High turnover costs. Lower productivity. Sinking morale. There’s no question that increasing employee retention is a challenge that needs to be tackled head-on and fast to avoid these and other drawbacks. But poor employee retention isn’t simply a fact of life or a cost of doing business — it’s a solvable problem with distinct causes you can fix.
Ready to take improving retention into your own hands — and see measurable impact? Here are five actionable employee retention strategies to help put you on the path to success.
adjust salaries
While this might seem like a no-brainer — after all, people are naturally going to jump ship if there are higher-paying opportunities for similar work at other companies — it's nonetheless a smart place to start for improving employee retention.
If you're not sure how your compensation packages stack up compared to competitors, we've got you covered. Check out our nationwide salary guide, which features detailed breakdowns of pay ranges for virtually every role and industry. Once you've familiarized yourself with the numbers, it's probably time to make some necessary adjustments at your organization, too.
Finally, you should bear in mind, too, that compensation affects different employees differently. In particular, it often becomes much more important as workers advance in their careers — junior employees, for instance, might be willing to accept lower-paying roles if that entails gaining valuable experience, whereas more senior professionals very often will not.
get proactive about employer branding
From a high level, employer branding is the most effective way to move the needle when it comes to solving employee retention challenges — indeed, your efforts in this department can pay dividends, not only today but for a long time to come. So how should you get started?
Needless to say, successful employer branding strategies ultimately vary, reflecting vicissitudes of industry, workforces — and so many other factors. So while we can't be unduly prescriptive, you can generally improve your employer brand through the following four-pronged approach.
- Use regular surveys to understand employees' outlook and morale. From there, you'll need to actively incorporate whatever feedback you receive into your employee retention strategy.
- Proactively communicate with unhappy employees. Why are they discouraged? Where are processes breaking down? And what can you do to help? Mutually beneficial solutions are probably a lot easier to identify than you might think.
- Evangelize a workplace culture where everyone feels that they are welcome and valued — which means opinions and input from all employees should be valued, too.
- Identify and begin to measure the metrics that matter. Whether you're looking at overall retention over time or zeroing in on retention for specific functions and roles, only by implementing metrics will you be able to objectively understand how effectively you're retaining employees — and where you need to make improvements.
Hopefully, these tips should be enough to help you get started. What's more, if you're looking for additional insights into employer branding and next steps for your company, click here for proprietary intelligence from Randstad. There, you'll find resources, benchmarks, tools and more — it's everything you need to comprehensively overhaul your company's lackluster approach to employer branding.
allow employees to customize their own benefits
At first glance, this suggestion might sound radical. And perhaps it is — but we wouldn't be suggesting it if it didn’t match the expectations of today’s job seekers. Different generations of workers require different benefits depending on the priorities of their respective life stages.
In other words, simply giving everyone the same employee benefits — even if you believe those benefits are best in class — may not be the best approach. Certainly, it may not be enough to prevent your most valuable employees from quitting.
Instead, consider experimenting with a more personalized approach to perks and employee benefits. Doing so may require investing time and resources in the near term, but you stand to reap huge bottom-line advantages over the long haul.
map out professional growth charts for all employees
Knowing a company offers growth opportunities allows employees to envision — and plan for — a longer tenure. It also brings with it an indelible, but no less crucial, sense of professional security.
What's more, the prospect of advancement helps teams focus on bigger-picture objectives. And it may even help employees deal with the inevitable ups and downs associated with their jobs.
But when opportunities are limited, on the other hand, high achievers and mid-career employees will often proactively look elsewhere for advancement. For instance, one study found that 70 percent of employees would be open to leaving their companies to work at one that prioritized professional development.
So it's essential for you to make sure everyone on your team clearly understands the pathway to growth, promotion and opportunity — before it's too late.
team up with a strategic partner
Leading companies today are increasingly reliant on strategic partners to enhance some of their core enterprise capabilities. Whether that means relying on independent facilitators that can conduct focus groups and training sessions, or partnering with a staffing firm that can deliver in-depth analysis, improvements and insights, the cost of doing so often pays for itself.
How? What's the value entailed by such a relationship, exactly?
For one, staffing partners can enable you to more effectively gauge morale and employee engagement — for example, through sentiment ratings and other advanced tools to enhance the exit interview process.
More than any one specific tool, however, strategic partners can broadly empower enterprises today, providing deep domain expertise together with recruiting best practices and an in-depth knowledge of industry trends. Plus, by taking an approach that combines human judgement with the latest and most sophisticated technologies, they can repair your talent processes from end to end — and deliver substantial ROI for your company.
final takeaways
Looking to find even more guidance and actionable insights around employee retention in the meantime? Head on over to Randstad's employee retention learning center. There, you'll find all of the business intelligence you need to start spearheading organizational changes now, before it's too late.
You should also bear in mind that, when it's time to take the lead on employee retention, you don't have to go it alone. Click here to learn how the right strategic partner can help solve your retention woes — that way, you can stay laser-focused on moving your business forward.
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