This morning, I read this article titled; Millennials struggle to make it past the crucial 90-day mark when starting a new job. It made for an interesting read and, as a business owner recruiting predominately within business support, a large proportion of our roles sit under the $60,000 salary range, meaning we are often engaging with millennials for our recruitment processes.

Cost of millennial turnover

In the article, they say that according to Deloitte, millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025, but data shows this cohort have a much higher churn rate — and it’s costing Australian businesses money.

In 2015, PwC estimated staff turnover in the first 12 months was costing Australian businesses $3.8 billion in lost productivity and $385 million in avoidable recruitment costs.

The first 90 days

“Typically, one in four people will turn over in the first three months, either voluntarily or involuntarily,” said Mr Weiss, founder of HR firm CareerSupport365 and author of So You Got the Job, WTF is Next?

“The first three months of anybody’s employment are fraught with risks on both sides,” he said. “Often companies’ recruitment processes are at fault, on the employee side it may be that they didn’t understand what the company was wanting or have oversold themselves.”

Effective onboarding

It is true that, in our experience, the onboarding process can be crucial in terms of employee engagement and we have recently written about what you can do to improve this experience.

One of the main takeaways for me from this article is the importance of getting the hiring process right.

Here at Lotus People, we have a dedicated candidate management team, headed up by Sham Hassan, and Sham and her team are hyper aware of assessing softer skills throughout the recruitment process; diligence, responsiveness, enthusiasm, genuine commitment and interest, and most importantly understanding who is right for what environment.

We do this in a number of ways;

• Thorough phone screening

• Asking for skills testing to be completed within a certain timeframe

• In depth interviewing including behavioural based interviews

• Delving into why this job rather than any other job

• Asking for a communicative and responsive approach throughout the process

Recruitment metrics

At Lotus, we pride ourselves on our above industry standard metrics. We have filled over 80% of all permanent jobs listed in the last six months and pride ourselves on ability to assess and understand culture and fit for long term successful hires. In the last 6 months at Lotus People, we have placed over 50 people in permanent roles and only 5 of these people have left within the first 90 days, meaning Lotus People are sitting 15% lower than the National standard.

As well as running a thorough consultative recruitment process, Lotus partners with our clients throughout the first 90 days, supporting with the induction, initiating feedback meetings and acting as an additional resource to all of our clients.

With millennials making up over 75% of the workforce in 2025, employers will need to understand how to engage, retain and keep this new generation of workers.

Get in touch today to speak to a consultant at Lotus People; 02 8274 4635.