Get Them and Keep Them

Tips to finding and retaining the right workers for your business

BY KRIS BEVILL

Have you taken time recently to thank your employees for a job well done? Is company culture a top priority for your company? Does your leadership team value work/life balance for all employees? Would you want to work for you?

If you were able to answer these questions affirmatively, chances are good that you have a satisfied staff. If not, you may be finding it difficult to recruit and retain workers. And considering the region’s enviably low unemployment rate, business owners must place new emphasis on not only recruiting the right employees for the jobs but also on providing an atmosphere that makes them want to stay.

Because recruitment and retention has been a recurring concern among area businesses, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development recently held workshops in six northwest Minnesota communities to provide employers with advice related to those issues. Ted Schick, corporate trainer and owner of Schick Corporate Learning, offered participants tips on hiring, early-stage employment review processes and long-term motivation and retention strategies. Schick pointed out that despite the high cost of employee turnover many organizations don’t keep track of those expenses or even know how to calculate the cost. Multiplying the employee’s salary by 1.25 factors in expenses associated with lost productivity, temporarily filling a vacant position and time spent hiring and training a new employee, he said.

Recruitment

Organizations should of course strive to hire the right person for the job the first time in order to lessen the likelihood of turnover and provide a solid base for a successful retention strategy. In Minnesota, the DEED collaborates with employers to evaluate their interview process and provides job profile data to help identify the skills needed for workers to fill a position. The department actively promotes the use of ACT’s National Career Readiness Certificate by employers to evaluate a potential employee’s skill set and compatibility for a position within the company. Schick, who likens the interviewing process to a first date, recommended that a test such as NCRC be one part of a comprehensive interview process that includes thoughtfully prepared questions to effectively screen applicants. Adequate skills for the job are important, but possessing the ability to learn — aptitude and attitude — can be the most important quality in a new hire, he said.

In this region, sometimes simply locating potential applicants to interview can be a struggle. South Dakota, which currently has more than 10,000 job openings in various fields, recently took its statewide recruitment efforts on the road, enlisting Gov. Dennis Daugaard to serve as a job recruiter during an hour-long visit to the Mall of America in Minnesota. Minnesotans have shown the greatest interest in moving to South Dakota and the trip was meant to create awareness of the state’s ample job opportunities and to provide information so that people could make educated decisions regarding relocation, according to Dawn Dovre, director of public affairs at the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation. She says the trip generated media interest and boosted traffic to the state’s job recruitment website, DakotaRoots.com, by more than 86 percent.

“Many people the governor visited with had ties to South Dakota and were interested in the area,” Dovre says. “Active Minnesota job seekers who had already registered with DakotaRoots.com received a special invite and were thrilled the governor wanted to visit with them.”

Retention

Like MN DEED, the South Dakota labor department also provides job retention advice to businesses in the state, and tries to set an example through its own high worker retention rates. The department employs about 450 full-time workers and boasts one of the highest longevity rates among the state’s offices, but like many businesses in the state, South Dakota’s labor department employs an aging workforce. Almost one in three staff members are eligible for retirement within the next five years, according to Dovre. Knowing this, the department launched an initiative last year to further improve upon its retention strategy, beginning with an employee satisfaction survey. “We learned departmental pride, teamwork and meaningful public work ranked high,” she says. “However, there was room for improvement as far as equipment, resources, career advancement and training.”

The department took action by developing a list of strategies to focus on improving internal communication, and providing employee recognition and professional development opportunities. Smaller items were addressed immediately, such as updating office furnishings, allowing for additional casual-dress days and emphasizing employee recognition efforts by supervisors. The initiative is an ongoing effort and will include regional meetings to provide updates to staff on the initiative’s progress. Additionally, a workgroup has been formed to identify ways to best train new staff members.

Culture and Recognition

Justin Welk, talent coordinator at Sundog, a marketing and technology firm headquartered in Fargo, says the company enjoys an extremely low turn-over rate, in part because the firm conducts a comprehensive hiring process but also because the firm emphasizes work/life integration and company culture. “We spend a significant amount of time in our interview and selection process to make sure that we’re hiring for not only the right skill set and technical ability, but we also want to find a person who is going to be a culture fit in our company,” he says. “We want to avoid at all cost hiring culture misfits.”

Culture is so important to the firm that it has established what it calls a “culture club.” The club includes representatives from every aspect of the company and exists to organize activities and events for employees as a way to encourage camaraderie and recognize company and employee achievements. “One thing we found is that while the big events we do are exciting, they’re surprising, they’re fun, it’s the small, frequent activities and recognition pieces that are really critical to our culture and our retention,” Welk says. One example of small but appreciated measures is a peer-to-peer award which allows employees to nominate co-workers for a job well done. “It’s been amazing to see how receptive people have been to that award and how excited they get for each other when people do good jobs,” he says.

An atmosphere of camaraderie is also a key component of Basin Electric Power Cooperative's employee retention strategy. The organization, which employs more than 2,000 people in various skilled and professional trades, has a 2.3 percent turn-over rate, compared to a national average of about 3.5 percent. It was also recently selected by the Bismarck-Mandan Young Professionals Network as one of the Top 10 places for young people to work. About 35 percent of Basin Electric’s current staff members are under the age of 40. Daryl Hill, media relations supervisor, says that while the salary and benefits are important, camaraderie among co-workers plays a key role in the cooperative’s workforce retention rates. “Coming to work with my friends, people who I trust, that is a big factor,” he says.

Basin Electric also readily supports employee participation in community events, which simultaneously promotes team building and social awareness. Employees serve meals at a local homeless shelter once a month and participate in other community activities as needed, such as clean-up after river flooding. “Those kinds of things are not uncommon around here,” Hill says. PB

Kris Bevill Editor, Prairie Business 701-306-8561, kbevill@prairiebizmag.com