Lessons Learned Key Success Factors in Recruitment and Retention

• Have a clear HR Strategy in your Strategic Plan, including an organizational chart. Utilize staff in the development of the strategy to understand what attracted them to the organization and what keeps them there, as well as what are the gaps in skills and where additional resources are required. 

• Look within (ie. clients, volunteers, student placements) when recruiting talent.

• Promote your organization’s human capital by promoting and developing your existing staff through job shadowing, professional development, training, regular performance reviews, etc.

• Develop selection techniques that will help you screen for candidates that will be a good fit for the organization – this is key to retaining staff and maintaining the culture of the organization; for example:

o Ask staff who will be working with the new employee what they think are the most important skills and qualities needed from the candidate

o After the interview, have one staff person walk out with the candidate and casually introduce him/her to others, show him/her around the centre – etc; this gives you the opportunity to get a better ‘feel’ if the candidate is a good fit

• Hire early for any anticipated leave (maternity). In most cases the person will get trained from the expert in plenty of time to competently begin the position when the person takes leave.

• If you have an entrepreneurial venture in development, hire industry experts to run the program.  Similarly, don’t hesitate to consider hiring people to operate your business who have never worked in a non-profit. 

• If you want someone with different experiences and skill sets, don’t go through your usual channels.

• Once staff are on board, empower them to do the work and don’t micro-manage.  Equip your staff, team leaders, etc. with the tools they need to do the job and then allow them to grow through experience and through expectations.

• Never fail to catch staff doing something right. Recognize and reward good performance.

• Don’t hire without a clear job description, and a clear idea of how that position contributes to the program of which it is a part.  Never say “We don’t know what we want, but we’ll see who shows up and maybe that will give us some ideas.”

• If you have any doubts about a candidate you are considering offering a job to – take time to do a second interview – involve other staff – re-post if necessary. Don’t fall into the trap of recruiting less than ideal candidate based upon a tight hiring deadline.  Better to have a position unfilled than make a bad hiring decision.  Bad hiring decisions can cost you a great deal of time, money and wasted effort.

• Don’t hire someone without checking references.  Ever!

• Don’t look the other way if an employee’s performance is suffering and they are not working out for the organization. Don’t jeopardize the group because one staff isn’t working out.