How to Strike Recruitment & Retention Gold

Did you know that every time a dad joins and exits your program there is an opportunity to improve your recruitment and retention tactics? And what better place to get ideas than directly from your desired target audience.

To ensure you get the most valuable input from dads, you need to mine their feedback. That means you need a formal approach to get dads’ input during their enrollment in and exit from your program.

Here are some things to consider regarding your enrollment approach:

• Build your enrollment strategy into your current intake process. The best time to capture information is when dads first enroll in your fatherhood program. That way dads will remember exactly how and where they learned about your program.
• Use four basic questions. You need only ask four questions and, if you already have an intake form, simply add these questions to it:
  • Where did you first learn or hear about our fatherhood program? This question will reveal the tactic that reached them first, and might become the most important one.
  • Did you learn about our fatherhood program from anywhere or anyone else? This question can reveal other tactics that you didn’t think of.
  • Did you also learn about our fatherhood program through other means? This question can identify other ways you have effectively marketed the program (e.g. flyers, social media, and word-of-mouth).
  • When you first heard about our fatherhood program, what was the first thought you had? This question can help with messaging. You might learn, for example, that most dads were skeptical that they could benefit from a fatherhood program.
• Build your enrollment strategy into the first gathering of dads. If you are unable to capture information during intake, ask dads the questions above at their first gathering (e.g. first program session, meeting, or event).

Here are some things to consider regarding your exit approach:

• Create an exit interview. This will measure the effectiveness of your retention strategies. You should conduct an exit interview anytime a dad leaves your program and when the program ends.
  • For dads who left your program before it ended, ask:
    • What would have kept you in the program?
  • For dads who completed your program, ask:
    • What kept you in the program?
    • Did any of these other retention strategies keep you in the program? Provide other retention strategies you implemented (e.g. incentives, postcards, and text reminders) to see if they had an effect.
    • What else should we do to keep dads in the program?
  • Conduct exit interviews for your father mentors and volunteer facilitators. If your program uses mentors and volunteers, include them in your exit interviews. They have experienced your program as a participant and a mentor or facilitator, so they may reveal additional tactics.

Enrollment and exit interviews are your most valuable tool to mine successful recruitment and retention tactics. Moreover, they will ensure your program has a steady stream of dads who, not only join your program, but complete it. That’s when you’ll know you’ve struck gold!

For a deeper dive in recruitment and retention strategies, check out our Recruitment & Retention Webpage and our Recruitment & Retention Live Webinar Certificate Training.

If you don’t currently conduct enrollment and exit interviews, what steps do you need to take to develop them?

If you conduct enrollment and exit interviews, which of the above suggestions can you add to enhance them?