Learning about the top employee retention strategies and implementing them is the best way to reduce the chances of finding yourself with one (or more) team members who are suddenly resigning. Whether your company has been affected by the "great resignation" or you are simply looking for ways to increase employee satisfaction and reduce turnover, this blog will provide some valuable information. It will discuss some of the main reasons employees are leaving their jobs, thus giving you insight into some of the top job satisfaction factors you should pay attention to. We will also discuss the importance of having a strategy in place and share five top employee retention strategies that work for almost any industry.
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A top-performing employee hands in their resignation notice out of the blue, and you're at a loss. You probably ask a few questions and try to fight for them, but they are determined to leave. Now you have to lean on the remaining members of your team while you search for their coworker’s replacement. Or you have to take on that employee's responsibilities and put some other duties on the backburner. Either way, it tends to take a toll on employee morale, and it might even lead to further employees leaving.
If you are an employer or a member of management, then that scenario probably sounds familiar. If it doesn't, then, unfortunately, we have to warn you that you will very likely have to deal with it at some point. Whether you have gone through something like this recently, or you are simply looking for some preventive measures, such as investing in employer partnerships or top employee retention strategies, now is the time to ensure that you have policies and strategies in place to minimize the likelihood of this scenario taking place.
Through an employer partnership with BeMo and the BeMo employee benefits program, you can increase your employee retention rate by offering unique and desirable employee perks. With BeMo, your employees can advance their education or professional development without sacrificing employment, and you can increase your retention and save money. BeMo offers unlimited professional and admissions coaching to your employees and their families so they can go back to earn their MBA or get their child into a competitive post-secondary program, such as law school.
Before we start looking at the top employee retention strategies that you can put in place, it's essential to understand why employees resign in the first place. We highly recommend conducting exit interviews to gain insight into departing employees' perspectives. These interviews give you a chance to see your company through the employee's lens, and you can then use that information to determine whether your employee retention strategies need improvement.
These are some of the most common reasons that departing employees cite:
- Feeling overworked and underpaid
- Feeling unsupported
- Poor work-life balance
- Family responsibilities
- Lack of recognition
- Lack of growth or advancement opportunities
- Lack of career development
- Boredom
- Unhappiness with management
- Unhealthy or undesirable company culture
- Desire to make a change
Now that you know a bit more about the importance of employee retention strategies, let’s go over the top employee retention strategies that you can implement to ensure that your employees are satisfied and loyal to your company:
1. Improve onboarding and orientation
In order to retain top talent, you need to start from the very beginning. It is important to review your hiring process to ensure that it is designed to not only find the best candidates for the job but also give those candidates an accurate portrayal of the job they are being hired to do. Often, employees start a role and do not enjoy it because it is very different from what they thought they were signing up for, resulting in sudden resignations or subpar work. For example, if you are looking to hire someone to fill a remote digital marketing job vacancy and you expect them to provide copywriting services, you should clarify that in your job description.
It is also important to ensure that the interview process is as thorough and informative as possible for both you and the candidates you are considering. One tip we can offer you is to look at some of the most common college admissions interview questions and adapt them for your interviews. These questions aim to find out who the person is outside of their academic background, so they can help you get a better sense of a candidate's personality, interests, and values, thus helping you find a candidate who will fit into your company culture.
Furthermore, your onboarding process should set up every new hire for success. It should teach new staff about their new role and about the company culture so that they know what to expect, and how they can contribute to and thrive in it. Whether virtually or in person, the training and support you provide from day one will set the tone for the employee's entire tenure at your firm.
2. Invest in employee training and development
The list of common reasons for employee resignations that we saw earlier included boredom and a lack of growth or advancement opportunities, and a lack of career development. All of these can be avoided by ensuring that your company has solid employee development programs in place. This is not only one of the best employee retention strategies, but it is also a great way to give your business an edge.
By investing in your employees, you are showing them that you value them and want to keep them at the company long term. Simultaneously, you are giving them a chance to upskill, which means that they can use their new abilities and competencies to help the business. So it is important to have an employee training and development plan that goes beyond yearly or quarterly check-ins with a manager.
You should aim to provide continuous feedback on performance, implement mentorship programs, and make it a priority to invest in workers' professional development. You can do this by providing tuition reimbursement for continuing education, providing flex time off for employees who are returning to school, or by working with Academic consulting firms like us here at BeMo.
Academic consulting comes in many forms, including MBA admissions consulting or college admissions consulting, and many more. These services are offered by admissions professionals who can help employees figure out what academic steps they can take to further their careers, guide them to find the right schools to help them achieve their goals, and help them get into that school.
For example, if you have a promising employee who started with an entry-level position and has quickly proved himself. Let's assume that a few years later, this employee shows excellent potential for management, and they seem bored in the role they are currently in, but they do not have any tertiary education, and they wish to pursue it. As an employer, being able to connect them with an academic consulting firm would show them that you believe in their potential, and it would also give them a chance to pursue that college.
Additionally, offering academic consulting is a unique employee benefit that is still relatively new but very enticing to employees who are looking to build careers. It would, therefore, give your company an edge and show that you are very forward-thinking.
3. Offer family-friendly employee benefits
One of the best employee retention strategies you can adopt is to provide the best employee benefits possible. That means providing benefits that not only help the employee stay healthy, but also make it easier for your employees to balance their work and family responsibilities. That is precisely what family-friendly benefits do.
There are several different family-friendly benefits that you can opt to offer depending on the industry that you are in, the resources at your disposal, your company culture, and so on. When we talk about family-friendly benefits and employee retention strategies, business owners tend to assume that the conversation ends with flexible working hours and parental leave but there are other policies and benefits that can make a huge difference. Here are a few examples:
Financial planning and academic planning are especially great benefits because they can have such a high ROI. Helping employees understand their finances better also helps them get the most out of their salaries, which means that they are more likely to be satisfied with the monetary compensation they receive.
Academic planning is one of the services offered by the same academic consultants we discussed in the previous point. This particular benefit is excellent because it can be helpful for both employees and their children. For example, parents who are helping their kids prepare for college applications can easily get overwhelmed because of the complex and competitive nature of the college admissions process. Between having to figure out which schools use the Common App and helping their kids write and edit college essays, the entire process can easily take a toll on them and affect their work. By providing them with professional guidance for their children, you are not only making it easier for them to handle this particularly challenging family responsibility, but you are also taking off a layer of anxiety that could have led to them being distracted at work.
4. Make work-life balance a priority
Over the past few years, companies have started to recognize the importance of having a good work-life balance. A healthy work-life balance is essential to job satisfaction, and as an employer, you need to create a workplace culture and policies that support this. So, consider the message your schedule and management members are sending to employees. You can find out by asking a few simple questions, like the following:
People need to know their managers understand that they have lives outside of work. Management should encourage staff to set boundaries and take their vacation time, especially when working from home, where it can be tricky to maintain a balance.
5. Diversity and inclusion
While organizations are slowly but surely becoming more diverse, many are still falling short - especially when it comes to inclusion. If you want to have employee retention strategies that work, you need to make sure that your approach is genuinely inclusive. Research, like this study by Deloittes, for example, has shown that organizations that lead in diversity and inclusion also report higher employee retention rates. In other words, it is imperative that you put policies in place to create a culture that promotes diversity and inclusion.
An inclusive workplace is simply one that promotes harmony and ensures that employees feel genuinely comfortable, both physically and mentally, at work. The tricky part is that comfort looks different for everyone, and it is impossible to create the ultimate comfortable working environment for every employee. However, there are specific needs that you can anticipate by simply doing some research and talking to your employees.
We recommend taking the time to research some common disabilities as this will help you prepare your workplace in a way that is more accessible for disabled employees. Additionally, taking a few extra steps to make sure you are providing more than the bare minimum. For example, if you have an employee with a chronic pain condition, assigning them a workspace where they can frequently adapt their position to manage pain spikes can go a very long way toward making them feel better at work.
Additionally, it’s important to consider employees of different ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, and religions. While many employees don’t love diversity seminars, they are necessary for addressing unconscious bias and making people feel like they belong. You can also make small changes that will make it easier for people to be themselves at work. For example, you could have small rooms dedicated for quiet time, where employees can go to pray, make private phone calls, and breastfeeding mothers can use to pump comfortably. These small changes do not cost much, but they can go a long way toward making employees feel like they belong and creating a much more inclusive company culture.
Employees who feel more comfortable at work are going to be more productive and more likely to feel loyal to their employers, thus resulting in a higher employee retention rate.
Conclusion
As an employer, you know that employee retention is central to the success of any business. High turnover costs time and money, impacts employee morale, and can affect an organization’s reputation. Therefore, you must take the time to evaluate your current employee retention strategies and update them to ensure that they include the best practices and programs possible. Including some of the unique benefits that we discussed above can really set you apart and impress both current and prospective employees. You should make sure that you are adapting benefits to the needs and culture of your company. Remember that Exit interviews are a great way to find out what resigning workers are missing from your organization and use that information to improve the policies, benefits, and programs your company offers to increase employee satisfaction and retention simultaneously.
FAQs
1. What is employee retention?
Employee retention is a company's ability to retain its employees and ensure their sustainability. So when we talk about companies that have high turnover, we are also talking about having low employee retention, and that is precisely what the strategies above help you avoid.
2. Why is employee retention important?
Low employee retention costs companies millions of dollars every year. Having to hire and train new employees can be very costly and time-consuming. In short, it affects the bottom line negatively.
3. What is the key to employee retention?
A supportive and productive work environment is the key to a strong employee retention rate. Employers can achieve this by paying close attention to employee job satisfaction and engagement factors.
4. What is the best employee retention strategy?
Family-friendly benefits like flexible hours paid parental leave, financial consulting, and employee training and development programs can significantly increase employee satisfaction and retention.
5. What are family-friendly benefits?
These are benefits that help employees handle their work and home responsibilities. Examples include Parental leave, flexible working hours, academic consulting, and financial planning.
6. Why are diversity and inclusion important for employee retention?
Having a diverse workplace and policies that make sure all employees feel included can significantly increase employees' productivity and job satisfaction.
8. Why do you recommend conducting exit interviews?
Exit interviews give you an insight into former employees' thought processes and their reasons for leaving the company. If you have a high turnover, it's a great way to determine why and what you can do to change that.
8. Can BeMo provide academic consulting services for my employees?
We'd be happy to help. Please book your free initial strategy call with our team, and we can discuss what you need and how we can help you!
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