Hiring and Keeping the Best People

Harvard Business Essentials The Reliable Source for Busy Managers The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice, personal coaching, background information, and guidance on the most relevant topics in business. Drawing on rich content from Harvard Business School Publishing and other sources, these concise guides are carefully crafted to provide a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience. To assure quality and accuracy, each volume is closely reviewed by a specialized content adviser from a world class business school. Whether you are a new manager interested in expanding your skills or an experienced executive looking for a personal resource, these solution-oriented books offer reliable answers at your fingertips.

• Introduction - What this book is about - Who should read it 1. Why Hiring and Retention Matter - The growing importance of human assets - empirical evidence - High competition for high-quality employees - The employee-customer connection (evidence for the employee-customer profit chain) 2. Why Hiring and Retention Are So Challenging 3. Hiring Right: The First Step to Retention The Hiring Process - Defining the Job Requirements - Recruiting - Preparing to Interview - Conducting the Interview - Asking Questions - Evaluating the Candidates - Making the Decision and Offer 4. Keeping the Best - Why Retention Matters - Typical turnover rates - The costs of turnover - The link between employee retention and customer satisfaction - Two examples of success: Southwest Air and SAS Institute 5. What Makes Retention So Challenging? - Demographic conditions - Economic trends - Cultural expectations - Upheavals in the world of work 6. Why People Stay and Why They Leave Reversing the Pattern The Role of Pay and Benefits 7. Making Good Employees Better - Employee development - Employee development increases the value of human assets and reduces turnover - Employees routinely identify skill and career development as key workplace benefits - Effective training and development must be aligned with organizational goals - Mentoring, and its impact on retention - Characteristics of effective mentors 8. Workplace Flexibility - Work-life balance - Flex schedules - Telework 9. When All Else Fails - Despite the best retention strategies and execution, good people sometimes leave. Learn why they are leaving through exit interviews - Treating good employees who leave as valued alumni - doing so can often pay future dividends to your organization in terms of new business and recruit referrals. - Keep in touch and the door open to potential "boomerang" ex-employees. Conclusion