RFH's Unique Approach to Talent Retention
Written by: Leah Sergent, Director, Resource Management & Human Resources (she/her)
How do exceptional companies counter the devastating impact of the Great Resignation? They double down on their talent. For RFH, that means putting our people first. Our people-first mindset preceded the current market volatility and now it gives even more reason to focus on ways to keep our employees engaged, fulfilled, and thriving.
In a time where agencies are seeing higher than normal attrition and are battling for the same talent in the healthcare market, the tactic seems to be to throw money and an elevated title at the candidate to achieve “victory”—offer acceptance. This tactic is detrimental for so many reasons, the most egregious being that tried-and-true talent are being lost in the shuffle and will leave their current agency for the same opportunity given to an external candidate, thus enabling the attrition cycle. We are challenging that cycle by creating meaningful ways to keep our employees happy and engaged here at RFH.
Rotate Your Seat is a new initiative designed to rotate our talent into open roles and opportunities aligned to their career objectives. This means looking at our internal talent FIRST before moving to an external hire. While the strategy seems simple, the program’s success requires a disciplined approach as well as a shift in mindset. This also means welcoming employees to share their readiness for something new, a commitment to partner with them to achieve their long-term career objectives, and a defined process on how that can be achieved.
When tasked with career development, the tendency of most managers is to develop employees within their specific role and/or craft without much thought into development outside of their current role or team. At RFH, we know that our employees are so much more than their current title, department, or client they support. We want to dig deeper. What are their long-term career objectives? What skills do they want to develop? What skills/passions do they have that they want us to leverage? What skills do they want to attain? We reflect on how we can leverage this information to align our talent to their next right opportunity.
The popular perception that in order to achieve the next right opportunity, salary or growth, one needs to leave their current company is misleading. Under the right leadership and culture, growth opportunities should start from the moment of hire. I started my career within Publicis in 2015 at the Associate level, eager to learn a new craft. Because I had leaders who thought about the bigger picture and my long-term career, they found ways to give me new, exciting opportunities and grow within and outside of my craft. I am here because of their mindset and the culture that fostered it. That’s the difference.
I suspect we have all asked ourselves at some point in our careers—what’s next? At RFH, we want to help answer that question and make sure that our employees know that it’s okay to ask. Because in the end, we know that happy people do amazing work.
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If you are interested in growing at RFH, check out our open roles. We know you are not your resume; we understand you are not your work, and we respect that you are so much more than a job description. You are you. So come find a seat and do you with us.