As a leader, when you’re managing a people-first culture your people are the primary focus of your business. Finding the best people is one thing, keeping them is another.
That’s where retaining talent comes into play. Employee retention is a critical component of sustaining a strong and healthy organization. Your people are what makes your company run.
Among the common reasons that people stay at their companies, such as meaningful work, developmental opportunities and benefits, your leadership can have a direct influence on employee retention.
According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report in 2017, only 22% of U.S. employees strongly agree that their company’s leaders have a clear direction for their organization. And shows a direct link between understanding a company’s mission and purpose and employee safety, turnover and profitability.
Another report from Gallup in 2018 said, 51% of employees in the three months before their departure neither their manager nor any other company leader had spoken with them about their job satisfaction or their future.
As humans, we’re fluid beings constantly evolving and changing. You’ll never be able to fully control if your employees stay or leave. What you can do is understand what your employees value to keep them engaged, motivated and competitive as an organization.
Here are 7 strategies to consider that impact employee retention and some employees consider to be important:
- Strong leadership: your leadership team sets the tone of your culture and leads the direction of the company. It starts at the top to ensure a strong foundation for your company.
- Career growth & developmental opportunities: employees want to grow and want to know what potential career paths exist. Communicate regularly on what this looks like and how employees can get to where they are to where they want to go.
- Strategic vision for your company: people want to work for a company that has strategic direction and is communicated with what that vision looks like.
- Meaningful work: where a large organization that offers plenty of room for growth is not feasible, play to your employee’s strengths. Create or identify opportunities that allow your employees to use their strengths.
- Benefits & rewards: this might sound obvious, yet it’s often the easiest aspect of an employee’s compensation package that is overlooked. Review your benefits and reward offerings to see if they’re in line with what your employees are looking for and what the market is offering against other companies in your respective industry.
- Open & transparent communication: creating an open and transparent environment where employees are engaged and communicated with regularly. This goes for your company meetings and your email communication. All communication matters.
- Flexibility: providing flexible opportunities for your employees is one of the more common aspects that people look for in a job search, let alone a growing expectation as we head into the future of work. This also includes flexible work environments.
Check out CIO’s article, Employee Retention: 8 strategies to retain top talent that offers additional insights on employee retention. One of the strategies shared I love is that employee retention begins in the recruitment stage.
Dan Pickett, CEO of Nfrastructure, says “It starts with identifying what aspects of culture and strategy you want to emphasize, and then seeking those out in your candidates.”
When you know this and can apply it to your recruitment strategy, you empower your organization. You get ahead of employee retention vs. waiting for the exit interview to learn you have a problem.
I’d love to hear from you!
What does employee retention look like in your organization? What strategy would be valuable to consider to help your employee retention?
Let me know in the comments below!
To your success,
Lisa
