Replacing employees is always expensive not only in terms of cost but also in terms of productivity. Not considering the business size, studies indicate that the total expense of leaving an employee can range from 1.5-2X of that employee’s annual package. Therefore, you need to develop a strong strategy to retain your valuable employees.
You may not have the silver bullet to fight employee turnover, but we can assure you that you can re-engage and retain your top performers. With various feedback channels, deploying retention culture, and other key techniques, you can boost your retention efforts this year and beyond.
Why is employee retention important?
Employee retention should be the top priority of an organization because the cost of leaving an employee is too high. As per the SHRM study, it costs approx. $20,000 to $30,000 in recruiting and training expenses of replacing an employee getting $40,000 annually. This event does not account in terms of losses at the time of the interview, productivity, or cultural impact. But low retention rates will impact productivity, motivation, and definitely performance.
Before employees quit, they will become part of the team and may have become team players, who have done a maximum amount of work and committed to long-term deadlines.
HR isn’t powerless, so — almost 77% of the causes behind employee leaving are preventable. The main key here is to find out the issue of why your employees are leaving and resolve them before it’s too late.
Strategies for Employee Retention
Let’s dive into a few strategies that will help you retain your valuable employees and prevent new retention issues from cutting down the workforce in the future.
Reasons – Why Are People Leaving?
Before preparing any strategy for a retention plan, analyze the details. How many employees in the organization have left because they weren’t treated fairly? Are competitors paying more than your organization? Have the majority of employees left were low performers? There are many ways to obtain this information, such as exit interviews by employees, managers, and honest conversations with current employees.
To fix the issue, businesses must take proactive efforts to retain talented employees. Always do engagement surveys and take feedback and solicit the feedback to act on it.
Build Employee Engagement
After getting the issue, work on employee engagement. Because disengaged employees are detrimental to the team. They can discourage other employees – not giving their best and setting bad examples. As per the stats, only 21% of employees say that they are engaged. On the other hand, disengaged employees cost the U.S. more than $450 billion per year in lost productivity.
There are many ways to encourage employees to be more engaging. For instance, giving employees a voice, introducing new opportunities for employees, giving candid feedback, motivation for their work, and many others.
Create a World-Class Onboarding Process
Create a solid plan for newly recruited employees, for the first 30 days, especially from day one. From welcoming them to motivating them through small gifts, team lunch, or personal notes from the team manager or founder of the organization. This way they will feel motivated and a part of the team as early as possible.
Many ways will help your employees to feel supported and welcomed on the team. Help them to interact more through different team discussions and connect them on social media sites. This will help newcomers to get engaged in the team and increase their inner strength.
Perform Regular Compensation Analysis
Pay may not be the number 1 priority for the employee, but it would be a lie if we said it doesn’t matter at all. To motivate employees for their work and retain them, compensation plans need to not only be fair, but competitive.
If you haven’t started any compensation analysis plan yet, start evolving it now. Another amazing way is to offer winning incentives, which can be the concrete way to acknowledge employees for their valuable work.
Encourage Employee Retention With Better Solutions
The above strategies may seem overwhelming to engage and retain employees, but there are many tools to make the process easier. Tools like Human Resource Information System (HRIS), Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Human Capital Management (HCL), and others will not only help you to analyze the work but also help you increase employee retention. These tools will help you in :
- 36% increment in employee engagement
- 2.5 times increment in employee retention
- 54% more times give employees cultural recognition
If you’re ready to align, combine, and retain your workplace, start prioritizing employee retention at your organization today.
Retention Red Flags: Identify Early Warning Signs
Retention should be a major concern for every organization in spite of its industry and size. Many organizations are now putting retention on the major concern list and preparing strategies around it. The first step is to understand why the employees are leaving. Check for these behavioral signals:
- Increased instances of absenteeism or seeking leave
- Lack of performance and a lackluster attitude towards work
- General negative attitude
- Disengaged from what is happening in the team
