Sound harsh? You bet, but this is exactly what often happens. Don’t believe me, read on! Let’s use an example of what many employers are doing after spending countless hours and thousands of dollars to find and onboard the employees we so desperately need to run our businesses.
- First, we send the candidate an offer letter that tells them how excited we are to have them join our team. But wait, don’t forget that in the same letter, we tell them that they are an employee at-will so we can fire them for any reason or no reason at all so long as we don’t break the law in doing so.
- Then we have them fill out their new hire paperwork, which includes an acknowledgment form that again reminds them that they can be fired, essentially for anything. Gee, what a way to say welcome!
- Now we present them with their employee handbook and what’s typically the first policy? Yup, you guessed it, the employment-at-will policy. Oh, and let’s not forget the progressive disciplinary policy along with a myriad of other policies that tell them that they will be terminated when they screw up.
- Now, let’s move on to health insurance where we inform the employee that they must wait 90-days until they can get health insurance coverage, which could be financially devastating if someone gets sick.
- How about time off for vacation or illness?, Nope! Many employers do not give their new employees time for several months, and in some cases up to a year in certain industries. With about half the employees in the workforce being millennials who place tremendous value on time off and work/life balance, time off is key.
- 401(k) plan, yeah, you must wait for that too. Okay, I could go on-and-on, but you get the idea by now.
I know this is hard to hear but reality is that it’s time for employers to think differently if they want to hire top talent and retain employees in today’s labor market. By changing the narrative, you will hire people more quickly and retain employees in the ultra-vulnerable first year of employment. Here are some suggestions based on what we see savvy employers doing:
- Remove the employment-at-will (EAW) language from offer letters and move the EAW policy to a place in the handbook that is not so prominent. (i.e., towards the end).
- Offer health insurance on day-one (Amazon does it) or the first day of the month following date of hire. The quicker you get someone tied into the health insurance and other benefits, the less likely they will consider another position. Remember, good benefits retain employees, and a paycheck is just a commodity. Why do you think government employees never leave?
- Begin accrual of PTO on day one and offer new employees a realistic time off benefit from the onset. Why would someone want to leave their current position where they get, for example, three weeks of PTO to come work for you if you give a skimpy time off benefit for the first several of years. Frankly, I would be concerned about the intelligence level of someone who would risk such a loss of income if they become ill.
- Review your employment policies and be mindful of how punitive your policies read. I am not suggesting that you remove essential language, but you likely don’t need to make it such a prominent part of the document.
- Establish a mentor program that gives new employees a person that they can go to when they need support.
For several of our clients, when they cost out the changes that I have outlined above and factor in the increased productivity with being properly staffed, the net cost is negligible. For assistance on how Hubric Resources can assist your company with improving its employee recruitment and retention strategies, or for anything else HR, including recruiting for those hard-to-fill positions, contact Tom Hubric at: tom@hubricresouces.com.