The Great Stay: Enhancing employee retention through effective hiring

According to the latest ABS data, job mobility in the Australian workforce is down to just 8%, resulting in less talent on the market and less staff turnover in your business. It’s what some are calling ‘The Great Stay’. 

So, what does this mean for your business? In short, it means making every hire count. And in this climate, the hiring process plays a critical role in the longevity and success of your workforce. Here, we talk to Referoo CEO Neil Rose about this growing trend and what it means for your recruitment process. 

What is The Great Stay, and why is it happening now? 

The Great Stay refers to the growing trend of employees staying longer in their roles, with the average tenure on the increase and job mobility on a downward swing. It’s a sign that the workforce is prioritising stability, work-life balance and workplace culture over career mobility and even salary increase.

There are many reasons why we are seeing The Great Stay right now, according to Rose. 

“Increasing cost of living and changing economic circumstances can lead to a reluctance to risk stable employment for the unknown. But it may also be a positive impact out of the pandemic as more of us are satisfied with our work. 

“In the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, we saw increased job mobility across the world as we all thought more about what we wanted out of life. The Great Resignation saw many people make significant changes to their employment, careers and lifestyles. Now that’s settled, it’s possible that many more of us have found employment that aligns with our values, goals and lives, and we’re not in a hurry to leave it.”

And while Rose acknowledges that this can be a great thing for employers and employees alike, it has its challenges for those in talent acquisition and HR roles. 

“At a time when employees are likely to stay for longer, hiring right the first time is a key part of your retention strategy,” he says. 

The true cost of a bad hire in The Great Stay era 

In an era where employees are staying in roles for longer, the cost of a bad hire has never been higher – and the ripple effects can be far-reaching. 

“To begin with, recruiting the wrong candidate is expensive. Job postings, recruitment fees and the time spent interviewing candidates all add up quickly. But these are just the direct costs. Indirect costs, such as the time spent onboarding, training and attempting to integrate the wrong hire into the team, can multiply the financial burden significantly,” Rose explains. 

He adds that there are ongoing and hidden costs that can run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands.

“A bad hire doesn’t just lead to upfront financial losses. It impacts productivity, too. If a new team member isn’t performing as expected, it can hold back the entire team. Projects get delayed, deadlines are missed and, ultimately, business operations suffer. In the long run, it can even lead to a drop in customer satisfaction and revenue.

“And that’s before we even considered the detrimental impact it can have on your team culture. Where someone isn’t performing, or their behaviour doesn’t meet the expected standard, other team members are usually left picking up the slack, and morale and trust can plummet as a result.”

Rose also highlights the additional challenges for high-stakes industries. 

“Then, if we consider industries like healthcare or finance, the stakes can be even higher. From financial fraud to risking the safety of vulnerable patients, the true cost can skyrocket – and it’s a risk employers can’t afford to take.”

But, he cautions, a slower hiring process won’t solve the problem. 

A slow hiring process isn’t the answer 

There’s often a misconception that a slow hiring process is a more thorough one. We’ve all heard the adage ‘hire slow, fire fast’, but the reality of a slow hiring process in the current market is that you will lose the best talent to the competition. 

Rose highlights that alongside the loss of the best talent, there are several other risks to a slow process, including: 

• productivity loss and delayed revenue from unfilled roles 
• decreasing team morale as colleagues step in to fill the breach 
• negative impact on your employer brand as candidates are left waiting for you to make a decision.

However, Rose warns, compliance and quality cannot be victims of speed in your hiring process. 

Quality and compliance must be at the forefront 

The Great Stay requires businesses to focus on long-term retention rather than continuous recruitment. That means organisations need to be more selective and strategic about their hires, ensuring that new employees not only have the right skills for the role but also align with the company’s culture and values.

“When you’re hiring for longevity, it’s critical to have the right people. It’s as simple as that,” Rose says. 

He adds that background and reference checks have a big role to play in this climate.

“Background and reference checks play a vital role in predicting whether a candidate will thrive in a role and stick around for the long term. Studies show that candidates who align with company culture and values are more likely to stay in a role longer. Using accurate, comprehensive check data allows businesses to make these decisions with confidence. It’s not just about the required checks, such as criminal history. You can take your checking to a deeper level with extended work history checks or even social media checks that can give you deeper insight.”

So, how do you deliver both speed and quality in your hiring process? 

With less talent searching for work and employees likely to stay in the organisation for longer, HR, talent acquisition and recruitment professionals are faced with a dilemma. Hiring must move fast to capture limited talent, but it must also find the right people to avoid the risk of a bad hire settling in for a long tenure.  

“The mandate for talent acquisition and HR professionals is clear: find the right people for the organisation and find them fast,” says Rose. 

“The secret to quality and speed lies in your technology. However, it’s not about technology driving your recruitment process; it’s about technology enabling it. There is a plethora of recruitment and hiring technologies out there that can do almost everything. However, the most efficient organisations know how and when to use recruitment technology to increase speed and efficiency without replacing human expertise. 

“It’s the human expertise that will help you identify the right candidates and the technology that will speed up the process. So, the key is to look for quick wins – areas where you can use technology to move fast and save time, so your team can apply their expertise to identifying, securing and onboarding the best talent.” 

Rose explains that this concept was the driver behind the intuitive Referoo Hub platform. 

“We’ve been fortunate to have worked with the HR and recruitment communities since Referoo began as an online reference-checking platform. And what we saw was an incredibly talented workforce that was hampered by juggling multiple tools and inefficient tech. We wanted to develop tech that supported faster, more efficient background checking – tech that took care of the background-checking admin quickly and efficiently to enable people to do what they do best.

 “It was also important to us that Referoo delivered on candidate experience, too, so we’ve designed it with a single candidate email for all your checks. It’s that simple.”

Referoo Hub is the ultimate reference- and background-checking solution that puts all your employment checks all in one place. With built-in fraud detection and simple, effective dashboarding, you can move candidates through the process quickly. And with one partner, one process and one candidate email, it’s a streamlined experience for all your stakeholders. 

“With Referoo Hub, HR professionals and hiring managers gain access to automated, data-backed reference and background checks, all in one place and all integrated with the other HR tools they use. It provides a simple, effective platform to gain deeper insights into a candidate’s work history, performance and behaviour, helping employers predict how well a candidate will fit within their organisation,” says Rose.

He adds that by using Referoo Hub, businesses are equipped to avoid common hiring mistakes and make decisions that are more likely to result in successful, long-term hires who not only stay longer but are also more engaged, productive and aligned with the organisation’s values and goals.

Want to see how Referoo can transform your hiring process? Book a demo today to learn how you can hire smarter, faster and more efficiently, ensuring your organisation thrives in the era of The Great Stay.