Hiring for Retention and Promotion
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Place emphasis on internal succession planning, so the employees you mentor will be motivated to stick around for a long time.
OVERVIEW [top]You've heard the mantra endlessly. No single asset is as critical to a fast-growing company as its employees. And you have likely given a lot of thought to how you treat your valued employees on the job. But many businesses that win high marks for their personnel policies — everything from flex time to generous benefits — may still not have a plan in place to keep and promote employees for the long term. You may be focused on next month's financial statement, but your employees are always thinking about their future careers. You need a talent strategy to both satisfy your workers and keep a strong group of key employees ready to step into important positions as your company grows. In this Quick-Read, you will find:- Steps for creating an internal promotion strategy
- Is your company going through rapid growth? If so, you will probably need to look to people outside the company to fill your growing ranks.
- Is your company consolidating? When consolidating, you want to keep your very best employees, showing them how they have a future in the smaller, nimbler organization.
- Is your company trying to renew itself? Again, bringing in fresh ideas from outside the company may be the best solution.
- Recent university graduates?
- Professionals working for your competitors?
- Retirees who may want to return to work?
- What skills will they have?
- How accomplished will they be at those skills?
- What does an employee look like who can move up into another position in one to three years?
- Should they be independent thinkers? Implementers? Planners? Managers? (Don't expect to get all of these types of people in a single package.) One way to assess the skills and potential of candidates is through pre-employment testing.
- What do they want to do in their jobs? What do they want to learn?
- How well do they learn?
- How many are ready to advance?
- How many still need training? Make sure you tell your employees what they need to do to advance within the company, and help them achieve those goals.
- Providing mentors.
- Providing education both in and out of the company.
- Providing hands-on, real-world experience.
- Assigning projects that stretch comfort zones.
- Evaluate your long-term business strategy.
- Decide what kinds of talent you need.
- Look at what you have.
- Give your employees the tools to become what you want.
- Work with your human resources department or an outside firm experienced in employee succession to do an assessment of your human resource needs for the near- and long-term.
- Assess your current work force to see how they measure up to the tasks ahead. Consider using some of the packaged personality/skill assessment tools available. See the resources for a list of companies providing assessment services.
- Make a list of employees who are good candidates for advancement immediately, in six months with training, in one year with training, and if need be, in three years with training.
- Make a list of places to recruit actively. If they are local professional organizations or university campuses, create a networking plan that connects you and your senior managers with those organizations.
- Make a list of the training employees will need to advance. Check local universities and community colleges to see if their curriculum meets your needs. In many cases, community colleges will design specific courses for your company. You may also consider creating an in-house "university" with a group of classes designed specifically for your business.
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