By Ofer Dangoor, VP of R&D
Ideas, created by individuals, are at the core of every innovation. In technology companies, R&D managers supervise highly creative people and due to the multinational, high tech environment we work in, these people are often from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. With this in mind, it is not unreasonable to say that the key to success in most companies is attracting the right people. More than the idea, product, plan and financial resources, it is the human factor that will ultimately drive progress forward.
There are plenty of blogs and articles around that discuss the best methods of attracting the right candidate to your company. These articles dispense advise on a range of related topics –where and how to look for new employees, how to best present your company to a potential candidate, what you should offer a potential candidate to close the deal, and the list goes on and on.
To tell you the truth, I am more interested in how to get a good candidate to stay with you.
I don’t think that TeleMessage has the best recruiting process but I do think we know how to keep our employees with us over time. TeleMessage has been around since 1999, and our current upper and middle management boasts an average length of tenure of more than 10 years with the company. Overall, the company’s average, including the latest recruits due to expansion, is more than 3.5 years. Not bad considering that job-hopping is a national pastime and the average tenure of the youngest employees is 2.2 years.
There are many reasons why employees stay in their current positions: money, prestige, interest, convenience, professional evolvement and more. Personally, I think that the majority of our employees stay at TeleMessage for so long simply because it feels like home.
When you feel “at home” at work then you know that you are in the right place. What gives you that “at home” feeling is the knowledge that the environment is supportive of you, whether you are at your peak or having a slow day; that the people around you care, that you have a voice as your ideas will be heard. And like home, you have chores, but you also have fun.
Finding a new recruitment is a “one time thing”; keeping him with you for the long stretch is far more challenging. And I know that when a new candidate arrives at TeleMessage, they will just have to look around to realize that they are “home”.