One Company’s Employee Turnover is Another Company’s Treasure

In March, there were 2.6 million private sector quits, which is a significant increase from the low in September 2009.

The BLS states, “the quits rate can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs.” Workers are more confident in the job market and may be pursuing, or open to, new jobs. This opens up more opportunities for employers to recruit from the current workforce.

However, the number of quits is still 1.7% below the pre-recession level, while the number of job openings returned to the pre-recession level in April of 2014. This creates more competition in the labor market and gives candidates the upper-hand.

If you want to benefit from another company’s employee turnover, you will have to beat your competition to hire your top-choice candidates.

Here are a few tips:

1. Work with a direct hire agency: Many employed candidates don’t have the time to scour job boards and review open job descriptions, but will work with an agency to help them uncover interesting opportunities. By working with a direct hire agency, you can access passive candidates who are ready to make a move.
2. Provide competitive compensation: As a rule of thumb, you should be offering an employed candidate a 10% increase over their current salary. Given the competitive nature of today’s job market, you may even want to increase that figure to stand out.

   While money isn’t a motivating factor for all candidates, it does show the candidate that you’re serious about bringing them on and that you treat your employees well.

3. Provide great benefits: Again, this isn’t always a motivating factor but can show candidates that you treat your employees well. You should always offer the basic benefits, such as medical, dental, PTO and 401k – but may also want to think about providing a few extras.

   These can be no-cost benefits such as the ability to work-from-home, or could be something like tuition reimbursement or catered lunches.

4. Offer a promotion or opportunities for growth: If you want career-minded people at your company, offer candidates a role that will allow them to grow professionally. This may include a better title, allowing them to build their own team or a clear career path toward a future promotion.

What are you doing to overcome the competition for talent?