35+ Highly Effective Employee Retention Strategies

Employee retention is essential if you want to make your company successful and keep it that way. You can say it is one of the key ingredients for the recipe of entrepreneurial success.

If you want to attract and retain great workers, you need to offer them a competitive salary and benefits package. 

The cost of employee turnover is high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual cost of replacing an employee is $4,500. 

In addition, companies that fail to retain their top talent miss out on the benefits of having a productive workforce.

Table of Contents

Ways to Maintain Your Team Satisfaction and Happiness Longer

Be Consistent with Pay Increases

Pay increases should be consistent across all levels in the organization.

This is something to make sure that everyone knows what they can expect from year-to-year. It also helps to create a sense of stability within the workplace.

Offer Flexible Hours

Employees who have flexibility in their working hours seem to be more satisfied than those who don’t. Offering flexibility allows people to balance work and life as they see fit.

Provide Training Opportunities

Training opportunities are not something that only profits the particular employee or person but also improves the general productivity of the teams.

Employees who feel like they’re learning something new every day are much less likely to leave their jobs.

Create a Fun Culture

A fun work culture promotes a positive office environment where employees get more productive as they like to be there. They enjoy the positive environment.

People who enjoy working at your company are more likely to stay longer and refer others to your business.

Recognize Your Best Workers

You can’t always control how your best employees perform, but you can recognize them when they do.

A simple thank you goes a long way toward showing appreciation for hard work.

Make Them Feel Significant

Every employee wants to feel noticed as significant or important, especially if they’re working hard and achieving success.

You can impart your appreciation, and show gratitude by acknowledging your employees and giving them recognition or awards.

These small gestures from the management go a long way towards making your team feel valued.

Give Back Together

If you want to ensure that your employees are happy and know that you value them, include them in work like giving back to the community.

Volunteer time, donate money, or host events that bring together your team members.

Have a Positive Attitude

It is certainly come across as obvious, but having a positive attitude changes everything.

When people around you are upbeat and optimistic, it rubs off on you. They become happier and more engaged.

Keep Up With Technology

Technology changes so quickly these days. If you want to keep your relevant, you need to keep up with the times as well.

Investing in training programs and staying current with industry trends ensures that your company stays ahead of the competition.

Don’t Forget To Leverage Social Media

Social media has brought pathbreaking changes in the ways people communicate. If you want to reach out to your target audience, you need to use social media channels effectively.

Reward Good Performance

People love to receive praise and recognition for their accomplishments.

Whether it’s a bonus, a promotion, or just a pat on the back, rewarding your employees for a job well-done shows that you appreciate them.

Encourage Communication

Open communication between management and staff is key to creating an effective workplace.

Regular one-on-one meetings allow managers to get feedback and ideas from their employees.

Show Appreciation

It is not just employee will feel recognized but it also builds loyalty among customers and clients.

Customers and clients often tell other people about great experiences they had while visiting your business.

Be Honest

Honesty is the best policy. If you want to create a productive and trustworthy work environment, honesty is essential.

Tell your employees what they need to improve upon and hold them accountable for results.

Offer Flexible Hours

Offering flexible hours helps people manage their personal lives without sacrificing income. It also allows workers to balance family life and work commitments.

Provide Opportunities For Growth

Providing growth opportunities gives employees the chance to advance within your organization. This keeps employees motivated and encouraged about their future at your company.

Take Time Off

Taking some time off every now and then will help prevent burnout. Employees who take breaks regularly tend to be less stressed out than those who don’t.

Create a Fun Atmosphere

A fun office culture promotes a happy, satisfied and healthy work environment. Employees like coming to work when they’re having fun.

Build Trust

Trust is vital to any successful relationship. Without trust, no amount of rewards or perks will ever motivate someone to do a good job.

Focus On The Big Picture

When you focus too much on day-to-day tasks, you lose sight of the bigger picture. Instead, think about how everything you do affects your overall goal: increasing profits, reducing costs, etc.

Involve Everyone In Decision Making

Everyone should have a say in decisions made by the team. By involving everyone, you can avoid making bad choices that could hurt morale and productivity.

Keep Up With Industry Trends

If you want to stay competitive, you need to invest in learning new skills and keeping up with the latest technology.

Give Your Staff A Voice

By giving your employees a voice, you give them more power over their own careers.

They are able to influence the direction of the company and make suggestions that may benefit the entire workforce.

Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Culture

Culture plays a significant role when it comes to employee retention for a company.

When they feel valued, connected, and respected, they are more likely to stick around. And culture creates that connection and understanding between employees and management.

What is Employee Retention?

Employee retention is the strategies and steps taken to keep your most valuable assets i.e your employees within the company.

Furthermore, a high or low employee retention rate directly affects a company’s overall business.

If you want to stay in the game for the long run, it is important to know and manage your employee turnover rate.

Therefore, to retain key employees, managing and avoiding high turnover becomes a crucial element.

It is also a good idea to apply a data-based employee retention strategy. It is certainly better than just firing people without any warning.

What is highly recommended is to keep an eye on the employee turnover rate periodically. Mostly half-yearly or quarterly.

Employee retention refers to the process of retaining employees in a company.

It’s not just about focusing on making them happy but also making sure they are productive and satisfied.

Employee retention refers to the percentage of employees who remain with their employer for at least one year after being hired.

It is calculated by dividing the number of employees still employed by the total number of employees hired during the previous 12 months.

How To calculate the employee retention rate?

It is not too much complication when it comes to calculating the employee retention, just basic maths :

  • Choose a time period.
  • Divide the number of people who remained at the company during the given period by those who were there on the first day of that period.
  • Multiply it by 100.

Why are employees leaving?

The answer is simple. There is something with your management that they don’t like, or they don’t feel valued. If you want to retain your employees, you need to focus on how you treat them.

It is also essential to explore and find out why your employees leave. Here are some reasons why employees leave:

  • Unclear job description: Employees don’t understand what they are supposed to be doing every day. This invites confusion and frustration.
  • Poor communication between management and employees: You need to communicate clearly and frequently so that employees understand clearly and specifically on what they need to do.
  • Lack of training opportunities: Employees must receive continuous training to ensure that they are performing their tasks effectively.
  • No clear career path: Employees should have clarity on the path to take for their growth in the company.
  • Poor performance reviews: Employees must receive regular feedback from their managers. This helps them improve their skills and get better results.
  • Ineffective leadership: Leaders should set examples for others to follow. Employees will respect and trust their leaders if they see them as role models.
  • Lack of recognition: Employees must be recognized for their achievements. A pat on the back goes a long way.
  • Low pay: Employees deserve fair compensation for their work. Paying less than market value makes them feel undervalued.
  • Bad working conditions: Working in poor conditions is stressful. Employees will eventually quit.
  • Poor benefits package: Employees need to be paid enough to cover basic living expenses. They shouldn’t have to worry about paying for health insurance or retirement plans.
  • Poor office environment: An uninviting workplace will lead to low morale. People won’t stay if they aren’t comfortable.
  • Poor customer service: Customers expect great customer service from companies. Companies that provide good service will attract more customers.
  • High turnover rates: When employees are constantly switching jobs, this leads to high employee turnover rates.
  • Poor communication channels: Communication channels such as email, instant messaging, and social media platforms are not effective when used alone. Employees need face-to-face meetings and phone calls to maintain strong relationships with each other.
  • Poor technology infrastructure: Technology plays an important part in running your businesses better. It also helps employees collaborate with colleagues around the world.
  • Ineffective management practices: The last thing a manager should do is micromanage his/her staff. Employees need autonomy to perform their duties.
  • Bad corporate culture: Corporate cultures differ greatly. Some organizations thrive on competition while others prefer cooperation.
  • Poor organizational structure: Poor hierarchical structures make things hard for employees to move upward in their professional journey within the company.
  • Poor hiring process: Hiring processes to take too much time and money. You don’t get a guarantee that you will find the right person.
  • Bad recruitment strategies: Recruitment strategies should focus on attracting top talent.

Employee Retention Strategies To Apply

effective employee retention strategies

Providing Flexible Work Arrangements & Shifts 

There’s an expectation that employees should be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This expectation prevents many people from applying for jobs at these companies.

Asking your employee to just be there all the time or a particular set of hours without any room for flexibility will waste a lot of talent and efficiency.

This is especially when remote working people are as productive as office-going employees.

Working remotely also reduces one of the largest reasons people quit their jobs: commuting. 23 percent of employees have left their jobs because of a problem with their commute.

With businesses reopening across the country, some companies are planning for the possibility that some of their employees may still want to work from home, at least part-time.

A Robert Half survey found that one in three professionals who work from home would look for another job if they were required back to the office full time

So think sooner rather than later about what you could offer employees if working from home on a permanent basis isn’t an option.

A compressed workweek? Flextime? Maybe a partial telecommuting arrangement? All of these will help reduce stress for your staff and improve employee retention rates.

How To Deal With Work Flexibility 

Business leaders should embrace flexible working hours and remote working.

It may not be possible in some industries where frontline staff is always required for customer service.

If your employees want to deliver the results rather than based on their presence you need to let them choose where they work best. They may be able to do their best work at different times of the day.

There is a company that allows their employees to leave as early as they need to, come to the office as late as they want, and work from home. The only thing is they must be able to get things done.

If you can’t go that far, consider conditional flexi­bility. For example, the ability to work at home two days a week, but also be able to change those days each week.

Offering flexible hours means that people can create a work schedule that fits their needs.

What’s better?

Which would you prefer? Do you want an employee who comes office during normal business hours, or one who uses weekends and evenings, but takes the freedom of doing their personal work before doing the remote work late in the day?

Be flexible, and you’ll get a lot of loyalty from your employees.

Furthermore, using this strategy, you can improve your hiring strategies and efforts because accepting flexibility gives you access to new candidates.

Hiring for Cultural Fit

People can learn skills and become experts. But recruiting someone who keeps your work culture intact can get you more committed employees.

Newly hired employees can be part of your team easily. They feel inclusive and comfortable and that makes them take part in the team faster.

80% of employee turnover happens because of poor hiring choices. You should try to go beyond textbook interview questions and think outside the box.

Ask questions that relate to your company’s values. Explain how the role relates to the values. It will help them understand what they need to do.

Check-in With Employees Regularly

We want to fix problems. As managers and as humans we want to fix problems because we’re good at fixing things. And of course, you need to have a place for that.

However, focusing on employees’ strengths instead of their weaknesses is a more effective way to improve performance, retention, and employee engagement.

A simple way to have positive, supportive conversations with your employees is by frequently checking in with them.

Millennials, the majority of the workforce, are especially eager for one-on-one meetings with supervisors and feedback on their performance, according to a recent survey by Gallup.

These check-ins shouldn’t be too formal. Don’t be afraid to discuss things that are personal, but are professional in nature.

Let the employee lead the conversation. You need to focus your attention on the things that they’ve accomplished and are proud of, rather than the things that they haven’t yet done.

Managers can dramatically improve employee engagement and retention by simply checking in with their employees for a few minutes each day.

Offering Training And Development To Employees

To provide continuous feedback on performance, an organization can help its employees identify areas for professional development, such as the need for them to learn new skills.

Today, upskilling is especially important because technology continues to change how people work. Upskilling means acquiring new skills and competencies as business needs continue to evolve.

It’s important to invest in your workers’ professional development. Provide them with time to attend virtual conferences; offer tuition reimbursement or pay for their continuing education. 

Also, succession planning must be part of the development which improves leadership skills and overall career as well.

Be Open To Employee Feedback

If you’re not open to feedback, you might miss out on some good ideas. It might be easier said than done, but you can still do it.

When an employee leaves, companies conduct exit interviews to get feedback from them.

They may ask questions such as, “What was the best part of working at your last job?” What aspects of your job responsibilities would you want to change? Unfortunately, it will be too late to keep that person.

Don’t wait until your top talent has left before you start recruiting new ones. You can get employee feedback from all kinds of methods.

From automated pulse surveys to an outdated suggestion box, there are many options available. An open-door policy is a great way to begin.

Stay interviews, or “retention” interviews, conducted for your top employees while they are still in the company is a far recent trend.

The goal is to figure out what they’re motivated by and what their pain points are so you know what to change to keep them from leaving in the first place!

Employees’ feedback can be used to improve job satisfaction and retention rates.

Encourage A Strong Team Culture

Every company has a distinctive work culture whether they are deliberate about it or not. It takes time for culture to change. But building a work culture of a strong team and unity helps the company grow a lot.

Introduce new team members properly, create opportunities to get them to know people socially, and designate a mentor who will help resolve any issues they may encounter.

A team cannot perform well if its members come and go. When you make your company fun to work in and an overall positive place, you improve the work culture and team spirit of the company.

Offer employee growth opportunities

One of the top reasons for employees to leave their job is the lack of career growth opportunities. This is as per Gallup‘s State of the American Worker Report.

94% of employees prefer to remain in the company for a longer time which offers them training and career growth opportunities.

Hybrid Workplaces

Flexible working arrangements are becoming one of the most important things that people look for when they’re searching for a new job. It became an expectation instead of a benefit.

After the recent pandemic, hybrid workplaces gained quite a popularity. It is the option for working either at the office or from home according to one’s convenience

According to a recent survey, 74% of the US workforce will quit a job if they could work from home. 31% of employees are willing to work from home, but their company doesn’t allow them to do so

However, some employers aren’t entirely sold on the idea of a virtual workplace. However, having an option to do remote work is a win-win for the company as well as the employer.

Commuting saves employees time and money. They have improved their overall work-life balance and reduced the number of distractions they face at work.

Furthermore, working from home is a much safer option than working in an office.

On the other hand, companies can save money on all the costs of infrastructure. They also do not have to deal with office politics, other costs, and all other kinds of dynamics that are faced in physical office space.

The best part is there is no geographical constraint when hiring people. So, you have this access to a larger pool of competence and talent.

Promote work-life balance

Balancing work and life is an ongoing challenge. There is no one right answer that works for everyone. For others, it means managing the constant pinging of after-hours emails.

Flexible hours for others means flexible hours for caregivers.

If you know your employees’ needs (because you talk to them every day), then you can help them prevent burnout. Ask them what they need. Make sure you know what they want. You might be surprised by the answers.

One big issue for U.S. workers is not taking all of the vacation time they’ve earned. Encourage your staff to take all of the vacations that they have deserved and earned. And don’t forget to be an example.

Rewarding Efforts, and Not Just Results

It’s easier to measure results than to measure the effort required to achieve them.

There is a situation that almost everyone faced where they have worked really hard to achieve a level or get to a scale.

Contrastingly, another employee, your colleague gets it right away. Because not getting success doesn’t mean being less competent.

Companies must understand the ground reality and recognize the effort they’re putting in.

An example of this is how Next Jump, a US-based company. They chose to pay their employees depending on how much helping they have been to their colleagues.

So, it’s important to recognize and reward hard work rather than just appreciate results.

Communication

The pandemic underscored the importance of good workplace communications.

Your direct reports should be able to come to you with ideas and concerns at any time, even if you’re not available.

As a leader, you should be making sure you’re doing your part to promote timely, constructive, positive communication across the entire company, including on-site employees and remote workers.

Ensure pay and benefits are competitive

It’s a no-brainer, so why not spend some money? People are job-shopping for just a few dollars more per hour. You risk losing good employees by offering them too little money.

The process of hiring and bringing employees to the company is always more costly than retaining an existing one.

Estimates vary but losing one employee can cost anywhere from 50-200% of his/her annual salary, depending on the employee’s experience and specialization.

At minimum wage, that could be $10,000 to hire one employee.

If you want to be hired by employers in Hawaii, it’s important that you ensure your pay rate and benefits are competitive. It’s one of the simplest ways to keep your best employees happy and prevent them from jumping ships.

Motivating employees to perform better will also help them be more productive. And, when they observe others getting rewarded for their actions, they too want to follow suit.

Employee Well-being

Health is wealth, indeed! After the Covid-19 pandemic, health has become the top priority for everyone, including the government. We had both our physical and mental health tested amid the global lockdown.

You can give your workers more than just paid leave and free medical checks. LinkedIn recently gave its employees a mental health week off to help them cope with burnout.

Apart from that, ensure that there are strict safety protocols in place for a hygienically clean workplace.

You can have a health plan that takes care of both your physical health and mental your staff. You can track your meals, fitness activities, etc. using your health plan.

Health insurance is one of the best ways for employers to pay attention to their employee and their well-being.

Make sure your employees don’t feel overwhelmed and Burnout

What if you get to know what working in a particular organization named XYZ will reduce your life expectancy? Would you still go to take a job even if they give you a better salary?

Long hours at work decrease a person’s lifespan by roughly 20%. Workers are demanding better working conditions and a renewed cultural focus on health and wellness.

According to a report from Morneau Sheppard, 40 percent of managers and 34 percent of employees go through extreme levels of stress.

Overworking employees is not a good long-term strategy.

Overworking employees is not a smart management strategy. It just doesn’t work. Productivity tends to decline after a certain point for each additional hour worked.

Furthermore, employees who are stressed out and overworked fall sick more often and make costly mistakes.

It’s not a sustainable environment. Yes, there may be short-term wins in the form of finished projects.

However, over a long duration of time, it diminishes the job satisfaction of employees. Also, it attacks the recruitment of employee retention rate and cost.

How You Can Make Sure Of It?

It depends on the situation. If you’re having trouble sleeping, then maybe it’s not time to pull an extra hour or two.

There are some telling signs that your employees are under too much stress.

If your keycard system records people leaving late at night and logging in shortly after sunrise, you might want to consider adjusting your employees’ work schedules.

If you hear employees complain about missing family events, they may be trying to hide something.

In fact, according to a study from Harvard University and Stanford University, conflicts between work and family life increase the possibility of poor healthy by 90%

Be a brand that makes employees proud

Values matter. We’re an island community, so giving is in our cultural identity and what we do. Make sure your company’s voice is part of that conversation!

It’s not just the right thing to do; it’s also good business sense. Employees tend to stay with companies where they feel appreciated and valued.

It’s nice when our employers get involved in the community. Not only will your employees feel proud, but your recruitment efforts will benefit from it, too.

Onboarding and orientation

Every new hire should receive training and support so they can succeed right away.

Your onboarding process shouldn’t just teach new employees about the job; it should also teach them about the company culture and help them understand how they can contribute to it.

Don’t skip this important first step. From the moment an employee starts working for you, the training and support you provide throughout their career can set the tone for their entire tenure at your company.

Create career advancement opportunities

Good employees want to move up in their companies. They’re motivated by the prospect of promotion, and the chance to do more challenging work.

Employees who stay in one job for a long time are more likely to leave their current employer than employees who move from job to job.

For every 10 months, an employer keeps an employee in a position and his or her chances of leaving increase by 1%.

For many companies, their policies regarding the frequency and type of promotions they offer as well as other contributing variables affect whether they can offer promotions.

Even if an employee has proven themselves worthy of additional responsibilities, they may not be able to receive them due to organizational constraints.

These situations often go unnoticed by employees, or if they’re noticed, they’re perceived as stalling tactics.

When their boss responds by saying “That being said, you should try,” they start looking for opportunities elsewhere because

Create professional development opportunities

According to a recent survey conducted by LinkedIn, 94% of employees surveyed said they will remain in their job if their company invests in growth and learning opportunities.

If businesses don’t offer internal training opportunities, they miss out on an exciting chance to address the global skills gap.

According to a study by CareerBuilder, 75 percent of employers who reported recruiting difficulties said it was difficult to find candidates with the right skills.

Many companies are offering internal training programs to help employees learn new skills.

Of course, this strategy works best with curious, motivated employees who want to learn more about their company.

How You Can Achieve That?

The simple answer would be that you require a learning program.

But a complicated or more detailed answer would be that you require a high-quality and effective learning program.

But what exactly does it mean? It simply tells you that some random learning problem made overnight wouldn’t work.

You need to remember the fact that 90% of organizations provide digital learning, so the problem is not a lack of learning opportunities but a lack of quality and conviction in these opportunities.

Just because you’ve recognized the need for learning and development within the organization, doesn’t mean your employees will accept anything less than the best.

You need to know how your employees prefer to be taught and designed carefully structured professional development opportunities for them.

Learning technology is a popular tool among human resource departments. They allow companies to create and distribute educational content at scale easily

But do employees actually take advantage of these?

Unintuitive systems tempt employees to look outside their organizations for more consumer-friendly products like Coursera, Udemy, and even YouTube.

As a result, companies forget that they have corporate solutions available or don’t associate their companies with employee development initiatives at any level.

Understand the learning preferences and needs of your employees.

For example, LinkedIn found that 68 percent of employees prefer to learn on the job, while 58 percent of employees prefer to be self-directed when they want to learn something new.

When you have data points like these, you will have the ability to make the right critical decisions such as choosing the right learning tool and more.

A third option is to provide tuition support.

You may not be able to provide in-house training for your employees, but you can help them learn by subsidizing their education through an online course.

This tuition can either cover specific courses and credentials that are valuable to your organization or be unrestricted.

Improve the onboarding process

Imagine having to go through the highly expensive process (and risk) of hiring a new employee only to have them quit within the first two months of employment.

You hired the person because he/she had the skills to get the job done, so you knew he/she would be able to do it. And they probably interviewed a range of stakeholders throughout the hiring process.

If losing an employee indicates a poor onboarding process, then you need to improve your onboarding process.

Only 47% of employers believe their onboarding programs are effective at retaining new hires.

If there’s no onboarding experience at all, there are higher employee turnover rates and lower productivity levels.

How you can improve onboarding

The key to an effective onboarding process is capturing new employees’ excitement about joining a company while minimizing any other challenges they may face.

When people start a job, they’re eager for learning and want to generate value.

Any kind of frustration even something trivial as printing might lead to anxiety and other tension due to uncertainty.

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