How Can an Organization Improve Employee Retention?

In today’s tight labor market, any company that does not have an ongoing, active strategy for employee retention will be at a significant disadvantage to their competitors who do.

Below are some of the critical areas you should be focusing on to increase employee retention and reduce employee turnover expense.

Employee Retention – Areas of Focus and Strategies

Recruiting – A recruiting strategy that presents your company and roles in a positive but very realistic manner will attract the most qualified candidates that will align with your culture and role success factors.

Candidate Screening and Interviewing – A candidate interview and selection process in place will provide the greatest chance of identifying and selecting candidates who will be successful in the role.

Employee Onboarding – Approximately 22% of employee turnover occurs within the first 90 days. ¹ Having an effective, well-structured and well-executed plan to integrate and assimilate a new employee into a company and their new role increases the likelihood of retaining the employee and positioning them for success.

Leadership and Supervision – You have likely heard that the #1 reason employees quit is because of their supervisor.  If an employee does not believe their supervisor develops, values or supports them, all the time, effort and resources spent on other retention initiatives will be wasted.

Career Development and Opportunities for Growth – Some employees are content with what they are doing and don’t really aspire to grow, develop and take on new or increased responsibilities.  If you have a company full of those employees, how long do think it will take before your competition surpasses you? Not long!  If you are attracting the right employees that want to grow and develop, you need to have a plan in place to allow them the opportunity to do so.

Compensation and Benefits – High performers who are developing new skills and have the willingness and ability to take on new responsibilities also become significantly more valuable to other employers.  Make sure your compensation strategy is appropriately aligned to the employment marketplace and with the contributions your employees are making to your company or you will risk losing them.

Bottom line, if you are not being intentional in taking ongoing and specific actions for employee retention, you exponentially increase the probability that your greatest resource may walk out of the front door...for good.

1             https://peopleelement.com/keep-new-employees-leaving-first-90-days