How many consultants have left your agency this year?
The recruitment sector is renowned for having one of the highest staff turnover rates out of any industry, with the average attrition rate sitting around 43%.
With the cost of replacing a consultant sitting at around 400% of their salary, not to mention the lost fees whilst your new starters get up to speed, it’s something that most agencies just can’t afford right now.
So what can you do to hold on to as many of your top performers as possible?
1. Implement a recognition programme
According to employee engagement expert, Kevin Sheridan, recognition is the number one driver of engagement – and companies with engaged employees outperform their peers in every key area including productivity, profitability and earnings per share.
Whilst consultants will receive monetary rewards for their hard work – recognition helps them feel valued and motivated throughout the ups and downs of working in recruitment.
Many recruitment agencies have realised the power of recognition, and have implemented employee recognition systems to recognise consultants’ work on a role, whether they were able to place a candidate or not.
2. Encourage peer-to-peer mentoring
Studies show that organisations with mentor programmes seen increased retention rates for both mentors (69%) and mentees (72%), versus 49% for those who didn’t take part.
Another study by Deloitte, found that those employees planning to stay with their employer for more than five years were twice as likely to have a mentor, as those that were planning to leave within five years.
Encouraging your top fee earners to mentor other consultants is a simple, yet cost effective way to boost retention, whilst promoting a culture of knowledge-sharing across your agency.
3. Offer more flexible pay options
There’s no doubt that money is key in the recruitment industry, and you may lose consultants for even a slight increase in salary or commissions. Whilst now might not be the right time to be able to pay more, you can pay better.
Giving your consultants access to their salary and fees as soon as they’ve earned them helps build a stronger and more immediate link between performance and earnings, which is a powerful motivator. Companies using on-demand pay have seen staff turnover reduce by up to 25%.
This is another simple, yet cost-effective way to reduce turnover as most providers offer on-demand pay at no cost to the employer (employees pay a small fee to withdraw their money).
Check out our on-demand pay offering, Access EarlyPay, which is now available to recruitment agencies and fully integrates with Access Pay and Bill.
