Boost Retention Through 6 Strategies

“There is a widening mismatch between the job environment, employees want — and now expect — and the one their organisations have. Employers need to recognise that it takes significantly longer to recruit someone than it does for them to give their two-week notice and depart. The solution, then, is to immediately bolster retention while ramping up recruiting. To do so, companies need to get on the same page with employees by reconceptualising what it means to be part of their organisation.” Frank Breitling, Julia Dhar, Ruth Ebeling, and Deborah Lovich.

There are four broad categories: value, purpose, certainty, and belonging which employees value in an organisation. All four apply to both the retention of existing employees and the recruitment of new prospects. But recruitment and training costs and the time it typically takes for new hires to reach the same level of expertise make it imperative that employers focus immediately on retention. Here’s how to boost retention through 6 strategies:

1. Provide Incentives to Loyalty

Update your compensation package and pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. Consider offering one-time bonuses, helping them pay down loans, and providing them with stipends for working from home. Re-levelling compensation gives you an opportunity to detect and correct pay inequities.

2. Provide opportunities for growth

Conduct interviews with employees to ask what it would take for them to stay.

Show current employees that you value them even more than potential new hires by providing them with new opportunities to grow and advance. Workers are hungry for this vote of confidence.

3. Promote your purpose

The purpose is always the reason that your organisation exists. It’s the reason people join and choose to stay. Prove to employees that there’s more to your organisation than the bottom line. And don’t just talk about purpose; use it to shape what you do and how you do it.

4. Highlight culture and connection

Make time to connect and build relationships with and among your people. Not only will this solidify their relationship with your organisation, but also has a significant positive impact on productivity.

5. Invest in your employees and their families

Provide mental health resources, acknowledge the personal sacrifices everyone has made during the pandemic, help parents with small children by providing or subsidising daycare, and give more paid time off.

6. Accept flexibility

The future of work is providing flexible work environments in terms of place, time, job description, and career paths. Embrace it. Have employees form teams to create their future of work. If people help build their dream home, they’ll want to live in it.

Do not resign to the continuing tide of resignations. Decisive action is what’s needed now. We can help. Let’s discuss.

Adapted from HBR | 6 Strategies to Boost Retention Through the Great Resignation |by Frank Breitling, Julia Dhar, Ruth Ebeling, and Deborah Lovich