We’re excited to share a blog post from Tessa Grashuis, Copywriting Expert to Female Leadership and Career Coaches and Recruiting Extraordinaire! Tessa provides practical tips and insights into these impactful strategies for first-time managers and seasoned people leaders alike to create and lead an effective, productive team.

At CareerlyLAB, drawing from our extensive experience as leadership mentors and former recruiting executives, we recognize the critical role that talent acquisition and retention strategies play in driving sustained growth and success in any organization. By aligning these efforts with overarching business objectives, companies create a harmonious team environment and positively impact the company’s health, including a solid culture, happier customers, and higher revenues.  

A well-crafted talent acquisition plan ensures the right individuals are brought on board and supports long-term organizational goals. Likewise, effective retention strategies help nurture a positive company culture and foster employee loyalty, ultimately improving productivity and performance. 

For more information about Tessa, please visit her website.

We hope you enjoy this guest blog.

The world of talent acquisition — and management — is a dynamic one. 

And finding that sweet spot between recruiting new talent and retaining your current employees is an art all its own.

Think of it like this: 

You’re going to host a party for your friends and family at your home. 

It takes a little planning, right? 

Sure, you still maintain creative license, so it doesn’t have to be rigid. After all, there’s more than one way to have a great time. 

But whether it’s an outdoor BBQ, formal holiday party, or an “appetizer, charcuterie, light snacks, and wine” kind of evening, it takes some kind of prep work. 

◾Who do you want to invite and when?
◾Do you need help planning the event or need to hire a caterer?
◾What’s the plan for after dinner? (aka, why are people sticking around?)
◾Is this a board game night, playing bags in the backyard, or are you watching the NCAA final?

Even if it’s super casual, there’s still a semblance of a plan. 

You wouldn’t have a party for everyone you’ve ever met. Tell them to come over whenever, leave whenever, bring whatever, and do whatever.

Right?

That wouldn’t be all that fun — for anyone.

A healthy balance of prep work, planning, and maintenance goes a long way.

The same can be said for your recruiting and retention strategy. 

That’s where these five essential strategies come in. 

My name’s Tessa. I'm a professional Copywriter and Recruiter with ten years of experience in talent acquisition and human resources.

I’ve hired hundreds of employees across multiple industries, partnered with dozens of leaders, and designed various talent programs, which have led to 90%+ offer acceptance and retention rates. 

I’ve seen firsthand the impact these strategies have in shaping successful organizations.

So buckle up, my friend, whether you’re an experienced leader or a new manager. 

We’re delving into the fundamentals of effective recruitment and retention to equip you with the essential tools to attract, engage, and retain top talent. 

Here we go.

The job market is tight.

And so should your job postings be. 

Unemployment has risen to its highest rate since early 2022, resulting in more candidates looking for jobs. (1)

So it’s more important than ever to ensure you’re attracting the right people to your postings.

That means writing job descriptions that accurately reflect the environment of your company, your team, and the job itself.

Keep it simple and have a consistent structure for your job descriptions.

AKA: follow a basic template.

It looks more professional and makes future job postings less time-consuming for you, the hiring manager. 

No wheel-reinventors here!

Don’t have a designated company job description template or aren’t sure where to begin? 

Start with these:

✔️About the company: Include boilerplate language that explains what your company is all about. Don’t forget to add some color around the culture and what problems you solve for consumers.

✔️The team and role: Tell the applicant what this team does and the role — pun intended 😏 — this job plays. Use bullet points to articulate job responsibilities, requirements, and location. Don’t forget to say if it’s office-based, remote, or hybrid.

✔️Compensation info (*optional, kinda): Not every state requires this, but pay transparency laws are changing. So do your research to avoid steep fines, investigations, and costly lawsuits.(2) 

✔️Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) statement: A statement that clearly outlines your company’s commitment to treat everyone equally. Though no law requires you to include an EEOC statement in your job postings (unless you’re a federal contractor), it’s a great idea. Especially when it comes to your recruiting strategy: Job posts with even a simple EEOC statement fill 6% faster than those without one.(3)

Incorporating these four pieces alone already separates your job posting from others…

But if you want to stand out even more from your competition, run your job descriptions through inclusive language software like Textio or Clovers.

Tools like this gut-check your writing for biased and gender-exclusive language.

Because companies with a diverse workforce have a 35% higher performance, it benefits your team and organization to use inclusive language in your job postings.(4)

🔥Pro Tip: Check your company reviews. 

Chances are, your ideal candidate will Google your company after seeing the job online. 

And chances are even HIGHER that what they see will influence their decision to apply. 

Fifty percent of employees say they won’t even bother applying to a company with a bad rep.(5) 

So check those reviews. 

They’ll give you insight into what past and present employees say and help you speak more candidly about company culture during interviews.

(Make the plan for the party.)

Congrats! Thanks to your well-written job posting, you’ve got some excellent candidates lined up to interview.

Now, let’s explore the second piece of your exceptional recruitment strategy: a structured interview process.

Putting parameters around this gives it some guardrails.

A makeshift “bumper” on your bowling lane, if you will. 

Variables will inevitably pop up, but a tight interview structure keeps things from falling in…well…the gutter by:  

◾Maintaining an efficient and equitable process for candidates and interviewers
◾Maximizing your time and minimizing your effort by streamlining everything
◾Setting a positive tone for your prospective employee 

Wins across the board. (Strike! 🎳)

Many leaders view the interview process as a formality to chat up someone they already like. 

But that’s not you. 

You’re a strategic leader.

Eager to build a high-performing team with diverse talents and perspectives and maximize the potential of everyone on your team.

Because of that, you know the importance of planning ahead to offer everyone a fair shot at this position. After all, interviewing can be a daunting task. It’s time-consuming and, if not planned out, can feel overwhelming and frustrating for all involved. 

So as you start to carve everything out, go through this checklist:

✅ Decide how many interview steps you want.

Example:

Step 1: Phone Interview
Step 2: Zoom Interview with hiring manager (that’s you!)
Step 3: Group Interview 

You can swap the first couple steps, but I find it’s great to end with a team interview. It can take hours, and by reserving the group interview for your finalists, you make great use of your, the group’s, and the candidate’s time!

Why it matters: Creating a multi-step interview process narrows your applicant pool to the most qualified candidates.

✅ Pick your interviewers.

Example:

Interview #1: Recruiter
Interview #2: You (the hiring manager/team leader)
Interview #3 (*finalists): A key business partner, team member, and YOU.

If possible, use the same interviewers for all candidates. 

Why it matters: Consistency keeps data tight and reduces bias because the same interview team measures the same candidates against the same criteria.

✅ Consult your job description and assign each interviewer specific areas of focus.

The team member is assigned questions about teamwork, collaboration, and customer service experience.

Why it matters: Each job has different responsibilities, tasks, qualifications, etc. Divvy them up among your interview team so you cover all your bases and get full-picture data.

✅ Use behavioral-based and hypothetical interview questions.

Hypothetical: How do you perform under pressure?

Behavioral: Describe a time when you had many demands placed on your time. How did you ensure you were available to meet the needs of your customers (or stakeholders), colleagues, and yourself? How did things turn out?

Why it matters: Asking different types of questions produces rich, well-rounded answers, which can help you pick the BEST person for the job.

Have a company mission statement? Core values? Amazing. 

Create questions around them to complement the skills and qualifications outlined in your job description.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

Interview Question:

Describe your greatest success collaborating with another department or team. Walk me through the situation, your contribution, and the outcomes.

What you’re listening for:

▪️ How does this relate to the job responsibilities?
▪️ Do they share a specific story where their collaborative efforts ended in a team success? 
▪️ Did they positively impact their team?

Remember: there’s more than one way to run your interviews. But whichever one you choose, it’s important to be consistent.

🔥Pro Tip: Have a Debrief Meeting

Bring your interviewers together to sync up after the finalist interviews have wrapped. 

It allows each person to discuss the interviews and share their feedback on each candidate.

As the team leader, it provides you with full-picture data of your finalist interviews so you can decide on the best person to hire.

Remember to ask your recruiter for help with this one. 

They can MC the meeting, ask follow-up questions, deter bias and groupthink, and facilitate next steps — like extending a competitive offer.

(What’s a party without cake?)

Offering a robust compensation package goes beyond salary.

Think:

⏰PTO
🥼Health insurance
💰401(k) matches
📈Stock (if applicable)
🍼Parental leave
🏋️And even wellness benefits like access to mental health apps or gym reimbursements

Benefits like these are crucial to staying competitive in the job market. 

Not just to attract new employees but also to retain your current ones. Plus, it’s just a great way to treat YOUR PEOPLE with respect.

There’s a strong link between employee’s total compensation package and their productivity.

Stronger compensation packages = More productive employees = Higher company profit margins.

Setting compensation benchmarks is a real pro move to enhance your company's recruitment and retention strategies in the long run.

In a nutshell, compensation benchmarks compare your company’s salary and benefits against market data, including other similar companies and industries, for the same type of jobs.

So it requires some time, research, and resources on your part. 

Whether it’s been a while, or you’ve never defined your compensation plan, I recommend going through these steps:

1️⃣ Tap into compensation data

This is the “resources” part I mentioned earlier. 

Google’s here for a reason, folks. So use it to do a little research on what reliable and legitimate salary software, reports, etc. are available to purchase. (Carta, for instance, offers solutions and compensation data, tailored for HR professionals.)(12)

Tip: Be sure the compensation data you purchase is current, reputable, relevant to your industry, and you consider factors like bonuses and other benefits. 

If paying for compensation data isn’t in the budget, work closely with your internal HR team or HR professionals in your network. Compensation is important and complex, so it’s equally important to get it right.

2️⃣ Nail down the criteria

Define job responsibilities, skills, even years of experience, and assign corresponding levels. 

Example: Senior Manager, 6 years experience, specific skills, responsibilities, etc. = a level of M2.

3️⃣ Adjust your comp plan

Use your data to adjust the company compensation package appropriately. Again, partnering with your HR team is definitely a pro move here!

Don’t forget to plan how and when to roll out these changes.

4️⃣ Inform employees of the changes

Communicate any shifts to compensation plans with your employees. 

Give them the “why” behind your decisions to keep that trust and transparency intact.

These checkpoints ensure you stay market competitive by attracting top talent and rewarding and retaining the strong employees you already have.(6)

🔥Pro Tip: Consider the Cost of Replacing an Employee

On average, replacing an employee can cost 50% (entry-level roles) to 150% (higher-level or more technical positions) of their salary. 

Yikes.

Have to replace a C-level executive? That price tag is steeper at around 213% of their salary.(7)

Not to mention the company knowledge, trust, and relationships they’ve accumulated over the years.

Double yikes.

Losing a great employee could cost you more than you thought. 

As you map out your retention strategy, think about all the factors that make up your compensation package. 

Speaking of taking a multi-factor approach…

Another important piece of overall employee satisfaction is offering professional development opportunities. 

Doing so will take your recruitment and retention strategy to a whole new level. 

Let’s explore the best ways to prioritize the growth and development of your employees. 

(Your party is evolving! Offer more get-togethers and themes over time to keep the good times flowing.)

You’ve probably heard author Rachel Wolchin’s famous quote: “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.”

In the eyes of the modern employee, where the average company tenure is just over 4 years, this couldn’t be more true.(8) 

Employee satisfaction goes beyond:

👕 Free swag
🎉 Company parties
🏡 OR (surprisingly) flexible remote work options

It’s about more than just the pride they feel for their company's mission or the good it does for its customers.

And spoiler alert: It doesn’t even boil down solely to money. 

(Though all of these things are still very important).

Nope. What often outranks these is how employees feel about professional development opportunities. 

Are they learning and supported? 

Or are they stagnant, with efforts going unnoticed?

Disclaimer: Of course, employees and their leaders share the responsibility for growth and development.

AND if you want your high-performing employees to stick around, they should also see and feel the personal and professional value of doing so. 

The average person will spend an estimated 90,000 hours at work — to put it into perspective, that amounts to roughly one-third of your lifetime.(9)

(*pause for collective gasp)

So it’s little wonder why employees' desire for professional growth, development, and advancement has climbed further up their list of career requirements.

◾Over 20% of workers cite a lack of advancement opportunities as a key reason to quit.
◾Around 38% of employees quit inside their first year — 40% dip out in under 90 days.
◾Employees whose high performance goes unnoticed are 2x as likely to look for a new job.
◾And those who don’t feel supported are 3x more likely to explore other job options.(10)

See a common thread?

Employees who feel unsupported, unrecognized, and don’t see a path to advancement are much more likely to leave you. 

As a leader, prioritizing your team's advancement is essential. 

🟢 Provide sufficient training, setting them up for success — starting with Day 1 onboarding.
🟢 Ensure your team can access the resources and channels they need to do their jobs well.
🟢 Have consistent 1:1’s with your direct reports to align on their professional goals and chart a path to reach them. 

Not only will prioritizing your team’s professional development help you retain your best employees but it also:

✔️Improves overall employee engagement
✔️Boosts employee performance
✔️Positively impacts profit margins
✔️And attracts great employees from the get-go (cough*recruitment strategy*cough)

See?

It all comes full circle. ⭕

🔥Pro Tip: Create a Positive Work Environment

Work can get heavy sometimes, so don’t forget to lighten things up!

✨Foster a safe space for communication: Encourage positive and constructive two-way feedback.
✨Celebrate individual and team wins: Ask your direct reports if they prefer public or private praise.
✨Create a team book club: Read company culture and professional development books as a team and discuss positive changes you can make.
✨Encourage community: Recommend your team have coffee chats with folks in other departments to strengthen relationships. (Donut, a tool that facilitates random meetings and encourages conversations, is a great tool to help with this).(11)

Building a strong, productive, and motivated team is no small feat. 

It can take a village to create and maintain it. 

And you don’t have to go it alone.

Linking up with expert leadership coaches — like CareerlyLAB — and recruiting professionals can lighten that load in many different ways.

(Work with a “party planner.”)

Your time, effort, and energy are a type of currency.

They are valuable. 

Instead of spending them on hiring tasks, you can partner with a recruiter to take on those pieces you just don’t have the time for.

Maybe your company has a designated talent department.

Or you can connect with a recruiting professional outside your organization.

Either way, there are a ton of benefits.

Most obviously, recruiters are trained in the art of all things, well…recruiting.

For instance, as a recruiting professional, I help my business partners…

✅Strategically identify a team’s skill gaps and how this role will fill them
✅Write representative and compelling job descriptions to draw in the right candidates
✅Comb through resumes and reach out to candidates who aren’t on the market yet, then select ones that fit the bill to move forward
✅Build efficient, effective, and scalable processes that can be repeated again and again
✅Organize and execute the interview process
✅Handle offer negotiations and decline conversations

Partnering with a recruiter can help carve out your strategies and processes in the same way.

Recruiters are your go-to experts in all things retention and hiring.

We’re like wizards, crafting efficient processes to lift managing that burden off your shoulders.

So you can refocus your energies — and leadership expertise — back on your team.

As a leader, you’re doing a big job, and it’s okay to enlist some backup.

Remember that your people are the nucleus of your organization’s and team’s success.

And like planning the perfect party, how you attract and retain them — AKA get them to the party and inspire them to hang around — takes some organization, strategy, and maintenance to get it right.

But when you do, it’s magic.

As a leader, developing a strong recruitment and retention strategy is crucial to building a productive team.

That means creating standout job descriptions, nailing structured interviews, offering competitive compensation, and prioritizing your team’s professional growth. 

By embracing these strategies, your leadership will build and sustain high-performing teams and drive success and growth for your company.

Just like building a positive work culture, the hiring process takes a team. And as a hiring manager and leader, you don’t have to do it solo. 

If this article got the idea juices flowing for your hiring process, let me join you on your hiring and leadership journey. 

Interested in teaming up? 

Check out my website to learn more about the copywriting and talent services I offer, other types of content I write, and how we can partner.

Sources

1.https://www.investopedia.com/feb-2024-jobs-report-8606247#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways,the%20job%20market%20 is%20 slipping.
2.  https://www.rippling.com/blog/pay-transparency-laws-state-by-state-guide
3.https://textio.com/blog/how-to-craft-a-sincere-equal-opportunity-employer-statement#:~:text=There's%20no%20law%20requiring%20an,it's%20still%20a%20good%20idea.
4.  https://clovers.ai/inclusive-job-descriptions/
5.  https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/hr-statistics-trends/
6.https://www.merrittbusiness.solutions/business-management-resources/why-compensation-planning-and-benchmarking-are-essentialtion/
7.  https://builtin.com/recruiting/cost-of-turnover
8.  https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/hr-statistics-trends/
9.https://www.freshbooks.com/hub/productivity/how-many-hours-does-the-average-person-work#:~:text=Don't%20worry%2C%20you',at%20work%20over%20your%20lifetime.
10.  https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/hr-statistics-trends/
11.  https://www.donut.com/templates/virtual-coffee-program/
12.  https://carta.com/solutions/hr/