Employee retention is a critical issue for many companies—especially those with people as their primary resource—and it’s an integral part of building and maintaining operational resilience. Employee retention is part of workforce planning, continuity planning, and overall business performance. In other words, whether your business is big or small, establishing a strong strategy for employee retention is an important part of keeping your business running, no matter what happens in the world around us.
It’s no surprise that higher job satisfaction leads to higher employee retention. So how do you manage your team to maintain high morale and prevent employee turnover? From our expert executive coaches, here are a few thoughts on how to boost employee retention.
… your company specifically. Before you can develop a retention strategy, you need to understand the reasons behind why employees leave your business. Sometimes it’s a planned change or a new opportunity, and sometimes it’s a negative experience or dissatisfaction with their current work environment. Do the research to better understand these drivers first.
New employee turnover can be high. Providing applicants with an accurate and realistic understanding of the job can increase their likelihood to stay once they join the team. Similarly, strong onboarding and mentorship programs can help new employees learn the company’s culture, feel a sense of belonging, and boost retention.
In the current labor market, competitive compensation is important, but it’s also increasingly challenging. If you can’t offer market-leading compensation and rewards, consider offering flexibility and perks that increase job satisfaction—such as work from home options—or tying rewards to retention, such as increased vacation hours based on seniority or even retention bonuses.
Each employee should feel connected to the organization’s mission and know that they are contributing to the team’s success. Employees who understand and feel connected to an organization’s mission typically report higher job satisfaction and motivation. And motivated employees are more productive, have lower absenteeism, and are more likely to stick with a company long term.
Open, honest communication builds trust, which translates directly to employee satisfaction and engagement. Take the time to clearly communicate goals and expectations, and regularly update employees on both team and individual progress. When in doubt, err on the side of sharing more information with your team, not less.
It’s easy to make the business case for developing a strong employee retention strategy: It’s more cost effective to keep a good employee on staff than to hire and train someone new (and that’s assuming you get someone whose work is of an equal caliber). If you’re ready to develop a strategic plan for your business and need a little extra help, we’re here. Drop us a line at [email protected], and let’s get started today.