Discuss what a company should do to retain its staff.

A: You see, in the past year one of our clients kept losing staff and suffered a heavy loss. They worry a lot and turn to us. Have you got any constructive suggestions?

B: Yes. Our client should first examine their staff recruiting. There must be something wrong with their recruiting practice.

A: Why?

B: You know, keeping staff turnover low begins with hiring staff members who are a good match for the practice and the position. So it can be beneficial for the client company to change its idea from "attracting and retaining the best employees" to "attracting and recruiting the suitable employees."

A: Good idea! By recruiting the appropriate new staff, our client builds the employees' commitment and retention will necessarily follow.

B: Exactly.

A: Then how to recruit the right staff is crucial to our client.

B: Yes. To recruit the appropriate new hires, it's important to advertise the job vacancy in the newspapers and magazines targeting at the ideal candidates.

A: To ensure that a candidate's skills match the job, it's also important to limit the conditions and requirements of candidates on the job advertisement.

B: Yes. Besides, it's better for our client to conduct thorough reference checks and find out why a candidate left a previous job.

A: Yeah, that's important. Still there are other contributable factors that our client should consider, such as providing information of the current state of their future work environment, offering staff with proper training, talking to staff members and solving problems as they emerge. All these can be important in keeping staff turnover low.

B: You are right. Furthermore, the client company should strive to provide superior leadership in their practice, such as keeping communication lines open, periodically taking time to examine the workplace from the employee's perspective, and continually seeking to improve it.

A: Yeah, that will help to create and maintain a place where people want to work and stay. In addition, giving the employees a sense of empowerment should not be ignored.

B: For example?

A: Such as providing a breathing space to take risks, to use their own best judgment, and to be accountable for the decisions they've made etc.

B: Yeah, that surely works.