Employee Retention - What Is The Meaning Of Employee Retention And Its Importance | HRMantra Hr Software

Employee Retention - What Is The Meaning Of Employee Retention And Its Importance | HRMantra Hr Software

8-10 minutes

Employee Retention Definition

Employee retention is an aspect where employees choose to stay with their company and do not actively seek other job opportunities. The opposite of retention is turnover, where employees leave the company for reasons.

Table of Content:

• Employee Retention Definition
• Different Employee Retention Strategies that you can adopt
• Employee Retention Strategies Deployed by the Best Companies
• Frequently Asked Questions

Various Employee Retention Strategies you can implement

Any business aims to retain its assets for some period. This makes the process of production easier due to higher productivity and smoother due to the continuity of the business processes. This not only minimizes the cost of recruiting again.

Therefore, retention of employees becomes the key concern for businesses but can often be quite difficult when recruiting in this world.

You will be able to maintain your performing talent and develop a loyal workforce focused and involved in generating results by the use of strategies for retention. Retention approaches differ from employee to employee. So how do you hold them? Well, your performing talent isn''t going to have those motivators, like the mid-performing group would.

Long-term talented performers need retention systems in their entirety.

Retention Strategies for High Performers

Can you believe the fact that, according to McKinsey, high performers are likely to be 400% more productive than their average peers?

Though the percentage above may vary from one organization to another, it really becomes important to have retention strategies in place for this group.

• Give them challenging assignments: Set goals for your key talent; this shall keep them busy and motivated. This way, it will make them enhance their careers through skills and achievements. This benefit will leverage employability and loyalty towards the organization.
• Skill upgrade: Once an employee masters one skill area, it is good to expose them to cross-skilling. This also ensures that the employee feels no need to look for ""the job"" and instead gets the opportunity to shift horizontally into another set of the same kind of offer within the same organization.
• Create and execute a succession plan: A succession plan involves building a pool of talent, which develops performers for their future roles in leadership. Engaging this category of employees in your succession plan or process can be a retention strategy since they would have seen their promotional or growth path within the organization.

Retention Strategies for Middle-of-the-Road Performers

These are the average performers that constitute the largest number of staff in any organization and, in many ways, form the backbone of the company or organization itself.

E.g. Running a car showroom. The average sales representative can generally pocket around 50% of the sales while the performing group can get even 40% more. Therefore, retention strategies for this area feel equally important.

• Benefits and facilities: Offering tailored benefits can be a way to retain your employees since it will make them feel secure about their future and guarantee an improved quality of life. Do surveys to know what the real benefits are, and on those, manage to improve the most.
• Ensure your employees experience leadership: Managers are crucial in preserving employee motivation and job satisfaction; this is more so for the performers who do not have by default the self-motivation trait possessed by other employees. Solicit feedback from employees on their supervisors through surveys.
• Introduce a social recognition program: The contributions made by these performing employees should not be allowed to go unappreciated. You can make them feel worth being in the workplace by having a platform for rewards and recognition, which will reduce the chances of them leaving.

Strategies that Organizations with High Retention Rates Implement

Organizations have laid much focus on retaining employees. Along with long-term strategies, a few cut ideas are put in place that have worked like magic, improving the retention rate.

Ideas You Can Implement Taking Inspiration:

1. Map out a roadmap of progression for each department like Microsoft: Not everyone is interested in taking on roles. Some want to focus on their skills and grow in those areas. If your company has imposed a glass ceiling on the career growth of sets of skills, those employees will likely look to find learning and growth opportunities. Learn from Microsoft''s example because they have created career progression tracks for specific roles.
2. Support employees in their pursuits like Walmart does: Your employees may want to acquire further education as they work with you. More often than not, this results in the loss of workers, and this is a bad thing for the company because it is losing brilliant people with bright minds and visions of the future. You will keep all your workers anytime you allow them to undertake further education while at work. Just take, for example, Walmart—the company has formed a partnership between it and leading universities in the United States. Employees can enroll in college classes if it will relate to their current or future career at Wal-Mart. Therefore, agents at Wal-Mart gain from improved job prospects and inexpensive financing and at the same time have access to qualified manpower and a loyal workforce.
3. Hilton Hotels indicates that having a job preview instrument to maintain employee: Employees who have expectations upon starting a job are more likely to leave the job within the first few months. Alternatively, if the package is good, though not performing to the best of their ability, the employees may decide to remain with the company. Realistic job previews provide a phase where candidates can assess the real-world responsibilities of their roles without the highs of butterflies. Take, for example, Hilton Hotels, which evaluates people in its housekeeping positions. Prospective employees must perform such tasks as making a certain number of beds. That way, only candidates who are truly interested manage to get the job. In the long run, this leads to a level of consistency as there is better alignment between candidates and their careers.
4. Implementation of an empowering environment for working is essential, like in the case of Siemens: If really you want a retention system, you want a workplace that''s relevant to the particular needs of every employee. Sample this: Parents who are raising children might need holidays. Employees going back to acquire new learning might need extra long breaks. Great performers who have been moved might want to do 100 percent work. Your work culture should be such that it can adapt to these criteria. Siemens borrowed a leaf from their playbook by introducing a policy dubbed being flexible that emphasizes flexibility to their ambassadors. After realizing that 16% of the females and 2.5% of men who loved working for Siemens knew that this benefit needed to be fully offered to everybody, this would eliminate any approval process. As such meaning that a manager, managing a team of 25 could travel around Asia for a period of time without actively seeking work.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the factors that decide Employee Retention in an organization?

Employees very much appreciate a balance between serious activities and organizations that offer work arrangements and comprehensive time off policies and are more likely to retain their workforce. This also helps attract talent from various geographical locations.

What are the causes for employee turnover in an organization?

Employee compensation is often too low for employee turnover. Inadequate employee benefits include monetary factors like salaries that are less than expected or no increase in payroll. These people will, therefore, be attracted to other jobs.

How does employee engagement impact retention?

The effect of engagement on retention is enormous. When an employee is engaged in their work, they are more likely to be committed to your organization and culture. Employees often leave jobs/positions, especially when they feel unattached to their job/colleague.

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