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Mccarthy Recruitment
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Candidate Retention Strategies

Having a happy team and having high retention is the ideal we all strive for. At McCarthy it is something we pride ourselves on in our own team but also with our clients. We aim to recruit the right people in to your teams so that they are retained however this can be affected by a number of areas that are outside our control but can be improved with our advice and support. Such areas include:

  • Induction and 1st impressions during recruitment and first week
  • On- going training and development
  • Candidate expectations of the role and environment
  • Assessor materials reflective of the right fit for the job

There are a number of ways that we can assist you with this but the first action would be to work with you to understand why it is happening. We have over time carried our detailed retention surveys for major retailers including Tesco and Home Retail Group.

We can improve you candidate retention by at least 10% by spending time with your leavers, understanding why they have left and ensuring that you maximise your ability to retain your top performers.

BP Retail – “Candidate retention strategy”

We started working with BP in 2005 and from the very beginning it became apparent that candidate retention was a concern within the business. Together we identified that the business was losing a high percentage of new recruits within the first six to twelve months and offered to conduct an analysis of candidate feedback which highlighted the following issues;

  • Induction process was inconsistent between areas, some were amazing, others quite basic
  • Inconsistent application of training program, some candidates had it launched to them, others were simply given a large amount of information with no expectations set
  • Some basic on-boarding criteria were sometimes not met, no uniform available, no manager on site to welcome new starters etc
  • New starters being placed in stores without full management teams impacting on availability of training time available
  • New starters picking up operational accountability within first few weeks impacting on training time

Following on from this valuable data, we worked with the People & Capability Manager to identify the best standards in place within the business and the key things that made a difference to the candidate experience and quality of training being delivered.

Improvements delivered:-

  • Developed a network of training stores across the regions where new starters would complete their 8 week initial training and induction
  • Agreed key touch points and times for Area Managers to ensure they met with and contacted new starters
  • Agreed standard process for first day welcome, including issue of training materials & uniform
  • Identified that where necessary e-learning could be completed off site at home as office space was limited in stores

To measure this we ensured the following;

  • McCarthy gained feedback from every candidate to measure first day experience and gave immediate feedback to HR team to enable slip ups to be resolved straight away
  • Weekly candidate updates completed with all candidates to identify progress and or any issues with lack of training etc
  • Monthly review conducted between BP and McCarthy to summarise progress, ongoing issues, and identify further opportunities to improve overall retention of new talent

The results of this improved new starter dropout rates from over 50% to under 15% during the first 12 months of this work taking place. Many of the key actions remain as on-going activities within our recruitment process for this valued client.