Techniques for Re-Recruiting Food & Beverage Executives

August 1, 2016 in HR Best Practices

 

 

With our nation’s unemployment rate holding at under 5% and time-to-fill at a record high (29.3 working days in April), turnover is a very real – and costly – danger.

Today’s job seekers have lots of options, making them more likely to jump ship in favor of a better opportunity. And once they leave you, it’s taking longer than ever to fill the void.

Want to keep your best food & beverage professionals loyal and committed to your food & beverage organization?

Show them a little love – by renewing your commitment to them!

According to HR thought-leader Dr. John Sullivan, retaining top talent requires continually “re-recruiting” them – just as if they were new external candidates. In a nutshell, re-recruiting involves re-energizing your best employees every few years by either proactively redesigning their jobs, or by offering them promotions/better compensation.

The basic premise is simple: by applying external recruiting tools and strategies to your top current employees, you can ensure that the best offers they receive come from within your firm.

And the logic makes sense: if talented food & beverage professionals are meeting their growth needs within your organization, they’re much less likely to be lured away by competitors.

Related Post: Top 5 Employee Turnover Myths

Why is re-recruiting so effective?

  • It keeps employees out of a career rut. Talented professionals continually seek new challenges to stave-off boredom. Re-recruiting effectively addresses their needs.
  • It makes internal offers more exciting. Top performers want to be doing the best work of their life and to make a significant impact. Re-recruiting ensures that managers and HR are doing their part to always keep work challenging, exciting and meaningful for employees.
  • It demonstrates your ongoing commitment to their success. Investing in recruiting great employees again and again (even when there are no external competitive offers) is more than just flattery. It sends a clear message that you value employees’ contributions, growth and success.

Ready to try re-recruiting?

Start now, before you find yourself in a counter-offer situation! Begin with these action steps, summarized from Dr. Sullivan’s original post on re-recruiting:

  1. Make re-recruiting a priority. Make “ensuring the best offers always come from inside” a key goal for managers and HR.
  2. Develop a re-recruiting toolkit. Adapt your external recruiting model to develop processes and templates you can use internally.
  3. Identify and prioritize targets for your efforts. Focus your time and energy on top performers whom you’d most regret losing.
  4. Start with “high risk” targets. If resources are limited, begin by re-recruiting individuals who are at the highest risk of leaving in the near future.
  5. Develop personalized retention plans. Create a potential list of “excitement factors” (i.e., things that make employment offers most appealing) and “frustrators” (i.e., triggers that cause employees to think about leaving) for each target you identify. Then, develop a set of personalized retention actions that could be used to counter turnover-related factors.
  6. “Renew your vows” with individual employees. Set aside a formal meeting time to identify how you could change and update the targets’ roles, so that your best employees are excited to come to work every morning.

The moral of today’s post?

Retention efforts should start from the moment a candidate accepts an offer with you – and continue throughout the employment life cycle. By being proactive, and focusing efforts on re-recruiting your best talent, you can keep them in a “committed relationship” with your food & beverage organization.

Better retention starts with making better hires.

With decades of experience in food & beverage C-level and executive recruitment, Kinsa Group knows how to recruit for longevity.  Our recruiting process ensures the candidates we refer:

  • have the skills and experience to succeed;
  • possess the “soft skills” and personality to thrive in your culture;
  • bring the energy and the best practices to help your company achieve its objectives.