Engagement
7
min read
“Start the retention process when the person is still open to staying, not after they’ve already told you they’re leaving.” -Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman, LinkedIn
Employee retention is increasingly becoming a top priority for growing organizations across the globe. With talent becoming the greatest asset and great resignation becoming a reality in the VUCA world, organizations can no longer afford employee attrition if they seek to scale and sustain business growth, making employee retention strategies a critical part of organizational goals.
In this article, we will discuss:
- Reasons why employees leave focusing on alarming data points
- What factors contribute to employee retention
- Top 20 strategies for employee retention
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Why employee leave: Top 5 reasons
Before jumping on to the top employee retention strategies for growing organizations, let’s quickly understand why employees leave. These reasons will eventually become the basis for writing your employee retention plan:
1. Work relationships
Employees tend to leave when they don’t have healthy working relationships with their bosses and coworkers. We have often heard the employees don’t quit jobs, they quit managers. Thus, the lack of an empowering, feedback oriented relationship with clear communication with the manager as well as coworkers pushes employees looking for a way out.
2. Lack of appreciation
When employees don’t receive due credit and appreciation for their work and contribution, they crave validation. They are unable to see their value add for the organization, which impacts their engagement and commitment, leading to employees leaving.
3. Limited development opportunities
As a part of their job, employees expect opportunities for growth in their career with learning and development interventions in the form of training as well as greater responsibility. However, in the absence of growth opportunities, employees feel they are stagnant and leave an organization.
4. Lack of flexibility and autonomy
In the VUCA world, employees leave organizations that have a very rigid structure with little or no flexibility and autonomy. If your organization is unable to address flexible work expectations, including remote work and provide space and autonomy to employees to unleash the creativity in them, you are likely to see higher levels of turnover.
5. Low levels of engagement and management
Finally, when employees are unhappy with the engagement and performance management efforts, they are likely to leave an organization. In the absence of a sense of belongingness, employees lose the motivation to work, which results in attrition.
10 shocking statistics for employee retention
Here’s a quick snapshot of the current employee retention and attrition landscape across a diverse workforce. These statistics clearly indicate the need for carefully planned and diligently executed employee retention strategies.
- The average employee exit costs 16% to 213% of their annual salary depending on their pay (Source)
- 1 in 3 professionals cite boredom as their main reason to leave their jobs (Source)
- 3 in 4 current workers are actively thinking of leaving their jobs (Source)
- 70% of staff members would leave their current organizations for a job with one known for investing in employee development and learning (Source)
- 76% millennials would leave their jobs if they’re unappreciated (Source)
- Companies that provide the option for remote work have 25% lower employee turnover (Source)
- 54% of Gen Zs, respectively, are thinking about quitting their job (Source)
- 70% of millennials have considered leaving a job, to one boasting flexible work options (Source)
- 79% employees consider bad leadership as a factor in deciding to quit (Source)
- 16% of Gen Z and Millennial employees have quit a job because they felt the technology provided by their employer was inadequate (Source)
5 reasons that make employees stay with an organization
Based on our experience of working with growing organizations as well as years of research expertise, we have been able to identify 5 factors or reasons which encourage employees to stay with an organization. In your attempt to reduce employee turnover, you can capitalize on these factors to build your employee retention strategies.
1. Employee centric engagement and performance management
Employees tend to stay with an organization when they feel they belong there. Therefore, high levels of engagement and commitment to the organization is one major reason that employees stay. Furthermore, continuous performance management with an employee focus, addressing their development needs and ensuring their growth is what will encourage them to stay.
2. Growth oriented culture with employee participation
Taking cue from growth above, employees stay with organizations which have a positive and growth oriented and empowering culture. Opportunities for mentorship, coaching, leadership development as well as high levels of employee participation are critical. This suggests a major reason for employees to stay is because they feel they are heard, valued and included in all or most organizational decisions. Be it setting of OKRs or creating a new business plan, employee participation, feedback and gauging their pulse is important.
3. Focus on appreciation and recognition
Employees will be more sticky and loyal to an organization where their efforts are appreciated and recognized. As a part of human nature, they will stay longer with an organization that gives them credit along with appropriate rewards for their contribution. On one hand, employees feel valued. On the other hand, it brings a sense of credibility and pride for employees, both of which contribute to a longer tenure.
Read: Best practices for employee recognition to learn how to create a culture of recognition
4. Alignment with purpose and values
Your workforce will stay longer if it aligns with your purpose and values. Since each person has a particular vision and goals for their professional and personal growth, unless they align with what your organization stands for, retention for a long period becomes difficult. Similarly, if your organizational values align with what your employees believe, they will stay with you for longer.
5. Meaningful work
Finally, employees stay when they feel their work is meaningful, purpose driven and is able to create an impact. Here, getting the opportunity to work on challenging tasks as well as work that is satisfying makes a difference. When people see results because of what they are doing, they are bound to stay longer.
20 top employee retention strategies you must know
Now that we have an understanding of why employees leave and some reasons of what can make them stay, let’s take a look at the top 20 employee retention strategies that you can implement to reduce turnover significantly.
1. Make recruitment effective
Provide employees with a clear and realistic picture of what working at your organization will look like. Don’t paint unrealistic pictures as a tool to attract employees with stark different on-ground realities.
- Be clear on what you need
- Revisit your job descriptions
- Look at the right places
- Try to seek referrals
2. Focus on smooth onboarding
Provide adequate support to your employees during the onboarding process. Help them socialize with their team members, encourage them to reach out to you for anything without hesitance, and create a resource document for information they might need. Having a buddy program along with an engaging induction can be useful.
- Follow a structured process
- Be realistic with the new joinee and don’t promise the moon
- Explain any internal codes or acronyms that you use
- Make connections for initial days
3. Facilitate regular check-ins in the first few months
Connect with new employees every few days to understand how things are going for them and whether they need any additional support. Make it a practice with clear objectives and questions for each check-in.
Download our 1:1 meeting’s template for managers to run smooth check-ins with new joinees
4. Promote right training and development
Facilitate learning and development opportunities based on the specific requirements for each employee. Help them chart out a career growth plan and customize learning opportunities based on it.
- Undertake surveys to identify training needs
- Use performance snapshots to understand performance trends over years
- Invest in both hard and soft skills development
5. Ensure manager development
Focus on developing the right leadership skills for your managers when it comes to engaging with their team members. Development on providing feedback, mentorship, conducting 1-o-1 conversations, leveraging employee insights should be undertaken.
- Focus on coaching and leadership training
- Invest in tools that offer guided templates
- Promote skills of delegation, recognition and appreciation
6. Provide adequate feedback
Ensure a steady stream of constructive feedback goes to each employee. Use feedback as a tool to facilitate better performance and reduce feedback anxiety by using it appropriately.
7. Get compensation and benefits right
Reassess your compensations and benefits strategy. Align it with market standards and offer the right benefits to your employees for the value they add to your organization. Consider market correction for specific roles, if needed.
- Don’t focus only on year-on-year increments
- Provide rewards and incentives on the go
- Gauge the benefits your employees demand
8. Encourage high levels of engagement
Facilitate employee engagement by focusing on diverse initiatives including work management, appreciation, meaningful work, etc. Here’s a full list of employee engagement activities for you to try.
9. Create a culture of acknowledgment
Celebrate all milestones for your employees, whether big or small. Ensure that even efforts are celebrated and acknowledged with public/private appreciation.
- Create a monthly appreciation day
- Have social media shout outs for top performers
- Recognize in real time with small gestures or goodies
10. Focus on rewards and recognition
Relook at your rewards and recognition strategy. Create a compelling rewards program to facilitate new ideas and greater participation which will result in higher engagement and retention.
11. Promote work-life balance
Give employees adequate time to focus on their personal and family life. Set clear boundaries and respect them.
- Provide compulsory time off
- Offer benefits like maternity and paternity leaves, etc.
- Offer flexible and remote working
12. Prioritize employee health and wellbeing
Make health and wellbeing a priority. Offer both tangible and intangible support. On one hand, have proper insurance and professionals on board to provide immediate support. On the other hand, eliminate instances of burn out or being overworked by ensuring fair delegation of work and hiring according to need.
- Facilitate wellness sessions
- Offer monetary support for any health and wellness requirement
- Boost physical wellbeing
13. Provide a growth ecosystem
Offer the right ecosystem of mentors, coaches and leaders who not only help your employees perform well in their tasks and goals, but also enable them to grow professionally. Help them navigate the personal and professional challenges with adequate resources and formal programs.
14. Increase employee participation
Encourage employee participation across all avenues. Involve them in setting OKRs and goals as well as in other organizational initiatives. Make them a part of decision making wherever possible.
- Engage employees in most discussions
- Involve them in goal setting as well as performance reviews
- Offer incentives for participation
15. Gauge employee pulse
Ensure that employee sentiments and opinions are captured, analyzed and reflected upon on a regular basis. Send out pulse surveys frequently to gauge employee feedback on different aspects of their experience and preempt attrition risks to address them.
16. Reinvent performance management
Focus on knowing the strengths of all your team members and delegating work accordingly. Facilitate effective 1-o-1 conversations on different aspects of performance and track performance over time. (Get more insights on all things performance, here)
17. Promote collaboration and co-creation
Create opportunities for teamwork, collaboration and co-creation. Encourage employees to create a network with their colleagues to foster strong workplace relationships to promote greater belongingness and a positive culture.
- Create cross-functional teams for certain projects
- Create a buddy program in the beginning
- Promote cross-team mentorship programs
18. Ensure clarity in communication
Make clear communication across all aspects a priority. Right from communicating values and vision to daily tasks and goals, ensure that there is no misunderstanding of expectation mismatch to prevent dissatisfaction in the end.
19. Foster respect, fairness and transparency
Ensure that there is respect, fairness and transparency across all levels of the organization. Don’t let your employees feel that they are treated differently or are subjected to any form of bias. Practice fairness in rewards, recognition, appraisals and promotions and be transparent about all such processes.
20. Leverage technology across all aspects
Focus on capitalizing tools like SuperBeings to get real time insights into key drivers that impact engagement and hence attrition. Leverage automation and the power of artificial intelligence to create heatmaps and identify areas for intervention to reduce attrition preemptively.
To see how SuperBeings can help you solve your specific issue in just 15 minutes, book a quick call with one of our experts.
