Helping retention by bringing in the right people to begin with

Everybody’s worried about hanging on to their best and brightest. Here’s how one organization made sure it was bringing on the people who’d be successful over the long haul.
This first-person account comes from a VP of HR & support services for a service firm in Pennsylvania:
We weren’t happy with our level of turnover.
It was the same story every time: A manager or employee would leave. We’d try to analyze why they hadn’t been successful, and then try to adjust our interview process so we wouldn’t make the same mistake with the next hire.
Both HR and our managers were confident that the people we were hiring were good fits for the firm.
But we still found that many of them quit or moved on far too soon. What about our environment wasn’t working for them?
After some brainstorming, we realized that maybe the turnover problem had less to do with what was going on in the day-to-day workplace, and more to do with who we were bringing in.
Identifying our best
We asked ourselves: What traits and qualities make employees and managers successful at our company?
The only way to find out was to ask the people who were already here.
So we spoke with supervisors and senior management, and together we identified the best staffers in the firm.
Then we scheduled a casual sit-down talk with each of them to pick their brain about their work style, daily routine, and so on.
We made sure to speak with employees and managers at every level of the organization.
After conducting enough interviews, we felt we had a solid idea of what qualities and traits made staffers and managers successful.
Now we just had to figure out how to use that info in the hiring process.
 Do they have the same traits?
The best way: a pre-employment test.
We devised short, online tests for each level of employment at our organization.
If candidates seemed like they might be a good fit, we asked them to take the test so we could get an idea of how they’d behave if they were hired.
Would they be focused on quality? Pay attention to detail? Be empathetic?
The test results gave us a great read on whether the candidate fit our profile of a successful employee.
 Narrowing it down
The pre-employment tests have helped us phase out people who wouldn’t be appropriate for the job they’re applying for.
Now, instead of getting 10 or 12 resumes for each open position, hiring managers get three or four truly solid candidates to pick from who we know fit the profile of a successful person at our company.
That saves them time, and it saves us money – and it’s helping to lower our turnover rate.