Talent retention has been a key challenge for organizations across the nation over the past few years. Increasing talent shortages have created an environment that’s difficult to navigate. As we enter a recession, employers will need everyone to do more with less.
Uncertainty may be the new norm, but leaders who think strategically about talent retention and engagement will come out the other side stronger. Our research shows that 1 in 3 employees say their departure from their last organization could have been prevented. Meaning much unwanted turnover is both predictable and preventable.
In uncertain times, an effective talent retention strategy can help you create a meaningful employee experience, maximize employee impact, and keep your top talent around. Use these retention ideas to inspire and improve your approach in 2023.
Talent retention is defined as the ability of an organization to reduce employee turnover and keep top talent. It’s inarguably a key indicator of long-term success—that’s why the best organizations create talent retention programs to combat employee turnover.
Often, employees leave due to negative perceptions in the workplace such as low pay, feelings of burnout, limited opportunity for growth, and lack of work-life balance. Because turnover can be so detrimental to the health of your organization, it’s important to adopt strategies that promote a positive work environment. But before these strategies are adopted, organizations should uncover their turnover rate to understand the significance of their retention problems.
Your turnover rate is an indicator of the success of your talent retention strategy. It’s defined as the percentage of employees who have left your organization over a certain period of time. This is an important metric to track, as it gives you insight into your company culture, recruiting strategies, and employer brand.
To calculate this metric, you need to track the number of employees who left in a given time period, typically on a yearly or quarterly basis. You also need to find the average number of people employed in that time period. To calculate your average, simply add the number of employees at the beginning of your time period to the number of employees at the end, and divide by two. With this data, you can easily uncover your turnover rate using a simple formula:
Employees who left / [(Employees at the beginning + Employees at the end) / 2] x 100
Organizations who retain their talent experience many benefits. While high retention reduces costs to recruit, hire, and onboard employees, your retention strategies provide benefits far beyond cost reduction.
When you retain your workforce, you can celebrate high productivity. The longer your employees stay, the longer they have to develop their company expertise and experience, which actively drives their ability to perform.
In addition to increased productivity, your retention efforts will improve the customer experience, promote a positive company culture, reduce the hassle of turnover, and increase employee morale.
The importance of retaining top talent is clear—you need it to drive success. After all, your employees make your business initiatives possible. For optimal results and high retention, focus on the employee experience.
Effective recruitment holds a lot of importance in your employee retention program. You should look for employees who align with your company culture and are a good fit in terms of skill, personality type, and values. Clearly outline expectations to ensure you avoid any misalignment surrounding an employee’s capabilities vs. their responsibilities.
Onboarding is a process that’s critical to your employees’ success. Onboarding should teach employees about their role and about your company culture. Without this information, your employees may be unsure of how they fit into the organization, or unequipped to perform diligently. Leverage comprehensive and continuous onboarding to set a positive tone from the start.
Mentors are a great way for new, and tenured employees to gain a sense of connection and motivation within their organization. Mentors can offer guidance, answer questions, and provide an outlet for meaningful employee relationships to boost morale. They also create an avenue for growth, which is a key driver of retention.
Pay is typically the primary employee motivation behind seeking out a new job in the first place. The pay you offer should be competitive with other organizations to prevent employees from shopping around. Ensure you assess the skills and responsibilities of your employees when designating pay, and adjust regularly.
Attractive perks inarguably make organizations more competitive in attracting and retaining talent. Plus, they boost employee morale. Perks such as parental leave, paid time off, and remote work options help employees have a positive workplace experience. In addition, these perks communicate that you care about your employees’ needs and desires to make them feel valued.
Employees need to feel cared for beyond work responsibilities. The best organizations provide physical and mental health resources, like mental health stipends and gym membership reimbursements. Not only does a healthy workforce inherently perform better, your employees’ morale will surge by showing that you value their wellbeing.
Leadership communication should be transparent, detailed, and continuous across the entire organization. Manager employee 1-on-1s should occur regularly to address roadblocks, discuss changes, and answer questions. When employees feel a connection to leadership, they are more likely to feel aligned with the company and want to stay. Plus, with transparent communication, employees place more trust in their leaders, which is a key driver of retention.
8. Give ongoing feedback
Like communication, feedback should be two-way and continuous. Organizations should create a culture of feedback to discuss possible areas of improvement for both managers and their employees. Feedback promotes growth, trust, and success to keep your top performers.
It’s important to communicate that you see potential for growth in your employees, and your training and development opportunities will do just that. Don’t hesitate to close skill gaps and increase productivity and competence on your teams with these valuable opportunities. Whether they help your employees be more successful in their current role or set them up for increased responsibility, training and development is an effective way to boost employee morale, productivity, and retention.
Employees need to feel valued and recognized for their efforts. Without recognition and rewards, employees might lose motivation to go above and beyond in the future. With no recognition, employees may not know whether their efforts are meeting–or succeeding—your expectations. Give recognition and rewards that align with the output of your employees to support your retention efforts.
Flexible, often remote or hybrid work, is becoming the norm. Organizations that are competitive in attracting and retaining top talent understand this reality, and offer remote options when possible. When employees are given work-life flexibility, they are less likely to burnout and more likely to be satisfied with their job.
Change can occur at a rapid pace in all industries. While change often needs to happen, leaders shouldn’t let employees feel left in the dust surrounding decisions. Communicate often and speak to the “why” behind necessary change to create employee buy-in and alignment.
Milestones are important in an employee’s career. Whether it’s hitting an important deadline or a two-year anniversary with the company, leaders should celebrate the occurrence. Efforts like these actively boost morale and make the work environment a positive place.
Employees should be aware of possible opportunities they have within the organization. Without promotion possibilities ever offered, employees may go shopping around for roles at other organizations. Prioritize internal hires and promotions when possible and provide ongoing opportunities for employees to develop their skill set.
Strong employee engagement is the foundation of all successful business initiatives. When it comes to retention, engagement is possibly the most important factor. Signs of disengagement like absenteeism, low morale, and low productivity should be assessed continuously to prevent turnover before it’s too late. To engage your talent, consistently ask yourself, and employees, how the workplace experience can be improved, and then act on those insights.
Exit surveys are a great way to understand why employees leave. When you understand these motivations, you can make changes to prevent others from leaving too. Take advantage of these valuable insights to make the workplace better for existing employees.
Now more than ever, employees expect high levels of respect from their leaders. Whether this comes from supporting employee autonomy, prioritizing trust to avoid micromanaging, or treating employees with kindness in the office, employees need to feel respected. To brand yourself as an employer of choice, organizational leaders should create a culture of respect that resonates with all employees.
Employee burnout is a key driver of turnover. When employees feel overworked and unmotivated, they don’t reach their full potential and they may feel inclined to leave. Provide PTO and encourage employees to take it. Allow employees to take mental health days and time off, when needed, to recharge.
Not only does effective teamwork promote productivity, but it creates meaningful relationships in the workplace. Teamwork encourages accountability while giving employees an outlet to rely on when needed. Plus, when employees feel they have friendships in the workplace, they are more likely to feel connected to their organization and less likely to leave.
While strategies to reduce turnover are highly effective when implemented correctly, turnover is sometimes inevitable. Evaluate your current employees and identify who’s at risk for turnover based on metrics such as absenteeism and low productivity. When you have a pulse on retention risk, you can prepare your approach to employee loss more effectively.
With the right intel, insights, and a roadmap for change, you can build a culture that draws in and retains top talent. Keep top talent engaged and on the path to success with Quantum Workplace.
Understand key drivers of engagement and retentionGet feedback that moves you forward. See what is driving (and hindering) engagement to keep top talent engaged and committed to your organization. Our employee survey tools are expert-backed and easy to use. |
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Empower managers as engaging performance coaches.Employees want clarity, support, recognition, and coaching. And your managers need tools to help them deliver on all this. Our integrated performance management tools serve as engagement and retention remedies. They’re meant to create the kind of employee experience that employees crave—while also driving results. |
Pinpoint trouble spots before they lead to turnover.Take the guesswork out of understanding turnover with our Intelligence Dashboard. Turn data into insights and insights into action with our CEO-ready dashboards. |
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Learn How to Keep Your Best Talent by approaching retention with intention in this eBook.
Published December 14, 2021 | Written By Elise Paulsen
