Employee Retention Strategy: Meaning and Benefits
An employee retention strategy is paramount. It is not an easy task to find the right talent, one with the right education levels, skillsets and other personality traits that are suited to your organisation. Now, when employees want to leave after taking all of this effort, it becomes even harder for an organisation.
A strategic approach needs to be taken to understand:
- Why are employees unhappy?
- Why do they want to leave?
- Why have some initiated their resignation, etc.?
Why Do Employees Resign?
Some of the common reasons why employees resign are:
Lack of progression
No one likes to be stagnant at work. When people do not get the promotion they deserve or lack any opportunity to grow, they will naturally be inclined to find an organisation where they get all of this.
Bad leadership
Issues such as discrimination, micro-management, lack of empathy, and inflexibility are major factors that make employees leave.
Poor benefits
When employees get the benefits they deserve, they feel that the organisation values and cares for them. Benefits go beyond salary and represent gratification for valued employees.
Remember that other organisations are competing for the right talent, and they are also constantly doing their best to attract the better part of the talent pool. An organisation needs to do the right things to maintain employee job satisfaction and, ultimately, the retention of highly valued talent.
Hence, it is important to have a good employee retention strategy.
What Is an Employee Retention Strategy?
An employee retention strategy or technique is a plan to reduce employee turnover. It helps prevent employees from leaving by finding ways to increase employee satisfaction.
Strategies To Retain Employees
Here are some of the employee retention strategies to reduce attrition and increase retention and employee engagement.
Effective Management Training
While some people may be good in organisational skills, they may not natural leaders. However, it is possible to learn leadership skills. Some of the management aspects that employees can be trained on include empathy, flexibility, being reasonable, transparency, and cooperation. All of these are additional skills that they can add to their repertoire. Such managers will also inspire others. Another important aspect of retention is teaching them time management tips.
Engage With Millennials
This has become more important than ever in today’s workplace scenario. It is a must to identify and monitor the engagement drivers within your organisation since these can change over time. A company’s targets and goals must be updated from time to time to account for the ambitions of the millennial workforce. One of the ways to do this is to conduct routine monitoring process and surveys. Make sure to also provide them with opportunities to constantly reskill and upskill themselves.
Give Them the Best Benefits
Although benefit packages can be expensive when you compare them against the cost of high turnover, you will see why they are very crucial. See and research on the best benefit packages you can provide to employees. This will ensure that employees are retained and that your organisation achieves its goals and objectives.
Take Their Suggestions
Employees must always be kept in the loop and felt heard. When you take their feedback into consideration, they will feel valued and heard. Talk and listen to them and conduct surveys and evaluations. All of these are strategies to understand how comfortable they are in their physical environment and how they get along with colleagues. Once you do this, internalise and implement any suggestions you feel are important. After all, people are the key to the success of any organisation.
See What Your Competitors Are Doing
You should always be in the loop about what your competitors are doing to retain their talent. Is your pay at par with the industry standards? Do you need to undertake more market research to stay competitive? You can also look at some of the highest paid jobs in India online.
Provide Scope for Advancement in Career
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) indicates that improving skills with training and professional development programmes are the two best strategies to retain employees.
When employees get this kind of opportunity, they see it as the company’s investment in their future. It also makes them feel that they are being appreciated and considered for their achievements.
We, at Emeritus India, enable organisations to help their employees upskill. We offer different leadership programmes that can make your employees well-versed with industry-oriented knowledge and help them acquire in-demand skills.
What Are the Benefits of an Effective Retention Strategy?
There are other outcomes of an effective retention strategy besides retaining employees. Below, we have listed benefits of an effective retention strategy:
- Reduced hiring costs
- Increased employee productivity
- Increased employee satisfaction
- Stronger work relations
- Less work-related stress and burnout
