Employee retention is an essential area of focus for Human Resources professionals. Too much turnover can interrupt productivity, raise costs (costing 50%–200% of a person’s salary), and leave staff feeling down. Some of the most effective retention strategies are those that create ownership, loyalty, and connectedness to a workplace culture that encourages engagement. This article will present relevant action steps for Human Resources teams to implement to improve employee retention and create workforce celebrities!
Conduct Stay Interviews
While you could collect key information by simply reading the HR exit interview, do some proactive work ahead of that. Stay interviews allow you to get feedback on why employees stay or leave by conducting individual one-onone meetings no less than quarterly. Examples of queries are “What do you like that keeps you here?” or “What would you change to improve your experience here?” Use their response to inform your knowledge about what your employees care about. If you learn that more than 60% of your employees cite career growth as a priority, you should implement a priority of developing some type of developmental programs. Consider an anonymous survey to supplement stay interviews and aim for 80% participation to maximize your data. You can review the results of both the stay interview and the formal survey, quickly and easily, with the tools available in HR software such as Workday.
Offer Attractive Pay
The benefits and salaries provided to employees should ideally be competitive with other similar positions in the industry; otherwise, employees will leave for better financial offers. Pay comparisons can easily be made through platforms like Glassdoor. As best practice, aim to pay at or above the 50th percentile for similar positions in your market. Unlike salaries, benefits can be more expansive, with research showing that seen benefits improve retention by 25%. Value-added forms of compensation can be introduced too, such as bonuses based on performance or raise expectations on an annual basis (e.g., 3%–5% increase for good performance). As an option for employees based in India, remember to include bonuses and other types of compensation that must be offered to distributed employees unaffected by festival bonuses.
Supporting Career Growth
To promote retention of existing talent in your organization, you must clearly articulate to the employees that growing their career at your company is important, after all, research shows that 40% of employees resign because of limited mobility (growing their career). Provide employee growth through learning and training programs, e.g., workshops in Leadership or technical training and certification preparedness (for example, Python for developers). At performance reviews, create individual employee development plans with a goal of completing at least one skill building course every six months. Support transferable skills or internal mobility when you hire from within for 20% of vacancies. Employees can track their development goals with Learning Management Systems (LMS), while aiming for at least 90% employee completion on development initiatives.
Improve Work-Life Balance
Utilize flexible work options such as hybrid work arrangements and flexible working hours to meet varying needs. For example, studies show turnover could be decreased by 15% if parents were allowed to start work early and leave by 3 PM. Also, show your dedication to mental wellbeing by implementing wellness programs such as mental health resources, gym memberships, etc. Limit the maximum amount of overtime to 10 hours a week to prevent burnout and exhaustion. Communicate your policies via employee portals and advertise the importance of work-life balance by not sending any afterhours emails to help build trust with employees.
Build an Engaging Culture
Cultivating and fostering an inclusive and supportive culture is paramount to retention. Provide recognition. Some examples include; Monthly awards, shoutouts in department or company meetings, small bonuses (INR 5,000) etc. Provide team-based activities periodically such as a virtual quiz or an annual company retreat. Companies with engaged teams, have 30% lower turnover. Providing a diverse workforce ensures there will be the appropriate considerations made for employees being on the EO. There are focus groups at various companies to build Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for people from underrepresented backgrounds with the goal of getting 10% of employees involved in the EO. If toxic behaviours are left unchecked with a clear antiharassment and policy for the workplace, employee morale can be heavily impacted.
Develop Manager Relationships
Train managers to develop a healthy and supporting relationship because studies conducted by Gallup found that 50% of employees voluntarily leave due to poor management. Host workshops on active listening, conflict resolution, and how to give effective feedback. Try to have all your managers participate in training at least once each year. Encourage managers to meet regularly (at least bi-weekly) with team members to discuss their goals, objectives, challenges, as well as opportunities. Use 360-degree feedback to evaluate manager effectiveness aiming for results over 80% positive. Have your managers utilize HR data to shape manager tracking and team engagement tools.
Monitor Retention Data
Evaluate metrics like turnover rate (at 15% or below), employee satisfaction (surveys tell us over 80% positive) around engagement programs, and information from exit interviews in order to understand how we are performing around retention. Include the exit interviews process to identify why team members leave, for example, lack of recognition, e.g., what do you value that you were not receiving? Then provide some type of action to address this need. Seek to complete pulse surveys at least once per quarter to seek sentiment from team members, again, aiming for at least 70% participation. Base-line and analyse the data through performance capable HR analytics that will inform changes and adjustments in strategies, for example, if employee development is an issue, consider increasing cash for developing workers where possible.
Conclusion
Effective employee retention requires stay interviews, competitive compensation, and opportunities for career growth. Organizations can promote employee retention through an improved work-life balance, positive cultures, enhanced relationships with managers, and relevant metrics to monitor and make improvements, ultimately achieving retention and employee loyalty, and a successful organization.
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