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Preparing for the Pre-Summer Hiring Season
Written by Tom Gimbel, President and CEO of LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based staffing firm.
With 2014 graduates entering the workforce towards the end of May, there typically is an influx of applicants and hiring right before summer begins. Simply because there are more candidates, doesn’t mean there should be more staff. Before jumping into this hiring season, CEOs should dissect their companies, reorganize, and strengthen internal operations to ensure hiring efforts translate into retention and long-term growth.
Here are a few things to consider for retaining the new hires:
1. Adopt a mentorship program – Mentoring programs do two things really well: First, they help new hires begin contributing faster, and second, they help integrate new hires into the culture more quickly. Everyone can relate to starting something new and feeling like an outsider or lost when it comes to the job itself. A mentoring program helps speed up that process of assimilation. It also provides another person for the new hire to turn to other than their manager to discuss concerns, stressors and personal life issues.
2. Strengthen Training Program – According to a recent Forbes article, dissatisfaction with employee development efforts appears to result in many early departures. To prevent this, train your staff, and start early. Not only does investing time and money to strengthen your training program help your top-line growth by ensuring your employees are competent and knowledgeable, but it also demonstrates that you are invested in your staff, helping to retain them down the road.
3. Training management team – I’ve always said that people join companies but they quit managers. If a company has ineffective or incompetent management, they threaten losing valuable employees…so take the time to train and retrain your management team. Each month, or every few months conduct an on-site training or bring in a professional trainer. Seek input from the management team on things
they are struggling with and ensure they are aligned with the company’s mission.
4. Rotational training programs – While not the right fit for every company, a rotational training program provides an opportunity for new hires to work in each area of the business for a set amount of time. The goal is to expose new hires to every aspect of the business, helping them grow personally and professionally. It also helps the company and the new hire determine where they fit best for the long-
term, helping ensure job satisfaction and retention.
Tom Gimbel is the President and CEO of LaSalle Network, a staffing firm based in Chicago. Founded in 1998, LaSalle has served thousands of clients and candidates, placing job seekers in temporary, temporary-
to-permanent and permanent positions. LaSalle Network was an Inner City 100 winner in 2011 and 2013. LaSalle Network has also been listed on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America
list for the past seven years, named by Staffing Industry Analysts’ as a top five “Best Staffing Firms to Work For” from 2011 through 2013, and among the “Fastest Growing Staffing Firms” in 2012 and 2013.