Attracting, Hiring and Retaining Talent for the Long Term

This is the third in a series of ten posts on hiring candidates for characteristics linked to high performance. Each post focuses on a key candidate trait, why it matters and how recruiters can develop processes to correctly and fairly evaluate for it.

Every time an experienced employee walks out the door they take a boatload of experience with them. That experience is valuable and losing it hurts. Whether a manager or individual contributor, the longer good employees stay, the better it is for your organization, which is why hiring for longevity should always be near the top of a recruiter’s list of priorities.  

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Great News! Your Best Performers Will Leave

When you make hires, you do so under the belief that they’ll stick around for awhile. They’ll contribute to the culture, bring exciting new blood to the team, close deals, ship products, or write blog posts (ahem). While you want top performers to stick around for as long as possible, at a certain point you’ll need to level with the fact that most employees are not going to reach retirement still working for your company. Even when your organization has invested in talent, providing opportunities for growth and promotion, people will invariably move on. And that’s a good sign.

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