Retain Motivated Entry-Level Employees

One of the most difficult challenges facing HR departments are recruiting and retaining motivated entry-level employees. This is particularly true for companies that operate virtual call centers and customer service centers. In this article I will discuss a 4-step process that will help you recruit and retain motivated entry-level employees.

Defining your job opening is the first step in recruiting motivated entry-level employees. By defining your job opening, you will be able to write a better job advertisement, which will lead to recruiting better performing employees. The questions you need to ask include: What is your company trying to accomplish with this position? What job duties will this employee perform on a daily basis? What performance level defines success in this position? What performance level defines failure in this position? What skills are required for quality job performance?

What is the personality type of an employee that will be a top performer in this position? When defining your job opening, talk to employees at your company who are top performers at this position and ask them what makes them successful at their job. Also ask them what type of person you should be looking for when recruiting new employees. Your current employees will provide you with valuable insight into both defining your job opening and in determining the type of person that will be successful at that position.

Once you have clearly defined your job opening and the traits that lead to high job performance, you are ready to write your job advertisement and start marketing it to job seekers. In order to recruit highly motivated, entry-level employees, you must write an outstanding job advertisement. Understand that the purpose of your job advertisement is to attract targeted job seekers. Your job advertisement is a marketing tool and should be written as one.

Now that you have a pool of applicants that have applied to your job advertisement, you need to determine which applicants to interview. This is the stage where most hiring mistakes are made because we still tend to hire with our heart instead of with our head. To help solve this problem, have applicants take assessment tests to test for skills and personality (i.e., personal motivation) associated with high job performance within your specific industry and job category. Assessment testing provides you with an unbiased means to filter out applicants that do not have the skills and/or personality profile necessary for high job performance. Applicants that receive high scores on assessment tests are the candidates that should be considered for interview and possible hire.

It is unfortunate, but companies do a lousy job of retaining their high performing employees. When a great employee says they are leaving, what steps do management and HR take to try and keep that person? Usually very little. Instead of asking the employee what it will take to persuade him or her to stay, and then doing what it takes to keep that employee, we start writing a job ad to find a replacement before the employee's seat is cold. Normally, what it takes to retain your high performing employee is far less expensive than recruiting and training a replacement. Therefore, do whatever it takes to retain your high performing employees.

Considering the time, effort and money involved in hiring new employees, it makes smart business sense to hire and retain motivated employees. This is especially true with entry-level positions where turnover and training costs are high as in the virtual call center industry. Motivated employees have higher job performance, they respond better to training and they remain with a company longer. This in turn increases job performance while lowering future recruiting and training costs due to lower turnover. To see the positive impact of hiring motivated employees, look at your company's star performers. I bet they all have one personality trait in common—they are all highly self-motivated.

The second part of this strategy is that once you have hired motivated employees, do everything you can to retain them. Understand that employee retention is primarily a management issue. Motivated employees stay at companies where management makes them feel good about themselves and good about the job they are doing. Compliment and reward your employees when they perform well. Tell them they are important to the success of your company. Build a career path for motivated employees and advance them within your organization because if you don't, your competitors certainly will. Realize that your company is only as good as its employees. Therefore, give your company the best opportunity for success by hiring and retaining the best people--highly motivated people.