To get and keep great employees, you need to pay attention to: 1) how you go about recruiting people; and 2) how you manage them once they’re on board. Hiring the right people saves you the time, cost, and trouble of having to let people go who didn’t work out—either because they didn’t fit into the company, or they just couldn’t do the job. Being able to retain people saves all the time and money you have to invest in covering the work of people you let go, and then recruiting once more for their positions. Add to this the fact that, with the number of job openings available in most markets today, it’s harder to both find good people and then retain the ones you hire. Here are five keys that HR (human resources) professionals say will help you hire and retain the best people for your company.

Don’t outsource the responsibility

It’s fine to use online candidate sources such as Indeed, Monster, and LinkedIn, but keep your recruitment responsibilities in house. Don’t be fooled by services that promise they can get job seekers to take a lower salary—that could mean higher turnover costs when the employee leaves for more money next year. By staying in charge of your recruiting, you’re more likely to find candidates that will be with your company for the long term.

Pay attention to the candidate’s potential more than their experience

Studies have found that for many jobs, employees still have to learn 10 additional skills within their first 18 months, no matter what their level of experience is. So, even if your new hire has all the qualifications you require, they may still need to acquire 10 new skills in their role with you. Instead, look for people with a solid, versatile foundation, plus the ability—and the desire!—to learn new things. This also works as a retention strategy. Instead of hiring from the outside, consider promoting someone from within. Don’t be fooled into thinking that someone from outside with experience in the position will be able to hit the ground running. They’ll probably have 10 new skills to learn anyway! Promoting your best employees into stretch roles for them can fill the position and retain workers you want to keep.

Keep an eye on the competition

You may think that what you’re paying employees is at the right market rate, but things can change quickly when there are more job openings than workers. In addition to the salary and benefits, consider the flexibility you offer workers. People are looking for the ability to work from home, or a hybrid home and office situation, or schedules that fit their family responsibilities. If other businesses offer these things, you probably should too.  When reviewing what the competition does, don’t just look at businesses that offer products and services like yours. You competition also includes anyone who hires people who are similar to employees you’re looking for. Every business needs a bookkeeper, for example.

Communicate regularly with employees about their jobs

Find out what makes your employees happy, and what frustrates them. If you don’t know these things, you could start to have problems retaining people. Here are some questions the HR experts suggest:

  • What parts of your job do you like doing the most? Why?
  • What parts of your job do you find most challenging? Why?
  • Are there any other projects or activities you would like to be part of, or additional responsibilities that you’d like to take on?
  • Are there any parts of this business you’re curious about that you’d like to explore?
  • What goals are you trying to reach, short-term and long-term?

The answers to these questions will guide you in tailoring the training and development efforts that will benefit your employees—as well as your company!

Record your results and adjust

Keep track of your recruiting activities and employee retention performance. Use this information to improve your hiring and employee development processes. You cannot get better at these efforts if you don’t know what works and what doesn’t.