No Afterthought: Employee Retention and Employee Attrition

In this episode of the Executive Innovation Show Podcast, Carrie Chitsey speaks with John Reaves Whitaker, SVP & Chief People Officer at Sage Dental Management and Brad Goldoor, Chief People Officer of Phenom People.

Brad Goldoor is co-founder and Chief People Officer for Phenom People, where he oversees Phenom’s signature “not normal” hiring, onboarding, and employee engagement initiatives. He specializes in startups and has over 25 years of experience in channel sales, digital advertising, and People operations.

John Reaves Whitaker is the SVP & Chief People Officer for Sage Dental Management. He is a featured contributor on FistfulOfTalent and The HR Exchange Network & actively working on his next book, “We’re All Millennials.”

Listen as we discuss the following topics:

• We talk with Brad Goldoor about talent experience management and what it means to Phenom People to solve the candidate experience problem. He speaks at length about the ways to turn the candidate experience into consumer-like experiences such as Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon by using modern artificial intelligence. How is Phenom People’s talent experience software much more than an ATS (applicant tracking system)?
• To prioritize retention and attrition, what does Phenom People do that is extremely special for new employees on their first day. Hear how they welcome new employees with an email that includes a video from their family and friends wishing them a great first day. Brad describes how this emotional appeal truly brings the human aspect to enhance the employee experience, beyond technology and why it’s worth every penny.
• What are the key factors that are driving high attrition rates within organizations? Carrie and Brad breakdown what they believe contribute to high attrition rates among employees. Hear why it starts with the recruitment process. Listen as they explain why having an open and honest recruitment process will help to decrease these numbers. We discuss how doing things such as making sure the values and the mission are a match to the candidate are important.
• How do you make sure your recruiters are looking past the fill rate? Phenom People measures their recruiters on employee engagement rather than fill rate. Brad breaks down exactly how this works and how it incents recruiters to have an honest conversation to make sure that the candidate is the right cultural fit. What are some of the 20 data points he uses? Listen to find out.
• For HR leaders, how do you get buy-in from the C-level to change the way your current Human Resources department operates? Brad recommends looking at cost per hire. He details how you can make a business case by bringing in financial numbers to illustrate the cost per hire or cost savings with retention and how you would change that.
• Listen to what problems and demands that are keeping Brad up at night. One of those issues is upskill training. He states “Are we providing an environment to help nurture people’s skills and careers so that they have a path toward the future?”. He describes other issues and what he sees in the future for Human Resources.
• Fill rate vs retention, which one should be the most important to your recruiters? We talk with John Reaves Whitaker about how he has abandoned fill rate metrics and looks to incentivize recruiters based on retention. He explains how the retention rate helped his HR department take ownership that helped the recruiting team recruit differently. John breaks down how his new method of measuring retention caused a change in the hiring process, recruiters involvement with potential candidates, and the screening process becomes more in-depth.
• In areas like healthcare where the unemployment rate is less than 1%, John talks about what moves you must make to find the right talent for the job. He suggests that by only targeting jobs boards and job ads, you aren’t doing enough. In today’s candidate-driven market, you have to be smarter.
• Is the role of the recruiter more digital marketing to reach a passive talent pool? He details the necessity of selling the vision and the purpose of the company and how that may attract someone more than just offering 50 cents more per hour.
• As we continue to look past fill rate and build effective relationships to increase employee retention and attrition, John discusses some of the practices that he uses with his recruitment team to enhance the relationship with new employees. One of the ways he does this is through periodic check-ins during a new employee’s first 90 days. He speaks to the great results he has seen within the first three months of this new program, with turnover down about 12% within most of their key roles.
• John gives his advice to other HR leaders on how not to make retention and attrition an afterthought with this awesome Texas expression, “You can’t cool down the room if the windows are still open”.

Keep up with Brad Goldoor at PhenomPeople.com by following him on LinkedIn.