Midlands recruiter celebrates staff retention programme

Leicester-headquartered Encore Personnel is celebrating 20 years in business and one of the things it’s most proud of is its staff retention rate of 88 per cent, which is above industry and national averages. The business puts particular focus on its attraction and retention strategy which puts mental well-being, extended employee benefits and perks as its top priorities.

Cindy Gunn is Encore Personnel’s HR Director and explains how they do it.

How do you go about recruiting your own people?

When attracting new employees to bring into the business, Encore looks for individuals that will fit in with its current team, are prepared to uphold the company values and have genuine passion and enthusiasm for the role. It’s crucial for businesses to get it right. Within any workforce, it is important to pick the correct candidates for the role, not the individuals that are just attracted to the salary. Candidates need to share the same values as the company as it helps to create a strong team and a happy workforce.”

What do you think is at the core of your success?

At Encore, we give our employees a voice, and we often encourage them to participate in the decision-making process so we can evaluate what’s working and what may need our attention. We pride ourselves on our yearly employee reviews.

You have a motto which puts the customer and candidate/employee experience at the centre of all strategy, with dual value propositions of ‘your business, your culture, our priority’ and ‘your future, your wellbeing, our priority.’ This is ostensibly about avoiding negativity, creating loyalty and communicating openly. But how does that look in practice?

As well as company benefits and reward schemes, employees have a variety of training opportunities throughout their time with us – Nicki Westwood, our Learning and Development Manager, encourages and oversees all training and qualifications. We also understand that the typical employee perks don’t always work for us, as recruitment often means being in a fixed working location, meaning limited opportunity of working from home. That’s why our employees have other incentives such as ‘early finish Fridays’, additional holidays, Director lunches and work socials.

What advice would you give to people looking for a new job?

Employees today might move to another job for more money, but the grass isn’t always greener and money doesn’t always bring happiness. My advice to jobseekers is to look for a growing, successful company that provides an employee-friendly environment, and for businesses, it’s key to review your retention strategies regularly and make them work for your employees.

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