How To Improve Employee Retention

By Lisiana Carter | November 19, 2021

What does employee retention mean?

Employee retention is a company goal, the focus is to make sure that talented staff members stay with a business for the long term. The idea is to reduce turnover and to build a positive culture that boosts engagement. There are many different strategies that employers can use to improve employee retention.

Why is employee retention important?

Employee retention is important for many different reasons. Retaining staff helps employers to reduce costs since staff turnover can be incredibly expensive. According to People Keep, the costs to replace staff members are ‘$1,500 for hourly employees and up to 150% of an employee’s salary for technical positions.’

Recruiting new employees is a lengthy process, there are plenty of different stages involved, including checking resumes, conducting interviews, obtaining references, and onboarding. According to Hire Vue, it takes an average of 42 days to fill a position, (HV 2021). In the interest of saving time and maintaining productivity, it’s best to keep employee turnover low.

Employee retention isn’t just about holding onto your staff, it’s about choosing the right people in the first place. Research shows that bad hires can disrupt your company culture, and can even increase staff turnover.

How to improve employee retention?

There are many different ways that businesses can improve employee retention including:

1 . Create a flexible workplace

One of the main drivers of staff retention flexibility. A flexible workplace describes conditions that offer alternatives to the traditional concept of a ‘9-5’. There are many ways that employers can create a flexible workplace, a few general ideas include:

• Offering employees the flexibility to choose their working hours.
• Allowing remote working or hybrid work options.
• Flexible scheduling or part-time positions.
• Supporting employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Data from Compare Camp indicated that ‘ 73% of employees said that having flexible work arrangements increased their work satisfaction.’ Boosting employee satisfaction is the best way to keep your staff happy, and ensure that they stick around.

2. Employee benefits

If you’re looking to improve employee retention you’ll need to focus on your employee benefits. Research from Caboodle discovered that 75% of staff members were more likely to remain at a company if that organization offered an attractive benefits program, (Caboodle, 2021). A few of the most common staff benefits include retirement plans, healthcare, childcare, sick leave, and annual leave. Other top benefits include life insurance and wellness programs. Offering employee benefits is a great way to make your staff feel valued, consequently improving your retention.

3. Development opportunities 

Development opportunities have a vital part to play in staff retention. If an employee feels that they are stuck in a dead-end role, with no room for progression, the chances are they won’t stay for long. One of the best ways to retain your staff is to provide opportunities for career development. There are plenty of ways that you can do this, such as:

• Sponsor employees for educational courses.
• Offer in-house training courses or workshops.
• Run mentorship programs.
• Schedule regular one-to-ones and help employees to set goals within the company.

4. Build a positive workplace culture 

Creating a positive workplace culture will help you to boost staff engagement and improve employee retention. Modern employees are actively looking for organizations that have a great company culture. According to a Deloitte Survey, 82% of candidates believe that a positive company culture gives firms a competitive advantage, (B2C, 2021).

Workplace culture encompasses many different elements of a company, including values, behaviors, attitudes, work practices, and goals. There are many ways that businesses can build a positive company culture, including:

• Focus on empowerment and equality, (try to avoid a strictly hierarchical structure).
• Promote a culture of diversity and inclusion.
• Offer schemes to support employee wellness.
• Support positive relationships between managers and colleagues.
• A positive culture means offering flexibility and supporting employees to grow.
• Staff should be praised for their efforts and feel valued.

How can you support company culture when working remotely?

When you’re working remotely it can feel more difficult to improve your company culture. The truth is, it doesn’t have to be difficult, so long as you have the right tools and practices.

Working remotely means improving your communication strategies, you’ll need to choose the right video conferencing software and project management software. You’ll also need to think about communication between your business and your customers. To provide great customer service you should choose the best virtual business phone system. For more information, visit article.

5. Focus on employee recognition

One of the main reasons employees leave a company is lack of recognition. To reduce staff turnover employees need to feel appreciated and recognized for the work that they do. Employee engagement software can help employers to focus on employee recognition, with various features, tools, programs, and modules. A few software options include Motivosity, Kudos, and Work Stars.

What are the most effective employee retention strategies?

Many different strategies can help to improve employee retention. Some of the most effective options include:

1. Provide wellness support 

Many employees experience work-related stress and burnout. Several factors can contribute to work-related stress, employees might feel overworked or unfulfilled in their roles. Employees must ensure healthy conditions and support their staff with wellness programs.

Several different brands offer corporate wellbeing software, however, some companies like to design their own wellness modules. Research shows that corporate wellbeing can reduce absenteeism, boost productivity and increase staff retention.

You might also like to provide mental-health training workshops. An increasing number of people are experiencing depression and anxiety. Employers have a responsibility to support the health of their staff.

2. Ensure a healthy work-life balance 

If you want to retain your employees you must support them to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Employers can support their staff in many ways, including:

• Put flexible arrangements in place.
• Ensure that employees do not work excessive overtime.
• Permit remote working options.
• Be flexible when employees have commitments outside of work.

3. Positive leadership 

To boost employee retention it’s important to use a positive leadership style. Employees should feel free, independent, and supported. Overbearing leaders make staff feel stressed and unmotivated, both things can have a negative impact on employee retention. Business leaders can help their staff to thrive by developing autonomous teams. These teams give employees more responsibility, allowing them to create their own goals and work practices. Adopting a positive leadership style is all about empowering your teams (as opposed to micromanaging them).

If you’re struggling with your leadership approach you might consider taking a leadership course? There are many different courses available that can help you to perfect your leadership style. Investing in your professional education is one of the best ways to improve and grow.

4. A Purpose-driven environment

Employees want to feel like they are making a difference, they want roles that feel meaningful. Employers can support their staff by creating a purpose-driven environment.

To create a purpose-driven environment you’ll need to think about your company goals. How can you support your employees to contribute? It’s also worth thinking about your CSR strategy. Consider how your company is contributing to society? How can your employees play a part? Focusing on these areas will help you to create a purpose-driven environment. Developing an effective CSR strategy is also a great way to improve your reputation.

What tools can you use to improve employee retention?

Wellable

Wellable is a business wellness platform, it helps companies to provide wellness modules and activities for their staff. The tool offers wellness tasks, quizzes, games, and challenges. Employees can access plenty of different health content, including health articles and webinars. Using this platform staff can focus on many different aspects of wellbeing, including financial health, physical health, mental, social, and emotional health.

Peakon

Peakon is an employee success program, the tool converts feedback into useful insights. You can use Peakon to track employee engagement and get personalized tips. With the help of this tool staff members and access feedback, and have their opinions heard. Using Peakon employers can access benchmarks and insights to help their company grow. If you’re looking for a tool to boost engagement this is a fantastic option.

Bonusly

Bonusly is a platform for staff rewards, recognition, and celebrating achievements. With the help of this tool, staff can recognize their peers, helping everyone to motivate one another. All members of your team need to feel appreciated, and Bonusly can help you to deliver a powerful recognition program. With tools like this you’ll soon improve employee engagement.

The takeaway

Improving employee retention will help you to reduce costs, decrease turnover, and increase your bottom line. To keep talented staff you’ll need to create a positive company culture, recognize achievements, and offer employee perks. Putting these changes in place will help you to enhance employee well-being, and create a productive environment. Ensure that you collect plenty of data along the way, it’s useful to have a good idea of your staff retention stats.