In the past years, talent loss has become a real issue for modern organizations. Indeed, a stratospheric turnover rate does result in higher expenses and an adverse effect on the company’s morale. Thus, organizations now pay more attention to find some effective strategies for retention of employees.
If you’re also concerned about employee retention and want to increase that specific rate, this post will be what you need.
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What Is Employee Retention, And Why Is It Important?
Reading between the lines, the phrase “employee retention” describes the ability of a company to retain its staff members.
Now, you may think employees’ leaves don’t matter much as all you need is to spend a little more time to find a new one to fill the vacancy. While that method might work for small format stores, there’s more to consider for bigger organizations.
Why Is Employee Retention Important?
Do you know that according to The Society for Human Resource Management, a company can take an average of 6 weeks to fill an open position?
Moreover, depending on different positions, a company might have to pay up to 2.5 times more for a staff’s salary when there is a turnover. Other costs like inefficient performance, loss of training time, and lower company morale are also considerable. Thus, now companies have invested more in employee retention, especially when they vie strongly for talents.
According to the Society for Human Resources Management statistics, employee retention is worth your time and investment. Organizations that center on retaining employees tend to have better rates in work efficiency, productivity, company morale, and work quality. And of course, their turnover rate is also much lower.
Ultimately, thanks to a wise employee retention strategy, the company retains talented employees. Moreover, improving the retention rate would also encourage the current staff to dedicate more, which will result in the organization’s overall success.
According to Frederick F. Reichheld and Phil Schefter’s research on Harvard Business Review, when you raise your customer loyalty by 5%, your company will increase its total profit from 25% to 95%. And one vital factor regarding a high customer loyalty rate is the employee retention rate.
Most of the time, clients only work with people they trust, who they prefer, and who they’ve worked with previously. If your clients usually work with a solid employee and have been doing so for quite a time, they consider that individual staff as an integral part of their job.
As a result, they might face some particular difficulties (such as forming trust with new partners) when their familiar partner disappears. In other words, when trading partners change every few months, customers cannot build deeper business relationships with your organization.
Find out more about the importance of employee retention here:
12 Most Effective Employee Retention Strategies
Now, when we all know the retention meaning in business and how it affects the company in the long run, it’s time to ask yourself how to lower the turnover rates. Below, we’ve listed out 12 best strategies for retention of employees in 2021.
Give More Positive Feedback
Employees need to receive feedback, both compliments, and constructive comments, to progress and perfect themselves. However, many managers forget the power of compliments. Instead, they tend to focus more on criticism.
And that’s the opposite of what we need to do.
According to the Harvard Business Review research, the recommended proportion of compliments and critical comments should be 5 to 6 positivity on 1 constructive feedback.
Indeed, we should regularly provide positive feedback to encourage our employees and motivate them to do their best. Yet, constructive and corrective comments are critical, especially when you have an impending problem that you need to address immediately.
From now on, pay attention to the negative comments you give and try to reduce the frequency of criticism to match the ideal ratio mentioned above.
Also, know that not all employees want to stand out in public in positive and negative scenarios. Thus, managers should consider both public and private sessions when giving compliments or comments to his/her employees.
Motivate Creativity In The Working Environment
In most cases, a company where employees can freely express their ideas and contribute their insights is much more favorable than those strict ones. Thus, creating a creative environment for employees is also a notable retention method.
While many companies claim to appreciate creativity, they do not implement any initiatives and policies to promote it.
In this case, learn it from Google! The company implements a 20% provision that gives employees a chance to work on their favorite projects.
Some other methods to enrich creativity at the workplace could be:
- Give rewards: If you want to encourage an idea-giving environment, consider offering rewards. Specifically, identify and motivate the involved employees.
- Create an environment for creativity: Creativity cannot survive in a conservative and dictatorial environment. Therefore, make sure you create a safe and comfortable environment where people feel free to speak out their thoughts.
Foster Respect In The Workplace
Nowadays, people are seeking respect at work more than ever. They don’t want to feel depreciated or unwanted in the organization. And in most cases, it is the result of lacking respect.
According to the CEB’s Quarterly Global Labor Market research, respect is the third most essential factor applicants search for in a company besides stability and compensation.
You can quickly cultivate respect by applying several recommendations in this article, including giving compliments, showing recognition, promoting creativity, and improving collaboration.
At the same time, you should also give your team members all the equipment and resources they need for the best performance. Expressing your kindness and compassion at the workplace can also be of great help.
Give Your Employees A Chance To Develop
Many companies sponsor outsiders yet do not provide ongoing training to their staff members. As a result, employees are less likely to stay because they feel unhappy with their environment as they cannot improve themselves.
According to CIO Sharon Florentin, many employees appreciate and expect training as they feel valued. Moreover, when there are clear career advancements, employees will most likely feel recognized for their effort in the company’s success.
Promoting and offering training programs internally or utilizing external resources and tools like workshops, books, or online courses could help you motivate your team members to stick with the company longer. They consider these programs as valuable investments.
Earn The Trust Of Your Employees
Staff members do their best when they trust their managers and boss.
If you can earn the trust of your employees, they are more likely to achieve the company’s goals. Do you know that according to Achiever’s latest report, 46% of employees said they were looking for a new job due to a lack of communication and connection? Otherwise, 79% of long-term employees who stayed and worked for one company claimed that they rely on their managers (APA).
Most of the time, there is a natural wall between employers and employees at work. As a result, it’s hard for the staff to let their guard down when they’re next to their bosses.
In this case, a few team-building activities might help.
When you and your employees engage in activities outside the regular office environment, you can chill and relax together. Consequently, you can easily show your true personality and understand each other better.
A relaxing atmosphere is also the ideal environment to build your authentic human connections. Therefore, the team bond and vibe can be naturally established. As a result, the trust between your staff and you can strengthen.
Also, consider building personal commitment, emphasizing honesty and transparency, motivating team members, avoiding bias, and demonstrating your professional skills to build trust with your employees.
Encourage Your Employees To Give You Feedback
Giving comments to your employees is one thing. However, you should also be open to their feedback towards you. When employees feel like the company does not take their valuable feedback seriously, higher chances are that they cannot commit in the long term.
Many employees tend to think that even when they propose something new, things will stay the same.
According to Hay Group, a better relationship between employees and their managers could boost the sales rate up to 2.5 times when they have proper tools and resources, valuable recommendations, and constructive ideas.
Moreover, giving feedback and rewarding those who contribute ideas won’t do you any harm. Instead, it’ll help you cultivate an idea-speaking culture in which employees believe their voice is heard.
Include Your Employees
Nobody wants to feel isolated in an organization, and they would appropriately not want to feel useless, too. Thus, employees need to feel like you hire them for a solid reason, and they want to play an essential role in the company mechanism.
According to Josh Bersin, founder and CEO of Deloitte’s Bersin, companies that intentionally pay attention to promoting inclusion, creativity, growth plans, and cultural leadership may have 3.8x more opportunities to improve productivity.
You can also solve problems and identify performance issues 3.6 times better. At the same time, the company is 2.9 times more likely to produce better leaders.
The one above is just one of the research on companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion. From recruitment and leadership evaluation to career growth and work management, building inclusion in the working environment is a huge recommendation, and you have no shortcuts to achieve it.
Give Out Balanced Challenges
While working with the same tasks every day might make your employees feel bored and apathetic, challenging your staff with rigorous jobs would properly cause them to feel stressed and demoralized.
Indeed. Forbes journalist Kristi Hedges explains that balancing challenges and daily tasks is tricky. As each employee is different, the task that one finds interesting might be overwhelming for others. However, that doesn’t mean you have no way to balance it. Some of these critical factors below might help you:
- Show employees that you trust them: Leaders have authority. Thus, once they show their employees their trust, employees will gain more self-confidence.
- Get your employees out of their comfort zone: Providing them a chance to take risks might surprise both you and your employees. They might explore new facets and abilities they have never thought of.
- Think of failure as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and face them together to grow: Making mistakes and dealing with them isn’t easy. However, ensure that your employees know you’re with them in both ups and downs.
- Encourages employees’ effort: Talent and intelligence aren’t the two only things that deserve rewards. Hard work counts, too.
Promote A Healthy Work-life Balance
Many companies nowadays require overtime working. However, for workers, it means less time on their personal life, hobbies, and beloved individuals.
Do you know that full-time employees in the US spend 60% of their time (14.5 hours per day) on personal care and hobbies, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development? Moreover, only 11% of American employees choose to work long hours, which is slightly lower than the average of 15% globally.
Therefore, in the US, most people view overtime employees as heroes of the company, and they would adequately receive some bonus or rewards.
But what shocks us even more is that according to data on Chron.com, a third of employees spend time having lunch at their desks, and 16% rarely eat anything during their lunch break.
Of course, a driven, motivated, and compassionate employee who always wants to dedicate himself to the company is respected. Yet, many individuals tend to succumb to increased stress and pressure at work.
People do have limits, and once they exceed way too far from their physical limits, they’re exhausted and get sick. In other words, they crumble. When that scenario happens, they tend to make more mistakes, even lethal ones.
Therefore, if your goal is to retain staff, make sure they get enough rest. You wouldn’t want your talents to get sick and low productivity. Not only does it help reduce stress and sick leave on employees, but it also enhances your healthy working environment. Regulatory compliance also applies in some countries.
Besides, setting regular working hours, weekend work policies, or remote working can also help a lot! If you follow these suggestions, higher chances are that your employees will feel much refreshed and work better.
Create A Healthy, Clean, And Safe Environment For Your Employees
Providing your employee a safe and clean environment both mentally and physically is essential.
No one wants to work in an office full of dust and debris. Also, higher chances are that they would also decline to work in a dangerous or abusive environment. And if they do work, they would properly not do their best.
On one end, you need to make sure there aren’t any abusive or toxic members at your workplace. A toxic work environment lowers your employees’ productivity and performance. Also, if the situation goes on, it can result in significant mental issues.
Therefore, although employee retention strategies are our main topic today, it’s advisable to lay off harassing, distracting, or uncooperative employees. It’s suitable for everyone.
On the other hand, a risk assessment might be necessary to spot potential threats in the workplace. Moreover, you could introduce additional processes and safety procedures to ensure a safer workplace.
Provide Your Employees With Continuous Support
Setting goals for employees doesn’t mean that you only throw them the jobs. You also need to provide them with adequate support. As most employees lack ongoing training, higher chances are that they cannot achieve challenging goals on their own. In this case, being a great manager means offering assistance when needed.
First, make sure that you can communicate with them comfortably. As most employees won’t feel comfortable sharing the existing problems with their boss, they would keep the issues themselves most of the time. In this situation, consider following some of our suggestions above regarding building trust and inclusion.
Then, follow up with their progress and ask them if they need any advice or help. Once you broach the subject, they would likely tell you about the ongoing project and share their problems with you. Feel free to assist, mentor, and guide them with your knowledge.
In A Nutshell – Strategies For Retention Of Employees
That’s all we have for today, the top 12 most effective strategies for retention of employees. Jobandedu hopes you’ve gained more insights into retaining talented members with our detailed guide above.
However, sometimes turnover is unavoidable. After all, as the business leader, you can prepare backup plans in case star employees see their chance to pursue their desired position and leave. Also, feel free to refer to our page for more valuable career advice.
