Advice
Let’s Talk About Retention
Leading companies know how impactful job satisfaction can be on employee productivity, creativity, and the desire to grow within the organization. Understanding retention and how to engage employees should be a company’s top priority to drive overall success. Per HR Daily Advisor, around 65% of employees in the US are fully satisfied with their jobs. Let’s talk about how to make your organization more impactful with HAPPY workers!
It starts with Hiring!
Hiring the right candidate from the get go is crucial. The better fit the candidate is for the role (both hard skills and soft skills), the more likely you are to create staying power. This includes a thoughtful job description (skills, experience, expectations), a hiring process that includes multiple layers of your organization, as well as having a good grasp on management and career path for this employee. Lower-level employees are more likely to leave when management or growth are not aligned.
Competitive Salary and Benefits Package (and Revisit!)
While obvious, salary and benefits packages continue to be one of the top reasons employees choose to leave an organization. There are a lot of resources available on the internet and within your own network (ie. outside recruiters!) to continue calibrating on fair salary ranges and competitive benefits. Employees value regular salary discussions to show growth/value, insurance, retirement accounts, stipends for tech needs and/or wellness, and PTO packages. The job market continues to change, as well as what employers are offering. Stay aware and ahead of your competition!
Employee Recognition
Employees offer a HUGE part of their daily lives to the success of the company they work for. It is essential to retention that employees feel valued and recognized for their contributions. An added bonus- recognition in the office is often translated into how employees treat external customers, clients and/or partners. Equipping leadership with the tools to recognize their employees is a major player in staying power and level of productivity of employees.
Invest in your people: Training, Development and Growth
Show employees the future is bright for them within your organization by investing in training, development, and discussing their career path. Offering team members opportunities to learn new skills and knowledge proves an investment in them as employees and long term assets to your organization. This includes paying for employees to attend workshops or conferences, creating a mentorship program, offering tuition reimbursement, etc. This is also a win-win for the organization filling a skill gap and allowing internal employees to move into key leadership roles as they become available.
Ask for feedback, and NOT just on the way out!
Employers often don’t find out why employees are leaving until it’s too late- the exit interview. While exit interviews are important to understanding why employees leave and help reduce future attrition, it is worth a company’s time encouraging open communication from the get go and having employees fill out regular surveys to keep track of employee satisfaction. Why employees are leaving is just as important as finding out why employees are staying. This will give leadership a better idea of overall culture and identify room for improvement immediately.
