Finding great employees and retaining them has always been a challenge for employers, but things are getting even harder these days. Demographic pressure is giving more power to the employees and companies are left competing on work conditions, salaries, benefits, and opportunities for development and advancement. 

This is good news for this new crop of employees, but a nightmare for many businesses. If employee satisfaction has not been a major concern for you up until now, it's time for you to change your optics and start putting current and prospective employees first. Here are a few tips for attracting and keeping top talent in your organization

Make Sure that Your Job Listings Are Congruent

The first thing you have to do is make sure that you pitch positions correctly. Do not try to make the job look more exciting or fulfilling and don't give the false promise of advancement when there is nearly no chance for it. Employees will get disillusioned very quickly and might feel tricked once they start training or working. Some of them will eventually leave right after or in the middle of training, while others will drift until they find something better. 

However, if the position is truly exciting, has great perks, or offers a vibrant and flexible work environment, make these things front and center. When you're congruent, you instantly gain the respect of new hires, and you'll attract highly motivated employees you can expect to keep for a long time.

Automate Onboarding

Onboarding is extremely important when bringing new employees in. Proper onboarding will solidify your brand as an employer and convince new hires that they made the right decision. If you want to make things as easy as possible for you and your employees, you need to use an HR platform that will allow you to automate much of the process. The faster you can onboard your employees, the faster you can train them and make them feel like they're part of the team. 

Some platforms will do things like send prepopulated offer letters to new hires and allow them to self-enroll in benefits packages and input their payroll information, among others. All of this will greatly facilitate the process for everyone and instill trust in the heart of your employees.

Allow them to Develop

You need to look at your employees as people with dreams and aspirations, even if they are being hired for simple jobs. You must give them a chance to move up, learn more skills, and become more competent. You also need to find a way for high-performing employees to grow within your organization or outside of it. 

Giving continuous training, incentivizing higher education, and following up with your employees to see where they are now and where they want to go will all make a huge difference in how many you'll be able to retain.

Attracting and keeping top-shelf talent is not easy and will only get tougher. So, if you don't want to deal with a constantly revolving door, focus on being as attractive as possible for new employers and nurture them from the minute you bring them in.