New employees tell me one of their greatest disappointments is starting a job, finding out they hate it and finally deciding their only option is to quit.

And they’re not alone in that nightmare.

Employers also are very unhappy when a new hire doesn’t work out. That’s why retention is such an important employment issue for them.

“It’s all about money,” said Bob Douglas, managing partner of Chase Hunter Group, an executive search firm based in Chicago that Douglas founded in 1995. It specializes in nonprofit community health-care organizations in the Midwest.

“The longer you can retain employees, the more profitable it is because you’re protecting and increasing the quality of your product or service,” said Douglas, who has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and has been in recruitment since 1989.

“You save money when you can keep your new hires by being able to build the organization’s intellectual glue – that elusive quality of gaining the commitment of the employees. And high retention rates also keep down the costs of advertising, training and interviewing.”

Not all employers are successful in keeping down the costs of turnover, however.

“I’ve read that it costs U.S. businesses more than $100 billion a year in bad hires,” said Douglas, who also reports that “the national turnover rate for all hospital employees is 30 percent.”

Yet Douglas says that when his firm places employees, “The retention rate is 96 percent in the first three years. The 4 percent who leave usually do so for a higher-ranking job elsewhere.”

“First of all you have to have a process,” Douglas emphasized. “You must see the complete picture, the intangible fit of the candidates within the organization.”

For openers, he believes in psychological tests and profiles, “not to get dirt on applicants but to see how they react under stress and change.”

Additionally, “Skills and work stability are half of the picture; how they get along with others is the other 50 percent. And get away from looking at this as a specific job at a specific salary; instead, it’s how this person will become a member of the team. That’s the emotional glue.”

Also, observe the candidate’s “professionalism during the interview process, such as confirming appointments, showing up on time, bringing requested materials. And go beyond just looking for a body that chews gum: Realize the potential employee is a person with a family and a life outside of work.”

Above all, don’t make up your mind in the first half hour.

And how do you retain people once they’re hired? “There should be regularly scheduled reviews and open-hearted discussions,” said Douglas.

“In the age we’re living in, multicultural sensitivity is essential. Employees have got to feel good about going to work – and that ends up in retention.”

(Carol Kleiman is the author of “Winning the Job Game: The New Rules for Finding and Keeping the Job You Want” (Wiley, $16.95). Send e-mail to ckleimantribune.com.)

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(c) 2004, Chicago Tribune.

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