Recruitment and Retention Discussion Questions/Reflections
Use the
Organizational Recruitment and Retention Research Workbook [2.1.2.d.1] to gather information from key stakeholder interviews, employee exit interviews, employee satisfaction surveys, and information gleaned from human resource and recruitment materials. Determine if there are any trends within the data.
Discuss or think about this information in terms of how you believe it is affecting your turnover, retention, and vacancy rates. Be as concrete as possible and use observable, measurable descriptions.
Discuss or think about each site, position, or department under review, as well as the organization as a whole. What questions or reflections will help increase the awareness of the organization’s recruitment and retention problems?
Sample Reflection Questions
The following sample reflection questions have been adapted with permission from
Removing the Revolving Door: Strategies to Address Recruitment and Retention Challenges[1] from the Institute of Community Integration, University of Minnesota.
Some reflection questions could include:
- 1. Do the employees that have left have something in common (e.g., supervisor, shift, location, or lack of important knowledge skills, and aptitude)?
- 2. When are employees leaving?
- - What is the baseline level of performance in regard to retention, turnover, and vacancy rate?
- - What is the average tenure of workers who quit?
- - Is there a definite time of tenure relating to their position?
- - Is there a benchmark skill that is not gained?
- - Is there an external situation that is an influence?
- - Are employees leaving for other agencies?
- 3. What is the vacancy rate for the position in question?
- 4. Are you hiring the right person for the position?
- - Do your recruitment or selection procedures provide you with an employee that has the required knowledge, skills, and aptitudes?
- 5. Are you experiencing these difficulties or concerns with employees across the board, or are there certain positions or places where these problems are the most critical (e.g., recruiting from very rural areas or from other demographic populations that may need a different training or more flexibility in times and places for training, flexible working schedules, or incentives for tenure)?
- - Does this group of employees require more training (e.g., staff dealing with persons with challenging behaviors or complex medical needs)?
- 6. What percent of new hires are recruited by current workers? This number is a means test that shows your current workers are engaged in the organization.
- 7. What happens to new hires from the time they walk in the door to when they are faced with the responsibility of their job?
- - Could this process or lack of a procedure be preparing the employees for difficulties or failures?
- - What is the orientation process?
- - What kind of support is offered to new employees until they demonstrate some competencies to perform the job expectations?
- 8. Are coworkers having difficulty working with each other?
- 9. Do employees work as a team or alone?
- - Could changing that perspective improve retention?
- 10. What training is offered?
- - Is there a lack of training that is affecting tenure?
- 11. Is there a gap in supervision or inadequate supervision?
- 12. Why aren’t employees staying? What are they saying?
- 13. Why do workers say they leave your organization?
- - Do employee exit interviews pick up anything that can relate to his/her departure? If so, is there something that can change the stated problem?
- 14. Do employee satisfaction survey results identify anything that has been helpful?
- - Can employee surveys be used more frequently or expanded?
- - What are job satisfaction rates?
- - Has staff identified areas that need improvement? What has happened with those requests?
- 15. Is long-term staff bored, passed over for challenging tasks, or ready for a higher level or authority?
- 16. What is the organizational commitment level to retention?
These are just a few questions to get you thinking. There may be questions that flow from the data you have researched. The information you gather and the questions you ask will help you to select the problem to be addressed and develop an intervention strategy to meet your needs.
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[1] O'Nell, S, Hewitt, A, Sauer, J, & Larson, S (2002).
Removing the revolving door: strategies to address recruitment and retention challenges. U.S. Department of Labor grant; Research and Training Center, Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota.
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