Five Ways to Retain Employees
Employee turnover is a regular and troubling issue across businesses, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. In fact, staff turnover is estimated to be 50-75% higher than previously experienced.
The facts don’t lie; between 2021 and 2022, 950,000 more people in the US alone quit their jobs than the previous year, and according to Willis Tower Watson, over 50% of global organizations have trouble retaining valuable employees.
Given that the recruitment and training costs involved in replacing a lost employee are on the rise, companies should constantly be looking at how to retain staff – and it’s doable! 75% of employee turnover is said to be preventable.
Why do employees quit their jobs?
Understanding why you might be seeing a higher employee turnover rate is the first step to solving your problem. You can track your employee turnover rate using a simple formula:
Total number of leavers over period x 100/Average total number employed over period.
You can also measure your employee retention, to identify if you have a problem:
Number of staff with service of one year or more x 100/Total number of staff in post one year ago
Some of the top reasons as to why employees might be quitting include:
Poor work-life balance
A lack of recognition
Little compensation
An unsatisfactory working relationship with a manager
Other reasons may also include:
A lack of trust in the organization
A poor physical and/or cultural environment
Poor growth opportunities
Ways to Retain Employees
So, let’s dive into how you can get on top of employee turnover and find the best ways to retain employees.
Our 5 top tips include (but aren’t limited to):
Active Listening & Feedback Opportunities
Trust & Transparency in the Workplace
Invest in Employees & Provide Opportunities for Growth
Offer Flexibility
Focusing on Company Culture
Active Listening & Feedback Opportunities
Creating a culture where employees can speak their minds (within reason!), give feedback on policies and procedures, and actively be listened to; this may seem like a small step in what appears to be a much larger problem, but it’s key to making your employees feel engaged and appreciated.
If you lack engagement within your workforce, staff are likely to be less enthusiastic about their day-to-day work, and you’re far more likely to see a higher turnover rate. Actively listening to your employees, whilst giving them a chance to weigh in on issues and provide feedback, can affect higher levels of retention by making them feel needed.
Trust & Transparency in the Workplace
Trust and transparency at work can be seriously underrated, and yet it’s vital in enhancing staff loyalty, which in turn helps your levels of turnover reduce dramatically.
Workplace transparency nurtures the mutual respect within the office that is at the heart of a healthy workplace environment. Gaining the trust of your employees as a leader through openness and accountability is key to keeping them on side and reducing staff retention – because no one likes being kept in the dark.
Invest in Employees & Provide Opportunities for Growth
Without opportunity for growth, employees can often feel stuck. One study found that a staggering 86% of professionals would change jobs if the opportunity for professional development was greater.
The best way to reinvigorate employees and help to retain them is by investing in their growth, and providing exciting opportunities for which they can grow to really boost their professional development.
Investing in your employee development can have serious benefits for your company – developing and refining skills is not only beneficial for employees, but for business productivity and performance too, while internally promoting over external hiring reduces recruitment rates significantly.
There are many ways you can start growing your employees:
Provide coaching opportunities.
Set up internal mentoring schemes.
Provide training courses.
Provide internal resources.
Offer Flexibility
Work-life balance has seen a substantial uplift in importance over recent years, and the widespread introduction of remote working has significantly aided this balance for many. Research has found that 66% of workers would start looking for another job if remote working was scrapped, while a significant 39% would quit there and then.
Supporting work-life balance through flexi-hours, remote working opportunities, and the aid of technology can help to reduce burnout, improving wellbeing, productivity, engagement, and much more. So, providing flexibility in both time and location is another key opportunity for retaining your employees.
Focusing on Company Culture
Company culture is one of the most important aspects of job satisfaction and nurturing it doesn’t have to be difficult. Some tips we recommend are: make sure you have clearly defined values, encourage a culture of recognition and encouragement, get your teams together socially when you can, and focus on promoting diversity and equality.
Creating a healthy, positive workplace is key to driving employee satisfaction and decreasing your staff turnover, so even the smallest of changes can be vital in employee retention.
Now, we’re not saying that company culture is all about the perks. But they help, right? Look at what perks you are offering your employees, and how else you can boost the benefits of being at your company. Think additional wellbeing days, bonuses, free snacks, training programs, subscriptions, as well as flexible working options, insurance, and regular promotions or pay rise opportunities. 56% of workers say that their salary is a leading reason to start looking for jobs elsewhere, and 5% of people say they’d job-hop elsewhere for a 5% pay rise.