The Great Resignation is on, hiring markets are tight, and you don’t want your valuable talent packing its bags and walking out the door. How do you improve employee retention? Check out these 5 quick fire top tips to keep hold of your employees.
1. Get it right from the start
If you’re thinking about employee retention when your favourite bod is making noises about moving, you’re often too late. Good retention practices start from Day 1. You hire right, choosing a good match in terms of values and goals. You then onboard them beautifully, ensuring they’re integrated and feel part of the clan early on. Hooking them in is critical to long-term retention. The early days matter more than you realise for success with the long game.
2. Nail succession planning and involve people
Attrition is inevitable. People will move on, lives change, and staffing is never straightforward. However, a key part of managing employee retention is to have ready-made plans for succession. Identify who is coming up through the ranks and their timelines. Look at the gaps they have in their skills and plug them.
But importantly, keep individuals informed. If Joe Bloggs feels that he should have been promoted but hasn’t been, you can bet he’s looking elsewhere. By the time you let him know your plans he’s got one foot out the door. Get your future plans aligned and you’re onto a winner.
3. Never underestimate the power of autonomy and flexibility
You can put a figure on a salary. You can put a price tag on a benefits package. You can’t cost-up how much autonomy and flexibility matters to someone. If you want them to stay, they have to be getting this intangible quality from you, in their work. It’s priceless.
4. Engage people
Employee engagement is a big whammy when it comes to employee retention. It’s another hard to quantify aspect but it’s what makes people want to work their hardest, be their most productive and innovative, for you and not someone else.
Employee engagement is a huge topic with tendrils into every aspect of working life. From feeling valued through pay, benefits and development opportunities through to social connections with colleagues, there are loads of things you can do to improve employee engagement.
5. Listen and be authentic
If you want high levels of employee retention you need to be authentic. You can’t just talk-the-talk, you need to be genuine and follow through on your word.
Alongside this, you need to really listen to your employees. Hear the vibe on the floor, ask their thoughts about things, and get their feedback. You can then head off problems at the pass.
Employee retention can feel out of your hands, but it’s not. The things that you do, right from the start, and everyday thereafter, make a notable difference. Be prepared to look inwards and identify problem areas, and implement strategies to improve things.
Remember it costs, on average, £3000 to hire a new employee, and that’s not including all the unseen costs. Taking employee retention seriously is worth it.