Staff recruitment and retention

Recruiting the right staff for your business


Recruitment and training are critical to the success of your business and ultimately your bottom line. Effective approaches to recruitment can help to:

  • reduce staff turnover
  • improve employee morale
  • increase productivity

The key is selecting the right approach for your business, which will help you to achieve your business objectives and allow you to respond effectively to demographic, social and technological trends.

Alan and Michelle Sharpe of Heritage Tea Rooms provide some key tips on staff recruitment and retention for tourism businesses.

Video - Your Business Success Part 2 - Staff recruitment and retention Your Business Success Part 2 - Staff recruitment and retention

A key tip from Allan and Michelle Sharpe is to choose employees based on how they fit with the business, rather than simply their experience. By recruiting people who hadn't been in the workforce for a long period, Allan and Michelle were able to gain the complete loyalty and support of their employees.

Video - Your Business Success Part 3 - Recruiting for Organisational Fit Your Business Success Part 3 - Recruiting for Organisational Fit


What does recruitment involve?


  • determining the characteristics of the role
  • writing an effective job description
  • sourcing (the art of finding skilled people)
  • resume screening
  • interviewing for knowledge, skills and attitude
  • testing
  • reference checking

Visit the Recruiting, Managing and Developing Staff Diagnostic to help assess and improve how well you select and manage people within your business.

For further information about recruiting and managing staff have a look at the Department of State Development Trade and Innovation fact sheets.