Employee recruitment and retention is top of mind for nearly every business. It's impossible to have a conversation with a business leader without talking about workforce. The current labor shortage is estimated at 300,000 people in Minnesota brings forth a new set of challenges in how companies recruit and retain their workforce. Recently, the Chamber hosted a free webinar digging into the issues of recruitment and retention, as well as hearing more about some innovative benefits to help you secure top talent.

Below are the top takeaways from our experts on how to find the best workforce talent in spite of the current shortage. 

TIP: Be conscious of your "employer brand"

"Our employer brand is very big. Some people don't even know what that is. They have a corporate brand, but they don't understand the importance that the employer brand plays on your business and attracting talent. We aren't putting enough focus on the why, why candidates should come and work for us and should know about us."

TIP: Rely on internal employees to help recruit

"'We aren't relying on our internal people to help recruit.' This is huge. Did you know the average person is connected to at least a minimum of 600 people? Think if you got your internal employees to send out a little video about the positions that you're looking to fill to be more engaged in what's going on in the organization, because it spreads like wildfire." 

TIP: Improve employee retention by providing opportunities for professional growth

"I've learned that pay is important, of course, but it's usually not the number one reason [for leaving a job]. We love to be challenged and grow professionally. Often after several years in the same role, we get a little bored as work becomes too repetitive."

TIP: Improve employee retention by having managers conduct "stay interviews"

"What the heck is a stay interview?...The stay interview is a relationship-building meeting between an employee and their direct manager to learn what makes the employee happy and engaged and how you can improve on this. Like any healthy relationship you want to discuss difficult, but meaningful conversations early. The conversation is designed to be comfortable, engaging and candid. It should focus on enhancing the relationship between the two and understand why the employee stays and why they might be looking for a new opportunity. The end goal is to help your employee feel happier overall, and more excited about their role and company." 

TIP: Utilize the Minnesota Chamber's pooled small business insurance options to provide competitive benefits to retain current employees and attract top candidates. 

"The benefits that we've put together with the Minnesota Chamber is also way a great way to attract and retain employees. What we've put together with the Minnesota Chamber is a life, D and D program, a long-term disability program, short-term disability, dental, vision and worksite products. What we've been able to put together is competitive pricing and product features that a lot of groups wouldn't be able to get on their own. The reason we're able to do that is because we're spreading our risk over lots of groups, lots of employees that we've that are all combined here with the Minnesota Chamber pool.  

TIP: Utilize the Minnesota Chamber's Pooled Employer Plans (PEP) to provide competitive retirement plans to current employees and attract top candidates. 

"The government's been trying to get something like [PEPs] enacted because roughly 50% of all employees do not have access to a retirement plan and the government's trying to make it available for more employers to offer. They created Pooled Employer Plans as part of the Secure Act in 2020, they were effective January 1st, 2021. Since the beginning of January and this year it represents about 30 to 35% of all new plans that we're setting up are going into some type of Pooled Employer Plan."

"PEPs allow you to have more time to focus on your business needs. You're not having to worry about all the different types of distributions and things that happen with these plans because the professional plan sponsor and fiduciary administrator are taken care of it."