Any organisation may have thousands of employees. There are the crucial ones who perform great and drive the company’s activity, and the other ones, who deliver less better results, however, they still support the company’s activity. Anyway, no company is protected from losing a crucial employee. Even the key employee can receive a better offer, better working conditions and it will be complicated to keep him/her in the company. Some companies will let such staff go without any questions, the others will do everything to keep the employee in the company.
The expert who is going to leave, can be replaced by a real professional. However, the consequence of sending away the valuable person may be a waste of time and money. An employee who has lots of experience, does not need any training, who has good interpersonal relations with colleagues is very valuable to a company.
You may wonder why employees quit the companies, what the motivation for that is. There have been many different researches on that topic. Top 10 reasons were highlighted:
Pic. 1. Why do employees quit their job?
- Low salary and benefits (15,8 %)
- Enormous amount of work and stress (11,7 %)
- No career promotion (11,5 %)
- No work-life balance (6,5 %)
- Poor benefits (3,8 %)
- No recognition (2,9 %)
- Different values (7,0 %)
- Employees are interested in the different career path (6,7 %)
- No opportunity to work remotely (1,3 %)
- Health and safety concerns because of COVID-19 (2,3 %)
Also many employees do not like management in the company, financial situation, interpersonal communication. All that influences their attitude to the company and job itself.
One research was held by TINYpulse, the firm that hires employees, which surveyed 400 full-time U.S workers. That showed strong ties between job dedication and “the skill to make decisions on the way how to perform jobs”. Those employees, whose hands are regularly tied, are 28% likely to think that there are much better places for work. Micromanagement matters. In fact, people leave managers and not companies.
To change the situation and prevent people from leaving (as it also influences the reputation of the organisation), employee retention strategies were created. However, what is necessary to understand what are the employee retention strategies?
Employee retention strategies is the ability of the organisation to keep employees by having certain policies and strategies which inspires an employee to stay in the organisation and make a relationship of loyalty.
Employee retention strategy has high importance, as organisations struggle for highly skilled people. Companies strongly realise the employee turnover and that it is really meaningful. Most of the time to involve a new employee costs 2.5 times an employee’s salary. Everything depends on the role. There are also other costs like low productivity, poor engagement, training costs, etc.
The payoff for organisations which concentrate on employee retention is worth resources like time and investment. High performance, improved productivity and quality of work, all are organisational benefits. In case the organisation is concentrated on employee’s retention, it will keep those who are really motivated to be a part of the company, and those who really want to contribute their best ever skills and bring success to the company.
There have been created Employee Retention Strategies. Now they are well used in many companies.
- Recognize retention starts with recruiting
Retention begins when the company starts reviewing applications and choosing the best candidate for interview. It also starts from identifying the key points of culture and strategy the company is concentrated on and searching for the candidates that match a certain criteria.
- Choose candidates who will stay in any case
That might be hard enough to select the right candidate who will stay in the company. The main criteria for identification is how long a candidate stayed at his last job. If a candidate worked for several years in one company and overcame many difficulties there, that is a good sign that points to his/her loyalty, perseverance, and engagement.
The significant criteria for choosing the right candidate is if he/she plays team sport, if performed as a volunteer or participated in the other activities outside work. That matters for the company. It means that a candidate is highly invested in a cause, a team, a sport and to everything he/she cares about.
- Educational process and the right ways to advancement
Promotion in the company is not only the way for candidates to get a better salary and get more responsibilities. Also they feel that they are more valued and are very important for the company.
Promotion can not occur without employees’ education. It might be just a simple training which will help to get new skills, new technologies or just a reimbursement for attained courses outside the company. Even those incremental steps will help an employee to feel valued.
Professional development programs and high-skills training are considered to be the top benefit for keeping employees inside the company.
Learning while doing the project is much more effective than just learning as candidates can ask questions and figure out more details for themselves.
- Offer the right benefits
Benefits make an employee happy and highly involved in their tasks. Financial awards also can be considered as benefits for employees who achieved working goals and who stayed for a predetermined time period. Flexible work schedule, possibility to work remotely and different paid leave policies help employees to feel how valuable they are for the organisation they work for.
- Being transparent and open
Open communication in the company between top management and employees helps strengthen the sense of community and a common purpose.
- Implement data and artificial intelligence for working purposes
Companies have lots of information about their employees, meaning that they can easily figure out who is going to leave the company and can easily prevent them from that. Artificial intelligence and well advanced analytics can be a good tool in figuring out the main factors.
- Get ready for turnover
It is impossible to escape the turnover. Every organization should be ready to lose the best talent. Most probably it will happen if the candidate wants to move to the dream job.
To avoid the turnover among the workers, special apps for Employee Retention were created. In order for an employee to feel recognised in the organisation, he/she must feel that the company supports him/her and values the contribution to the company’s activity. An effective retention plan includes the number of different programs, tools and initiatives.
There are some Employee Retention Software & Tools which improves the situation about the employees’ turnover. Some of them were described in the article published by DNA325. However, the list of useful tools and softwares is never limited. Some of them are listed below.
Nectar
This tool lets employees know and feel that their job is appreciated and valued. The platform raises team culture. Everything at that platform works to remind employees that their work is crucial and that they are a part of the team.
Results: employees who get recognition in the company, do not have any hopes and dreams of finding a new job.
Monday.com
Pic. 2. Monday.com Interface
This tool lets employees work together in the team, even if they work remotely. Teams can share ideas, be informed about the last updates, support each other and stay together by staying with the company.
Result: teams feel closer and well connected. Employees get inspiration to work through ups and downs as they feel like a part of something big and meaningful.
Outback team building
This tool offers different events which unites teams during new and exciting situations. Creatively designed tech and expert game hosts make the event as immersive as it can be.
Result: such kind of events create bonds and memories which help the team to feel a key part of the big company.
Bonusly
Bonusly lets employees feel colleagues’ recognition. And also to highlight key skills. Usually self estimation gets higher when they see colleagues estimate their peers skills as well.
Result: employees get the recognition and appreciation which help them to feel satisfied with their job. Under such conditions, employees will be thinking mostly about the company’s goal and mission rather than searching for different jobs.
Pic. 3. Bonusly
Go game
This tool has games which bring teams together as they come across challenges based on general knowledge. Everyone can see the new skills in themselves and in their teammates.
Result: employees learn to see the best skills in their teammates.
Water cooler trivia
Quizzes presented in this tool help coworkers to know each other better. The quizzes enriches after quizz conversations.
Results: weekly quizzes help to learn a lot about each other and strengthens communication in the team.
Let’s Roam
It is a scavenger hunt which will bond the team, while walking around the city and having adventures.
Result: Unforgettable experience, new emotions, and united team.
Employee retention takes an important role in every organisation, as nothing has such an impact than the strength, knowledge and expertise of the team you work with. Good employee retention rate not only saves time and money, but also brings knowledge, expertise which are offered by employees.
There are different reasons why employees think about changing their job. However, the goal of the company must be to keep them. Employee retention tools significantly levels up the retention rate. The more satisfied an employee feels in the company, the better performance he/she will show.
