How does one build and maintain a workforce that can weather an economic downturn? While talk of a recession is in the news, some employers are hedging their bets by “labor hoarding,” which is simply a clever way of saying that companies are desperate to hang onto the talent they have. And, despite the headlining tech layoffs, others are still recruiting, yet ultra-cautious to make the right hiring choice and avoid costly attrition.

For a recent webinar hosted by From Day One, titled “Finding and Retaining Employees With the Right Combination of Skills for a Changing Workplace,” I interviewed Robert Bennett, VP of strategic partnerships at the talent-intelligence platform SkillSurvey, an ICIMS company, about recruiting and retaining employees at a time when few companies can spare the cost of high turnover. 

He advised two things. First, recruit for soft skills, and second, tighten your onboarding process to improve long-term retention. 

Scouting for Soft Skills

Technical skills are becoming outdated at an ever-increasing speed, so employers are shifting their focus to recruiting employees with valuable soft skills and qualities, like adaptability and willingness to learn.

Hiring managers need to develop their own soft skills that enable them to evaluate candidates in an interview, Bennett said. Hiring managers may be taught what questions they should ask job candidates, but, according to Bennett, “the challenge is they’re not able to understand what they’re hearing, and the way the person is answering this question.”

Soft skills can be developed, said Bennett, even if they don’t come naturally to a person. For instance, though some managers may have the tendency to work with their office door closed, failing to engage with their teams or offer help, that’s a habit that can be broken and coaching skills developed in its place.

Bennett sees the need for soft skills training particularly among early-career hires, and believes employers expect more of recent graduates than they can typically offer. He recommended employers take it on themselves to develop those skills in their workers and prospective ones, and consider this an investment in employee retention. “That’s why it’s so important that organizations start doing more internships, because it allows people to come into their work environment, during off-school time or during the school year, and be able to get experience and gain those behaviors.”

To get a sense of the soft skills an applicant does have, Bennett underscored the use of employee references, likening it to the decisions we make as consumers. When picking where to go for dinner, we don’t necessarily want to take the chef’s word for it, we want to read reviews from customers who have experienced the restaurant. “The best way to evaluate a candidate is to get people who have worked with them or people that have been around them to provide their observations,” said Bennett. 

Tapping Talent Pools with Unique Soft Skills

Finding the right combination of skills for your workforce is also a matter of pulling talent from a variety of pools. “I wish more organizations would look into their community,” said Bennett. “When a soccer program at the high-school level is failing, if I’m a smart high-school coach, I’m creating a youth program and I’m generating that filter to bring talent up into my high-school team. Some of the best communities do that. Why aren’t employers doing that?”

Employers can cultivate talent from pools like formerly incarcerated workers, military veterans, or even former professional athletes, as is the case with Salesforce and its new Athleteforce program, which trains elite athletes retiring from their sport for a career in tech. 

Remote work also lets employers pull talent from across the U.S. or around the world, especially from underestimated markets. Bennett noted the opportunity in recruiting, for example, tech talent from areas not necessarily known for tech workers. After all, not all highly talented developers live in Northern California.

Onboarding Has an Outsized Effect on Long-Term Retention

As for retention, don’t underestimate the power of tight operations. A bad onboarding experience can negatively affect long-term employee outlook. SkillSurvey’s research has found that workers who rank their onboarding experience poorly are less likely to envision themselves at the company for more than two years.

Onboarding can go wrong in small ways that corrupt a worker’s view of their new company. For example, did they get the right equipment? Starting a job in which the employer isn’t ready for them can have the new employee wondering, “Is this how this organization is being run?” said Bennett.

He also urged hiring managers to play an active role in folding new hires into company culture, introducing them to colleagues and helping them form social relationships that can provide a reason to stay.

“There’s an opportunity to put people in situations to help them grow,” Bennett said. He referenced a client who brought new employees to the office cafeteria on their first day of work. This small act helped new hires adopt the habit of eating in the cafeteria rather than eating at their desk or going out to lunch. “It helped build relationships. [It built] camaraderie compared to the old methodology, which was, ‘Let’s go out to lunch on day one,’ where you don’t get a chance to meet others.” HR staffers can help foster relationship-building among new hires, but Bennett believes that “hiring managers have to cultivate that.”

Beyond the onboarding stage, staying up to date on employee sentiment is important. “We’re wondering why people are leaving, and we’re blaming pay,” he said. “But what are the second and third reasons people are leaving? Is it the commute? Is it where our office is located? Is it the benefits? Is it the flexibility?” Regular sentiment surveys, said Bennett, can help employers recognize friction before it becomes a reason for employees to quit. 

Ultimately, Bennett reminded employers to hire for potential, teach what is teachable, and help workers envision a promising future at your organization. “It comes down to ‘Do you have the right behaviors, the soft skills, to be successful in that job?’ You can then teach the rest of it. If you can teach somebody how to do it, and then onboard them and make them feel welcomed, and then continue to show them their future through a career path, you’re going to retain them and you’re going to get the most out of them.”

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SkillSurvey, who sponsored this webinar.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance reporter who covers the future of work, HR, recruiting, DEI, and women's experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Fast Company, Quartz at Work, Digiday’s Worklife, and Food Technology, among others.