A strong talent retention strategy is vital to ensuring new recruits feel settled, valued and challenged (but not over-challenged) in their first months at a new organisation. Avoiding new hires from leaving within the first 6 months of their tenure is vital to any organisations financial and cultural performance.

As a recruiter, we’ve had lots of experience advising employees on how to settle in new employees and set up a talent retention strategy. Here are our top tips to encourage new recruits to commit to a longer tenure at your organisation.

• Don’t make false promises
  Make sure that what was sold to new employees in the process of recruiting is what they are doing day-to-day. This is the most important tip because it is a very common reason that new recruits leave within months of their appointment.

• Make a positive start from day one
  Welcome people warmly to your team with a social event such as a morning tea and have their IT set up and ready to go. Not having their email address, phones and computer set up on time will give the impression of disorganisation and make a poor first impression.

• Onboarding
  Have a strong onboarding process in place to help integrate new recruits into the company as quickly as possible. A checklist of goals and assignments for the first weeks of their employment is just one of many onboarding steps employers can take.

• Training
  Have a clear plan on training and at what stage the new team member needs to be at from month 1-6 and communicate this clearly. New recruits then have a clear understanding of their employers' expectations. Tick things off as they learn – it gives a great sense of achievement.

• Celebrate the wins!
  Celebrate any “wins” of the new recruit. This should happen with all team members, but it can be a great feeling for a new member of the team to be recognised for their achievements.

• Feedback and support
  CHECK-IN REGULARLY! This is highly important to get a “feel” for how the new employee is going. The more regularly you check-in, the more comfortable they are likely to feel in raising any concerns. Ask other members of the team how the new team member is settling in, if there are any early problems, they may be able to flag them if the person isn’t going to their manager.



In the current candidate short market, it is essential to the success of any business to hold onto their top talent. Having a talent retention strategy in place is the key to keeping new recruits for longer.