Employee Retention Strategies

2 years ago

The days have long since passed when people would stay at one job for their entire career. The old ideal of retiring after 40 years with one company, taking home a pension and a gold watch, is fading into the past. For many reasons, more workers are changing jobs several times throughout their careers.

When a critical role (key talent) employee of your organization leaves, you do not only lose valuable talent, but you also may experience a decrease in team morale, damage to client relationships, altered succession plans, and even more turnover. Leaving turnover rate to chance is probably one of the worst things a company can do. Eventually, the costs of dealing with low employee retention rates will seriously affect the company's profits, work culture, productivity, and general morale. By 2030, the US is going to lose $430 billion annually due to low talent retention. 

In their most recent survey « Talent 2020: Surveying the Talent Paradox from the Employee Perspective.” Deloitte asked employees to choose the three most significant factors that would cause them to seek new employment. And the incentives to get employees to stay and these were the answer:

How To Increase Employee Retention

To secure your greatest assets from accepting a job at another company, you must begin retaining at the very moment they accept your job offer. But the real secret is that you never stop.

with the unemployment rate low and opportunities showing up on their feet daily, there's no greater time than now to address retention in your workplace so that you can continue to keep the best of brightest the most talented on your team

To win the war on talent, you must be dedicated to actively retaining your new hires from Day one. It boils down to being committed to maximizing the investment you’ve made in the members of your team, throughout their entire journey

On average, a higher retention rate can maximize a company's profits up to 4 times. With that being said, here are the best retention strategies

1. Hire Smart:

Taking the time to draft job descriptions recruit candidates and interview thoroughly will pay off to find employees who are a good fit for the position, and the unique culture of your company or organization. So make sure that you are hiring the right employees and that you don’t fall into that negative mindset. Many new hires admit that they would stay at a job longer if they were better informed about their role during the hiring process. Therefore be honest about what you expect from the new hire. Whatever you do, don’t omit details of the job just because you are desperate to fill an empty position. Being transparent is crucial in finding the right employee for your company

2. Provide An Exceptional Employee Onboarding Experience:

Numerous studies show the correlation between onboarding and retention with the most recent reporting that 69% of employees will stay at their workplace for three or more years if they have a great onboarding experience.

3. Offer An Attractive Benefits Program & Competitive Salary:

Use benchmarking tools to determine whether or not your salaries are competitive and maybe in addition to offering items such as medical insurance a 401k or other retirement savings plan adding in additional benefits perks such as subsidized health club memberships, paid time off, and parental leave

4. Train And Mentor Your Employees:

Help them set goals for both their role in the company and overall career and provide support to help them get there this can include formal training as well as opportunities to participate in professional organizations or industry seminars.

When you invest in individuals’ success, they invest in you. Companies rated highly on employee training experienced 53% lower attrition.

5. Work-Life Balance for Your Employees:

This can take the form of flexible work hours or even the ability to work at home for some positions; companies with optional remote work have a 25% lower turnover. As you structure your paid time off policies, make sure to a lot of discretionary time that employees can use to manage personal issues

Identify people in your company that is overworked this week. Give them a bit of time off, or get everyone out of the office for a walk. Evaluate how your work scheduling promotes a healthy work-life balance.

6. Recognize Employee Achievements And Contributions That Go Over And Above Regular Job Performance:

you can do this through regular formal programs such as employee of the month, communicate your employees' outstanding performance to the rest of your team and offer a token award or prize leadership opportunities are also a great motivator for empowering employees and increasing satisfaction give your employees the chance to take ownership of projects and to be engaged at higher strategic levels when possible next

7. Cast a Vision for Their Future & Create Professional Development Opportunities

your employees want to know what future opportunities are available to them in your company in fact this is one of the most common reasons employees are leaving today so sit down or have a manager sit down with them annually to develop a career plan that outlines clear goals and objectives they need to achieve to advance in your company. Employees who remain in the same role for an extended period are more likely to leave an organization.

You can create a powerful incentive for your team members to stay over the long haul. Employees see these initiatives as an investment in *their* future.

8. Ask For Feedback and Act-On It

As far as employee retention strategies go, this one is often overlooked. You need to get into the habit of encouraging and listening to all the feedback your employees give. So if you want to boost morale and employee happiness, it’s time you listened and acted on what your employees are saying. Don’t wait for an annual review, send weekly or monthly feedback surveys to your employees on various things – from new office design to the new marketing strategy or a new product you’re pushing out. Make sure your employees have a platform where they can voice their thoughts. Consider a suggestion box that they can access at any time.

You Don't Always Need To Pay More, You May Just Need To Pay Attention

Without question, money retains people, but it's not the only way to keep employees.

Employees want to be appreciated, want to continuously learn, and know that there's room to grow within their current organization. And when they notice they can't receive these things within their current role, they look elsewhere.

Keeping your current employees happy is a much smarter strategy, you avoid high recruitment costs. You retain valuable knowledge that even an excellent new hire can't replace. And you also protect your employer brand by ensuring people who do leave the organization only have good things to say