5 Recruitment and Retention Best Practices to Kickstart 2022

It’s no secret that sales organizations struggle with recruiting and retention. So, what’s the secret to landing and holding onto winning talent?

The average turnover rate in sales is 35%, over 20% higher than the national average across industries. And the time it takes to fill a vacant role has recently stretched to over six months. Overall, experts expect the annual cost of employee turnover to exceed a shocking $680 billion in 2022.  

Building an exceptional sales team will be essential for organizations looking to rebound from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. But new employment trends like The Great Resignation have compounded the difficulty of recruiting and retaining talented sales reps. 

Why the Strong Emphasis on Recruitment?

Recruitment has become one of the most important aspects of an organization’s long-term growth strategy, and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.

Beyond the benefits of growing your team, the recruitment phase of the hiring process is one of your best chances to improve retention rates. During recruitment, organizations can use modern tools like predictive analytics to short-list candidates who display qualities and traits that predict long, successful tenures.

Combining predictive analytics with consistent, strategic recruitment will enable your organization to consistently identify and onboard exceptional candidates who are more likely to commit for the long haul.

Factors that Affect Employee Retention

Employee retention rate is a complex and multi-faceted topic. Primary sources of turnover vary according to specific challenges organizations face, but there are a few universal workplace issues that hurt employee retention rates. 

1. Job Satisfaction

It should shock no one that employee satisfaction is one of the driving forces behind poor employee retention rates. 

Today’s employees are increasingly unwilling to tolerate toxic or hostile work environments for the sake of a paycheck, especially after enduring the litany of personal struggles COVID-19 imposed on pretty much everyone. 

Instead, workers turn to companies with a reputation for cultivating positive working environments, providing exceptional benefits and compensation, and making space for a genuine work-life balance.

2. Advancement Opportunities

Employees who feel stagnant and disengaged in their roles are far more likely to look for a new position that offers clear career advancement opportunities. 

Increased competition for high-performing sales reps has created a seller’s market. As a result, it’s easier than ever for employees to leverage their skills and experience to secure offers that often come with a promotion and pay raise at a new organization. 

Companies that bank on retaining key sales reps in 2022 should discuss and provide advancement opportunities that keep top-performers motivated, engaged, and hungry. 

3. Company Culture

Company culture isn’t just a buzzword anymore. For example, 42% of job seekers reported their workplace culture as a significant reason for leaving their previous position. And 25% are in the market for a new role because they’re searching for a better work-life balance.

When filling open positions, organizations that cultivate a winning company culture will enjoy a wider applicant pool. They’ll also boost employee retention rate and satisfaction among current employees. 

4. Compensation

Compensation and benefits have always played a significant role in employee retention, which applies even more in sales positions. 

Commission restructuring, base pay cuts, and lackluster annual raises will all send talented sales reps running for the hills searching for a more lucrative position. 

It may be tempting to cut benefits or payroll during challenging years. But organizations that do so will struggle with recruitment and retention in the short term and may damage their reputation as an employer in the long run. 

Five Recruitment and Retention Strategies, Trends, and Best Practices

1. Favor Potential Over Experience

While experienced candidates come with their own host of benefits, they also come with increased retention risk. 

Top-performing sales reps with a long history of professional success will be a target of recruitment agencies, competing organizations, and more, increasing their odds of perpetuating the sales turnover cycle.  

Less experienced candidates often possess the qualities, traits, and skills to develop into exceptional sales reps. These individuals are often a safer bet for organizations interested in building a salesforce that outlasts the industry’s average tenure of 1.5-2 years.

2. Bring Recruitment Efforts In-House

Outsourcing your recruitment process can seem appealing on the surface, but it can quickly lead to a team of disengaged and poorly performing sales reps that feel little to no connection or loyalty to your organization. 

Take back control of your recruitment efforts so your organization can better screen for applicants that are qualified and a good cultural fit for your workplace. 

By onboarding candidates that appreciate and assimilate into your company culture, you can boost employee satisfaction, retention, and performance.

3. Bring Employees into the Discussion

Employee feedback is a crucial tool for executives to keep their ear to the ground for ways to improve current and future employee retention. 

Solicit and act on employee feedback for insight into what’s working and what isn’t in your organization. This also signals to your salesforce that leadership values and respects their experiences, opinions, and ideas.  

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Leave Competitors Behind when it Comes to Compensation

‘Competitive compensation’ is another recruitment buzzword that deserves to be left in 2021. 

Organizations that commit to recruiting and retaining the best of the best should offer compensation packages that stand out from a sea of competitors. 

Offering a compensation package that falls in line with the industry average will get you just that- average. It’s a recipe for average performance, average productivity, and, most costly of all, average turnover.

5. Leverage Advanced Analytics to Gain an Edge

Modern data analysis practices capabilities are changing how sales organizations recruit and retain their salesforce. 

Predictive analytics pushes the envelope of both disciplines to create data-driven forecasts of employee performance, tenure, productivity, and more pre-hire. 

This move allows hiring panels and managers to maximize recruitment efforts’ success. Like never before, you can make objective and quantifiable hiring decisions and tailor the candidate selection processes to increase long-term employee retention.

Improve Your Recruitment Practices and Increase Employee Retention with PerceptionPredict

Organizations that excel in recruitment and retention in 2022 will enjoy a significant leg-up on their competition, leading to increased profitability and greater market share. 

Meanwhile, organizations that fail to improve their recruiting process and retention efforts will likely lose top-performers to competing companies and may even struggle to make it to 2023. 

For the best chance of success, leave nothing to chance. Instead, capitalize on cutting-edge recruitment and hiring tools like our Performance Fingerprints. This is the secret to revitalizing and rejuvenating your hiring process while maximizing ROI from new hires. 

Book a demo to discover how PerceptionPredict can dramatically improve your recruitment and retention strategies.