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Your Ultimate Guide to Hiring & Retaining Employees
Introduction
Whether you’re working in a company as a recruitment officer or running your own business, it’s important to know how to get the most out of the people you employ.
When you hire someone, you expect them to work at their full potential for the entire period that they agreed to – or, if there is no contract in place, you want them to stay with the company as long as they can.
There are ways to ensure this. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you should be dishonest as an employer and trap your workers! Instead, it simply means that you should be clear on the employment terms from the very beginning.
Hire the Right Employees
The best way to make sure that employees don’t leave you high and dry is to filter out those who won’t be the right fit. It’s important to hire the correct people, otherwise, you will regret it later in some shape or form. Here are the things you should consider to ensure that you hire the right employees for your business’ situation:
1. Decide the Type of Employee You Need
The first thing you need to do is figure out what sort of employee you want. Do you want them working for you full-time or part-time? Are you looking for a permanent employee or a seasonal worker? Are you looking for someone experienced, or would an apprentice or trainee be able to handle the work?
If you’re unsure, take a look at the types of employees according to Australian law to determine what will work best for your business. Make sure you’re looking for an employee and not a contractor, as those are two different things governed by different sets of rules and regulations. It will also affect the taxes you’ll have to pay.
2. Assess the Cost of Employees
Hiring isn’t as simple as just posting a job opening, receiving back a bunch of applications, and then picking out the best. The cost of hiring employees extends beyond the salary of the employee and may cause you to make changes to the workplace to accommodate the accessibility needs of the potential worker.
However, it is vital that your criteria are not discriminatory against applicants with disabilities simply to “cut costs” on hiring. If you don’t already, you need to have worker’s insurance, and that must be factored into the cost of hiring an employee.
3. Check the Qualifications of the Employee
To avoid any problems in the future, it’s best to double check that the person you’re hiring really has the qualifications that they’re claiming to have. Checking qualifications doesn’t mean you don’t trust your employee; it simply means you’re protecting your business and doing due diligence to prevent any future problems.
You may be subject to legal action in some places if an employee, working under you, has a legal obligation to be certified to practice, but doesn’t hold the requisite qualifications to do so.
Furthermore, it is important to note that letting go of an employee who you hired while under the impression that they are qualified when they aren’t, can be extremely complicated. So, it’s always safest to take additional measure to avoid that as much as you can.
4. Decide the Pay Contract
Naturally, one of the biggest motivators of employees is money.
Some companies hire workers at hourly pay, while others have fixed pay, and some even have a complicated base pay + commission structure. Each of these has its own set of benefits, so you should factor that into your decision-making process.
Make sure that your employee-to-be has is entirely clear about the terms of their payment contract. This includes how much they’ll be paid, when they’ll be paid, the channel through which they’ll be paid, how they’ll be assessed for future pay raises, and so on.
5. Calculate the Taxes You'll Have to Pay
There are different types of taxes you may be required to pay as an Australian employer. For example, each quarter you may have to pay superannuation on your employee’s behalf. Also, if you’re providing fringe benefits, you will need to pay FBT, which is a fringe benefits tax. Lastly, you may also have to pay payroll tax if the total wages that you pay are above a certain threshold. You can check your eligibility for all these taxes and calculate how much you may have to pay on the Australian government website’s Hiring Employees Checklist.
How to Retain Employees
Now that you know how to hire employees properly, it’s time to learn how to keep those employees. To avoid high turnover rates, you must know how to retain employees. In 2022, money isn’t the only thing you need to keep employees loyal to your company.
1. Always Keep Employment Records
The first, if not the most basic thing, that you must do, is to keep employment records safe. Employment records help you identify when someone was taken on board and how they were oriented into the office, as well as the terms and conditions they agreed to when they joined as an employee. Preferably use an electronic medium, and always keep your electronic data backed up to multiple cloud drives in case something goes wrong.
2. Conduct Orientations to Onboard Employees
While most employees understand their goals and objectives as soon as they join, some may find it difficult to adapt to a new environment. This is why it’s important to conduct orientations and clarify any questions new workers may have, including simple queries such as where they need to be at what time (in instances where they have rotational shifts).
3. Conduct Routine Mentorship Programmes
People want to grow as much as they want to be paid. Mentorship allows them to focus on developing new skills and growing as both an individual and a professional. If you provide them with consistent opportunities gain new experiences and to learn, employees will be more inclined to stay with your business as they will recognise that your firm is facilitating their growth and equipping them with the skills necessary to climb up the corporate ladder.
4. Pay Competitive Wages
Compensating employees properly for the work that they do is likely going to keep them loyal to your company. It’s important to never undercut your employees because if they find out, not only will you lose a good worker, but all the time and resources put towards training that employee in the past will also go to waste. The worker will simply walk away and find another job, but you will be left high and dry.
5. Offer Perks to Keep Staff Engaged
If your company cannot offer attractive wages, offering perks could be your unique selling point. These can include things such as a homely environment, a cool staff kitchen, free lunch or tea, extra time off, guest speaker conferences, and so on. All of these are interesting incentives that money cannot buy at another office, so if you offer your employees decent perks, they would love to continue working for you in the long run.
6. Make Sure Communication Is Clear and Direct
A lot of the time, employees leave their workplaces because they think their managers expect more from them than is communicated. To avoid this, it’s best to make sure that all communication is documented and in clear terms. This means that managers should be open to questions in case employees don’t understand, and deadlines should be made clear rather than saying “in a few days” unless the deadline is flexible. If communications aren’t clear, it can lead to confusion, work left undone, and other issues that can halt progress.
7. Provide Constant Feedback to Improve Performance
If you think an employee isn’t doing something correctly or that they can do it better, it’s best to tell them as soon as possible. Not only will this lead to them fixing their mistakes themselves, but repeated feedback will also lead to fewer revisions and more time saved. As such, if there’s anything you aren’t satisfied with, you should tell your employee. If you don’t, it can get worse as time goes by, which can likely cost you a lot of time and money in the long run.
8. Be Flexible Within Reason
Employees are human beings that have lives outside of their work environment. Emergencies can happen, and they may require you to take some time off or may be late to work someday. Try to understand and be flexible to accommodate their needs where reasonable. If you see someone walking in late to work every single day, it might be best to have a meeting with them about the reason behind it. Is everything okay back at home, or are they just struggling with time management? It’s always best to have an intervention with a positive attitude rather than a confrontation with an authoritative attitude, as the former is likely to make the employee feel more comfortable and be honest while the latter will likely illicit a response that employees think you want to hear.
9. Recognise and Reward Hard Work
Lastly, it is of utmost importance to make sure that you reward your employees for consistent hard work. Whether you give them a bonus or you simply send them an email of appreciation, it can mean a lot to a worker to be recognised. It will also make them motivated for future tasks.
Key Takeaways
- To hire the right employees, you must decide what sort of employees you need and how much it will cost to employ them.
- Always check the qualifications of the applicants and decide on appropriate remuneration depending on the employee's experience.
- Know how much you will have to pay in taxes as an employer, and always keep records of employment.
- Conduct orientations to onboard employees, pay a competitive salary, and offer perks to retain employees.
- Always be clear and direct in terms of communication and provide consistent feedback to improve employees' performance.
- Maintain a level of flexibility with your employees and let them have sick days when they need them
- Recognize when they're working hard and reward them for it.
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Mark Lazarus
I am not your typical suit and tie lawyer. As you will note from my LinkedIn Profile, I was the Legal Director of the famous energy drink brand, Monster Energy for almost 6 years (based in London), and currently an Australian and UK qualified lawyer with experience across APAC, EMEA and the US.
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