1. Recruiting – Employer Branding

Wanted employees are spoilt for choice when looking for a new position. They don’t just write 40 applications to various companies. They purposefully look for companies or job profiles that suit them. It’s important to them that a company reflects their own values. If you want suitable employees to find your company, invest in employer branding. It’s also essential to invest in an integral recruiting experience. There are various moments of truth throughout the recruitment process that define the long-term relationship between the company and the candidate: from the job posting to first contact through to either a job offer or rejection.

2. Onboarding – Path from Administration to Friendship

The employee experience begins with onboarding. Onboarding should not just be seen as an administrative process. It encompasses the entire introduction period for each new employee, which lasts several months and leads directly into the development phase. It’s not just about what impression the new employee should go home with after their first day, but also about getting to know the company’s culture, values and work approaches over several months. Longer-term onboarding is often neglected in the hustle and bustle of daily work. Develop an onboarding programme that defines the employee’s contacts, tasks and check-ins.

3. Development – Ongoing Support

Land good employees and actively support them. Employees should know what development opportunities they have. Actively ask them about their development goals. So you have the opportunity to offer good employees a solution before they otherwise orientate themselves. Losing good staff members doesn’t just cost money, it also means lost talent.

When employees decide to leave the company, a respectful and civilised exit is a must. Continue to maintain a good relationship, as they may recommend you as an employer to your next dream candidate. And as they say, ‘you always meet twice in life’.

4. Compensation & Bonus –Transparency

Antoinette Weibel, Professor of HR Management at the University of St Gallen has long been against bonus culture and wishes we would find our way back to a good salary system.¹ Fair, transparent wages are more important to employees. HR is faced with the challenge of creating a transparent, easily understandable process for annual wage reviews. This can be achieved with granular defined budgets, guidelines, data preparation and reporting. Fair wages help the company secure a good workforce. When changing position, a good salary is one of the three most important criteria. After this point, wages are simply a matter of hygiene; other criteria become more important, such as development opportunities, a good atmosphere and involvement in decision-making.

5. Performance

Instead of an employee appraisal, we at HR Campus recommend employee praise. Focus on their strengths, motivate your staff and find out how you can best support them. Put a feed-forward culture into practice. If you still want to look over their shoulders, reflect on whole projects and team performance rather than one person’s performance. Ensure that employees know who they can turn to if they have any questions.

6. Succession Planning – Recognise and Seize Opportunities

Successful succession management lets you find the best qualified person for a job opening with the least amount of effort.

Define and document key positions very precisely and analyse the corresponding risk of vacancy. For which roles is it better to find an internal candidate and which cases require new, creative ideas where tunnel vision could be damaging? Prepare for positions with a high vacancy risk and always create an overview of which employees may be suitable for which internal positions. This means you’ll be well prepared for succession planning in the case of a company exit.

SOurces:

¹ https://www.leaderdigital.ch/documents/ausgaben/oktober_leader-2020_web.pdf S. 78 ff. (04.05.2021)