How to Recruit and Retain Top Talent for Your Funeral Business

In the funeral business, your team is arguably the most important element of your services. While everybody appreciates updated facilities and fair pricing, the people you employ offer families emotional support that creates lasting loyalty.  And unlike embalming or sales strategies, compassion is nearly impossible to teach. Because of this, finding and retaining the best people will ultimately determine the success of your funeral home. Here’s how to do it right.

RECRUITING TOP TALENT
To find the best talent in the death care industry, you can look to resources both internal and external. By leveraging job boards, word-of-mouth, and funeral-specific recruiting tactics, you can find the right people to make a positive impact on your funeral home. It goes with saying that people like to do business with companies they like and trust, the same goes for employees and the company they work for. Make your business the workplace of choice and you’ll find that recruiting top talent can get easier.

EMPLOYEE REFERRALS
One of the best places to start your search for candidates is by asking your team for referrals. In many cases, good employees will know good people and employee referrals tend to stick around longer than those found externally.

FACEBOOK AND LINKEDIN INDUSTRY GROUPS
On social media networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, you can find groups of industry-specific talent. For example, the group “Funeral Employment Source” has thousands of members actively looking for death care work.

JOB BOARDS
While we’re all familiar with the likes of Indeed and ZipRecruiter––viable options in themselves, you might also consider looking at job boards specific to the death care industry. The NFDA’s jobs page allows you to post openings to their audience of death care professionals.

FUNERAL SERVICE RECRUITERS
To offset some of the work on your part, you might turn to a funeral service job recruiter. For example,Akre & Associates as well as Global Recruiters Batesville can help match you with a funeral professional that suits your immediate needs.

MORTUARY SCHOOLS
Particularly when looking for young talent, your local mortuary school can be a great place to find passionate individuals looking to begin their careers in death care.

INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
If you’re having trouble filling skilled roles at your funeral home, you might also look to your current pool of talent. With proper training and succession planning, you can help current employees upskill and add value to your business.

RETAINING TOP TALENT
As a general rule, you should aim to retain 90% of your employees. Failure to meet this threshold will not only be costly––in terms of working to fill vacant roles––but it may also indicate that your funeral home’s work culture isn’t meeting the needs of team members. To make sure your talent sticks around, consider the following:

FREQUENT RECOGNITION
When team members excel in their roles, leadership needs to take the time to recognize this. Doing so not only demonstrates your appreciation for their hard work but also motivates other team members to comport themselves in a similar fashion.

CONSISTENT STAFF ACCOUNTABILITY
Conversely, when a team member underperforms, leadership should hold them accountable. Of course, you won’t want to call them out in front of the rest of the team, but you’ll want to take steps to understand what caused a team member to perform poorly and provide them with the guidance to prevent it from happening in the future. There is a saying that goes, there is no greater unequal than the unequal treatment of unequals.

INCENTIVE COMPENSATION PLANS
While verbal recognition certainly helps spur team members to perform their best, incentive compensation has a similar effect. By implementing a system through which regular bonuses are tied to employee performance—for example, sales or positive family feedback—you add some extra motivation for optimal performance. In today’s competitive environment for pay, incentive compensation plans can provide extra compensation to employees tied to the success of the business.

TEAM MEMBER DEVELOPMENT (EMPLOYEE SUCCESS PLANS)
During interviews, employers often ask the question: Where do you see yourself in five years? Once employed, team members will be asking themselves a similar question, and if they don’t see themselves growing and evolving with your funeral home, this will create issues of turnover. Because of this, you’ll want to actively work with team members to chart out a plan for them within your business, providing them with opportunities to earn greater pay and acquire new skills.

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEYS
In many cases, team members will be hesitant to raise concerns about their work conditions. By administering anonymous employee satisfaction surveys, you can obtain valuable information about how to better your funeral home and its culture.

THE ROLE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN TALENT MANAGEMENT
Delivering an exceptional customer experience isn’t just vital for families––it’s also a critical factor in attracting and retaining top talent. A funeral home with a strong reputation for compassionate service and care is more likely to appeal to professionals who take pride in their work and seek an environment that aligns with their values. When your team knows that their efforts directly contribute to meaningful, lasting impressions on families, it fosters a sense of purpose and satisfaction. This, in turn, creates a positive cycle: a motivated team enhances the customer experience, which reinforces your funeral home’s reputation and helps draw more skilled and passionate professionals to your business. To reinforce this it’s critical to implement a customer satisfaction program like JCG’s Performance Tracker X program.

WHY A FUNERAL HOME CONSULTANT IS CRUCIAL
As the director or owner of a funeral home, it can be difficult to get a clear picture of how your team members view their roles. Team members will often treat leadership with a degree of deference, telling them what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear. Often, dissatisfied (yet high-performing) employees will keep their opinions to themselves and seek work elsewhere. To get the valuable insight you need regarding your work culture, you’ll want to turn to some outside help. The team at Johnson Consulting Group, one of the nation’s largest death care consulting firms, has the skills required to help funeral homes examine their operating performance and implement strategic improvements. By taking a holistic look at your business—from both the employer- and client-facing perspectives—we can help you figure out how your team works and how you can create a best-in-class funeral home culture. With immense experience in the world of death care— owning and operating death care businesses for over two decades—JCG has the skill and history required to make capital improvements to your funeral home. From finding new talent to cultivating your current teams, JCG can help you deliver a continually exceptional experience for your families.

Currently the President & CEO at Johnson Consulting, Johnson began his career at Keystone Group Holdings (now Dignity Memorial Network) as Associate Director, Corporate Development, where his financial analysis and forecasting expertise was foundational to the firm’s growth. Johnson’s educational credentials include a BSBA degree in Management with an emphasis in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Xavier University. His foundation in accounting and EBITDA forecasting is complemented by technology savviness and management qualifications in business development and operations.