The cost of losing and replacing a team member is between 50 and 150 percent of the salary of the departing team member. In fact, an international study conducted by Taco Bell last year found that their outlets with the lowest employee turnover produced up to 50 percent more in sales.

Shortages in skilled labour have begun to put applicants in the driver's seat and turn employers into pursuers in the race for talent and low turnover. The hunter has become the hunted, and the result is that workers are becoming ever more certain and demanding about what they want from the work experience. Make no mistake -- they will leave you to find it elsewhere. The good news is that if you take the time to understand the expectations (intangibles beyond salary and promotions) most often desired by team members, you'll have the greatest tools for attracting and retaining great talent.

What are the top 5 most desired intangibles? According to an annual study conducted by international consultant firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide, here are some secrets you should know:

1. Be proactive in offering a better work/life balance

   Time spent on the job in a given year has increased by 163 hours in the last 20 years. That's roughly one month per year; whilst leisure has declined by one third. Undoubtedly, this is why over the past seven years the amount of salary and number of work hours that workers say they're willing to give up to achieve a work/life balance has doubled. And 55 percent of 18- to 34-year olds identify the freedom to take extended leaves or sabbaticals as a key workplace benefit.

   Companies have found they can increase productivity, revenue or both by 20 percent simply by implementing a work-life balance programme for staff. Likewise, it's possible to reduce turnover by as much as 50 percent by introducing any of the following: dependent care leave, childcare subsidies, eldercare programmes, counselling and referral, and flexible working hours.

2. Promote the sense of a deeper cause

   Today's workers yearn to be motivated by more than the company's bottom line. Companies that try to be good corporate citizens, or rewrite their mission statements to incorporate the sense of a deeper cause, have an edge. Even more effective is allowing team members to do volunteer work on company time, and even company budget. And then there are the two tried-and-true approaches: matching employees' charitable donations and recognising service above and beyond the call of duty. Interestingly, when faced with a choice of making more money or earning "enough" doing work that makes the world a better place, 86 percent of today's workers will chose the latter.

   The corporate manifestation of a noble cause can take many forms, from reworking mission statements to airing videos that capture customers testifying about how important the company's service is to them. "Going green" is yet another: Fairmont Hotels, for example, has had an extensive recycling programme on its premises for some time. A maid who recently explained how much extra time it took her to sort the recycling properly added proudly, "Doing the recycling is the most important part of my job and makes me feel like I did something important in my day."

3. Offer the chance for professional growth and development

   Today's workers seek both personal and professional nourishment. Career building skills are the new security, and companies that fail to provide them lose out. The most successful information technology companies spend 7 to 10 percent of their payroll on training, compared with the standard two to three percent. Mentoring is also becoming ever more popular, not only because it is often more effective than training (up to 70 percent of knowledge is obtained informally on the job), but because it can help revitalise older workforce members matched with younger employees.

   A 1999 Gallup poll named the lack of opportunities to learn and grow as one of the top three reasons for team member dissatisfaction. Kinko's Inc., the world's largest printing and photocopying chain, is taking such information to heart and has implemented a training programme that gives workers a training path and sense of career. The result? Turnover dropped from 78 to 50 percent.

4. Treat employees more like partners

   While many business owners believe that they don't adhere to a formal company hierarchy, team members beg to differ. A 1999 Watson Wyatt survey indicated that 61 percent of senior managers feel they treat employees as valued business partners, whilst only 27 percent of employees share that opinion. The reality is that workers today are no longer satisfied with empowerment; they want a sense of ownership. This concept entails five distinct traits:

   • Communication above rank: Team members expect to contribute suggestions without regard to age or rank. A related issue is regular feedback. A 1999 Gallup poll found that workers who feel their opinion counted at work were the most likely to contribute their full energy and dedication.

   • Open books: Team members want a true stake in the game, which means taking a deep breath and providing them with a free-flow of previously heavily guarded financial information.

   • Performance-based pay: A true stake also means devising profit-sharing plans. Team bonuses appear to be the most effective.

   • Partnering leaders: More supervisors trained in a less authoritarian style is emerging as the make-or-break factor in retention, engagement and long-term survival.

5. Workers are seeking community in the workplace

   The traditional pillars of community -- church, extended family and neighbourhoods -- are being squeezed out by longer work hours, smaller families, later marriage, mobility and consumerism. Meanwhile, technology, flexible work hours and contract work have cut back how many people are gathering for chats at the water cooler. So people are reaching out more so now for a sense that their company is a caring place that provides a sense of deep community. They want to know they are cared about because of the hectic pace of their lives. Workplaces that accept the role of community building more proactively by creating more opportunity for interaction will experience higher retention.

   So how do you go about creating community?

   • Create plenty of opportunities for team members to interact both intellectually and socially.

   • Tinker with the workplace design to ensure more social interaction. The lack of natural gathering points works against this aim.

   • Get creative about initiating opportunities for quality interaction, such as barbecues where workers from all ranks mix casually.

   • Emphasise an open community by welcoming new members with vigour and allowing alumni to come and go with ease.

Employee satisfaction statistics show that only 37 percent of team members rate the level of honesty in their workplaces as high or very high, and only 14 percent agree that people trust each other. Further, whilst 54 percent of senior managers think the level of trust between all levels in their company is good, only 27 percent of other team members agree, pointing to entrenched hierarchy as one of the key barriers to the trust-rebuilding process.

How many leaders realise that although trust can come crashing down in an instant, it takes years to rebuild through daily, consistent actions and a dedication to extracting any weeds that threaten to choke its progress? Business consultants tend to agree that all business owners and executives use the following five keys to building trustworthy team relationships:

• Ensure consistency of action

• Create an open and ongoing dialogue

• Tell it straight even when the news is bad

• Accept criticism and admit when you're wrong

• Carry through with what you promise

As recent as a few years ago, if team member referrals didn't deliver the right candidate, you would have had only one real option: placing costly classified ads in a number of metropolitan daily papers. But now the possibilities of online recruiting are endless. Compared with the old way of filling openings, online recruiting is mass-market effective, exposing career opportunities to millions of potential candidates instead of only thousands that see a single newspaper ad. According to Media Metrix, in October 2000 Monster.com counted almost 4.7 million unique visitors, and Jobs Online (www.jobsonline.com) got 9.4 million.

Even better, online recruiting is affordable. According to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management's Employment Management Association, companies spend an average of US$444 when using online recruiting, compared with US$9,187 when using a staffing agency. Daily newspapers can charge up to US$2,500 for one classified ad, and professional recruiters typically charge 30 to 40 percent of a successful candidate's first-year salary -- or a fixed fee of roughly the same amount. Is it any wonder employers can't get enough of sites like HotJobs.com? For a mere US$50 to US$150, millions of job seekers see your posting each month.

But even though job boards and online recruiting services can save you impressive amounts of money when advertising a job, there are drawbacks. The best thing about job boards is that anyone can respond. But that's also the worst thing. Someone recruiting in the U.K. can get 100 resumes, and 90 of them are unqualified, and five out of the remaining 10 are resumes from overseas. And online recruiting strategies aren't one-size-fits-all. An approach capable of producing an adequate selection of candidates for a low- level job might not work for an executive search. For each type of position there is an online strategy that works. The keys are knowing what you need and discovering the right way to get it.

Entry-Level Positions

Finding solid entry-level team members can be a challenge. It's often easier to uncover candidates willing to fill a $150,000-a-year executive position than those willing to work for low wages. The best way to make sure you only get applicants in your local area is to use regional job sites. Instead of hundreds of resumes you'll generally only get 15 to 20, but they'll all be from people who live around you or who would like to.

Employment offices have their own online job boards, as does almost every daily newspaper. Many regional recruitment agencies, career magazines and other private entities offer online job boards as well. About.com offers a directory of regional sites on its job search site at jobsearch.about.com.

If you are interested in hiring people directly out of college, you should focus on the sites of the schools with the best programmes for your industry.

Specialized Skills

When your company is looking for the right marketing, finance or industry-specific professional, only the most qualified candidate will do. Unfortunately, you're not alone. According to Management Recruiters International, 2001 is a banner year for recruiting midlevel management. Of the more than 3,500 executives it surveyed, nearly 60 percent said they plan to increase their midlevel staff.

In the face of stiff competition online recruiting can be your saving grace -- if you do it right. Use industry-specific job resources as your first line of attack. For every industry or profession there's a career site (SalesJobs.com, ComputerJobs.com, e-Architect.com, Jobsinfashion.com, Jobsinthemoney.com, JournalismJobs.com and Energycareers.com). And many professional associations list industry-specific positions as well.

The traffic at these niche sites will be smaller and more focused which means the resumes you get will be more focused. If you are recruiting for many types of jobs you won't find one-stop shopping, but what you will find are sites that are generally low-cost and very helpful for recruiting highly specialized employees.

Tracking Down Techies

Recruiting for tech employees poses special challenges, with jobs ranging dramatically from entry-level coders to network administrators with decades of experience. The recent headlines about layoffs notwithstanding, there are still more jobs out there than there are qualified candidates to fill them.

Many companies are finding strength in numbers by using team hiring, a concept under which several levels and types of team members participate in interviewing a prospective hire. Whilst it can sometimes stretch staff resources and has some inherent dangers, those who use the technique say it can contribute to loyalty and give both hires and hirers a sense of their value to the company.

Team interviewing can take several forms. It may be as simple as an informal group session or it can be a series of successive interviews by different groups of people with whom the interviewee would work. In some group settings, different team members will use a targeted approach by each asking different kinds of questions in the interview. Some companies that do a lot of group hiring may have a candidate go to several stations for situational tests where they have to deal with an angry customer in one and then move to the next where they have to convince someone to do something.

Advantages of Team Hiring

At its best, team interviewing and hiring can help convey a sense of the company's culture by allowing candidates to decide if they would be comfortable in the job. In addition, by allowing a candidate to meet more than just one interviewer, some relationships can be put in place even before the first day of work. It creates an unmistakable impression of the importance of teamwork in the workplace.

One of the greatest advantages of team hiring is that it increases employee retention. For those just being hired, if you hire right in the first place, you can keep them. Existing team members learn about how to work better as a team and feel that they are contributing.

Potential Pitfalls

For a small company, taking workers away from their tasks to interview job candidates can eat up valuable work time. Some companies maximise resources by conducting as many interviews as possible by telephone, especially for preliminary questions and applicants who must travel long distances.

Group interviews may not be appropriate for all levels of workers. A warehouse worker, for instance, might not need the intensive group scrutiny that a marketing director would require. And sometimes, too many interviews can discourage a candidate who is being courted by another firm with a faster hiring process and a quicker job offer.

Be sure to read each article with the mindset "How could this apply to our business." Thinking of it that way will guarantee that you get value. Better yet, take notes as you read and commit to having the ideas implemented by the time the next edition arrives. Also, make copies for each team member. To really make sure something positive happens, work with your business development specialist to talk your team through the ideas and how to set a schedule for getting them implemented. We're here to help you get started. [Accounting Firm Name]

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