Constantly replacing employees is costly for businesses and brings out the necessity of having established strategies to retain employees. It costs a lot of time and money to recruit, hire, and train new hires and doing this consistently can be a drain on productivity and increase the stress of the current staff.
Read on to learn more about what makes employees leave and what organizations can do to retain more top talent.
What Makes Employees Leave Companies?
To learn how businesses can better use strategies to retain employees, it is worth asking the question: what makes people leave their current jobs? If you know why people leave, that can be used to tailor solutions that encourage them to stay.
50% of employees have considered leaving their current job in the last 12 months
Surveyed by CareerPlug, here are the biggest reasons employees leave their current jobs to seek greener pastures:
- Compensation: It should not come as a surprise that compensation is often the largest reason people leave jobs seeking higher wages.
- Benefits: Businesses need to provide competitive benefits packages if they want to retain employees, especially now that 401k, health plans, flexible schedules, bonuses, and other benefits are becoming more commonplace as businesses look to increase retainment. People may also be seeking specific benefits like vision, dental, or life insurance that better align with their current needs.
- Work Environment: Lastly, people are willing to leave jobs to find better work environments. People want to enjoy their coworkers, companies, tasks, and the general culture of the organization.
Key Strategies to Retain Employees
It’s expensive, both time and money, for companies to constantly be hiring and training new people, costing businesses money and time.
77% of the reasons behind employees leaving for different jobs are preventable
Engage More with Employees
Burnout can be a devastating ailment for people who are overworked and unhappy. 75% of people have experienced it in some capacity and it’s one of the leading causes of people considering leaving their positions.
To prevent burnout, businesses need to engage with their employees more. This can be in the form of recognition programs, company outings, rewards and gifts, and reasonable time off.
Employees left alone to complete task after task with little breaks develop diminished faith in their own skills, lose interest in their work, negativity, and become bored in their positions. Avoid this by finding more ways to get them involved and celebrate what they do every day.
Additionally, improve your employee experience by giving them the tools to succeed, like:
- Cutting Edge Technology: Make sure your teams are always working with the latest technology and most updated software. Nothing is worse than having to use a slow laptop or tools from ten years ago to tackle modern problems.
- Limited Downtime: Have an IT or help desk to assist with any technical issues that could cause roadblocks in daily work.
- Helpful Resources: Having a company portal that gives access to important documents, using collaboration tools for projects, and having an IT team on standby to alleviate issues are all things that can improve how people work.
Recruit and Hire the Right People the First Time
Hiring managers have said that new hires are more likely to stay if they are better informed during the recruiting process. Hiring bad fits drastically increases the chances of someone quitting quickly. That is why it is critical that the hiring process is honest and transparent about expectations, compensation, benefits, culture, etc.
Recruiting experience also has an impact on the overall happiness of potential hires. Slow responses and disorganized processes are frustrating and leave a bad taste in their mouth from the get-go. Using automated emails, video meetings, open lines of communication, and transparent processes can help keep this process smooth and enjoyable for both sides.
Optimize Your Onboarding Experience
The onboarding process can be long and poor experiences and training can lengthen the amount of time it takes for new employees to reach the same productivity levels as veteran staff members. Employee training classes, guidance from seasoned staff, and ensuring they have the resources they need to meet their goals and complete tasks early on helps with this early development.
This can be bolstered through the use of technology. Having a centralized hub of company information (such as an intranet) gives new hires an easy-to-use resource and having all of their daily-use tech (laptops, computers, devices, etc.) running smoothly can avoid speed bumps on the path toward full productivity.
All of this is even more important for remote workers who do not have the benefits of chatting around the water cooler to meet their coworkers. Schedule meet and greet meetings, establish communication lines, and train them in the use of your collaboration tools so they can access and help on projects early on.
Provide Professional Development Opportunities
Researchers have found a link between the number of developmental opportunities and an organization’s ability to keep talent.
It’s important to give people opportunities to improve and grow and show them that you’re willing to invest in them either financially or by allotting time in their schedule to focus on development tasks.
More professional development programs help people see their future at a company.
Build a Culture That Promotes Longevity
Though it has become often joked about, a strong “company culture” is still an important part of finding and retaining top talent.
77% of workers consider company culture in their job search
It can be defined in many ways, but it’s a summarization of how employees feel about their jobs, their coworkers, and the company. A business with a strong company culture is one that rewards employees for jobs well done, is fair when it comes to PTO and benefits, and sets a friendly, inviting tone to every employee to make them feel wanted, needed, and productive.
Attractive company culture is such a powerful tool for businesses because half of all workers would be willing to leave their current job for a lower-paying one in an organization that has a better culture.
Building a company culture typically starts with establishing foundational values—such as friendliness, customer service, innovation, etc.—and rewarding people for acting on them. Companies that have and reward these values are the ones who will build a culture that presents positive experiences for their workforce which is a massive step toward increasing employee retainment.
In Conclusion
To increase retention, businesses need to address the key aspects of employee satisfaction by improving their overall experience from recruitment to hiring to everyday life. These strategies to retain employees can be used to improve their experience, build a positive company culture, and create an environment that gives people more reasons to stay.
Check out Impact's blog, How Businesses Can Use Recruitment Marketing for Talent Acquisition and Retention, to learn more about this topic!
