• The official blog of Abacus Group — a place to share our knowledge and thoughts on trends in recruiting •

Over half of full time employed Americans spend more time with their colleagues than with their families. It is therefore unsurprising the importance of employee relations and the prevalence of contagion in employee turnover.

Skills, experience, and other requirements are what ensure a candidate’s capability to perform a job. Cultural fit—compatibility with your staff’s personalities, attitudes, values, and beliefs—is what ultimately keeps him or her committed to an organization. As employee turnover rates rise, Abacus Group maintains that a concerted effort to invest in the right individuals is the critical missing link in many businesses’ hiring processes.

Accounting news, information and resources provider AccountingWEB recently discussed one of the industry’s biggest challenges: employee turnover.  Following time devoted to recruiting, hiring and training the right person, it can be “deflating to have the person leave after only a few years,” author Mary Ellen Biery explains

Recognizing, engaging and hiring talented employees are challenges which are best accomplished through alliances with executive recruiters.  We previously shared a sample of the most compelling advantages that recruiters deliver to hiring professionals.  Included in our brief catalogue is a recruiter’s allegiance to client confidentiality.

An employee resignation is rarely a pleasant occurrence. There are some definitive warning signs that can arm an employer with a head start on filling the vacancy or, if deemed appropriate, engage the employee in an attempt to change his or her mind. Here are five characteristics you will typically notice in an employee who’s getting ready to look elsewhere or is actively interviewing for new positions.

The right people are the foundation of a successful business. A distinct blend of personalities, skills and perspectives synchronize to drive productivity and innovation. Of course, the wrong people are sometimes brought into an organization, disrupting its core. Earlier this year, leading job search website CareerBuilder found that two-thirds of U.S. businesses have been negatively affected by bad hiring, defined as the employment of “individuals who turned out to be either poor cultural fits or poor performers.”  This high percentage suggests that many executives remain unaware of the full implications of such mistakes and the recommended practices for prevention.