have room to move, could it be reviewed after 6 months? All those types of questions. However, in chatting to over 30 people for 3 roles the question of salary didn’t come up once. The question about culture certainly did.
The top reason why these people were wanting to leave their current employment, besides wanting a change was because they didn’t feel valued or appreciated by the leadership. That’s not to say their project leader or the person they reported to directly didn’t appreciate them, the leadership didn’t. This was the catalyst for them leaving because they were sick of feeling like they didn’t matter and just a cog in the wheel.
There are two things for you to take from this:
- Salary is not a motivator for people leaving. In fact, a couple of the candidates were willing to take a cut to gain career progression opportunities.
- The most effective way to retain employees is to ensure they feel valued. Make the time and make the effort. What people are looking for is a simple thank you, some recognition, to be treated with respect and the understanding that they have a life outside of work that needs to be appreciated.
Your people are not robots. They are not numbers. They are human. Be kind. Be Considerate and ensure you have a strategy in place to appreciate your most important & valuable asset.