Firm Foundations: Recruitment and Retention

When the environmental services industry is doing well as a whole, it means individual companies are likely doing well, too. At Cascade, we recognize that while we compete with other drilling and remediation companies for the best talent, we all benefit when there’s a healthy talent pipeline into the industry. That’s why we’re sharing our best practices, advice and tips for the recruitment and retention of new field services employees as the last installment of our blog series, Firm Foundations.

This article is divided into two sections: recruitment and retention. Although there is often overlap between the two topics, we wanted to make it easier to find the information you need most.

RECRUITMENT

Understanding Employee Motivations in a Candidate Driven Market

When people change jobs, it’s often not about the money—it’s about solving other types of problems, such as getting promoted or feeling like hard work is appreciated. If you’re recruiting new employees, tapping into these other priorities can help establish you as a top pick employer.

Engaging with Veterans in a Competitive Labor Market

When leaving military service for civilian careers, veterans often have a work ethic and skills that are a good fit for the environmental services industry. However, you may need to help them understand which skills are transferrable (and which ones they’ll be able to learn on-the-job). In this blog post, you’ll learn how to find and connect with veteran candidate pools.

How to Use Social Media to Recruit New Candidates to the Environmental Services Industry

Nearly 4 billion people worldwide use social media, which makes it a natural choice for recruitment efforts. But how do you get in front of the right people out of that 4 billion--the ones who are in your region, have the right skills or background, and who are looking for work? This blog post will walk you through the steps so you can use social media effectively for recruitment.

The Secret to Hiring During (and After) COVID: Appealing to Candidate Needs

Whether you’re hiring during a global pandemic or not, successful recruitment hinges on understanding what people want out of a job—and that goes beyond a paycheck. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to identify and appeal to the needs of your potential job candidates.

3 Steps to Recruiting Field Staff Through Effective Pipeline Management

If you have a smaller drilling company, you may not be constantly in hiring mode—but if you’re mid-sized or larger, you know you’ve always got to be on the lookout for potential new hires. This process can be streamlined if you know how to do it—which is what this blog post will teach you.

How Partnerships Between Schools and the Environmental Services Industry Benefit Both

One of Cascade’s most successful recruiting efforts has been to build long-term partnerships with vocational schools. In this blog post, you’ll learn how both your company and local students can benefit from such collaborative efforts.

How to Attract and Retain a Diverse Workforce with a Diverse Benefits Program

A diverse workforce is one comprised of individuals from different backgrounds who have varied expectations, priorities and requirements for their ideal job. In order to attract them, however, you must understand what makes a job “good” for these candidates, and then tailor your benefits package to meet those needs. This blog post walks you through how to do that.

Why a Diverse Workforce Matters for the Environmental Services Industry

If you aren’t sure why diversity is important, this blog explains why it matters from a business perspective. It also provides examples of what Cascade is doing to build our own diverse workforce.

RETENTION

How to Enhance Employee Retention Through Effective Onboarding

No matter how effective your recruiting efforts are, they’re futile if you can’t retain your employees once they’ve joined your team. One of the most important ways you can influence people to stay is through your onboarding program. This blog post explains how a few tweaks to this process can make a big difference in your employee retention.

Beyond Onboarding: How to Get and Use New Hire Feedback

Getting feedback from your newest employees is one of the best ways you can improve both your recruitment AND retention rates! The fresh perspective can help you identify trouble spots in your hiring and onboarding processes—giving you the opportunity to fix them and optimize your efforts. Read this blog post to learn more.

5 Ways to Improve Employee Retention

Want a checklist for reviewing your employee retention efforts? Here you go!

How Exit Interview Surveys Can Help You Prevent the Next Resignation

Losing a valued employee is hard, but losing two (or three, or four…) is even worse. When you get a letter giving two weeks’ notice, that’s your signal to investigate so you can prevent additional resignations.

Implementing Diversity Training: The Importance of Buy-in and the Organizational “Diversity Mindset”

Just because we understand the importance of diversity doesn’t mean we know how to develop a workplace that is welcoming to people of all backgrounds. Oftentimes, it helps to bring in an outside organization to identify areas for improvement. In this blog post, we explain how to select and evaluate a program that works for your company.

Tackling Diversity in a Male Dominated Industry

The environmental services industry offers benefits and opportunities that most people find appealing—yet we see mostly only men applying for open jobs. Why is this? And what can we do to change it? In this blog post, we cover the answers to those questions and more.