Effective Employee Retention Strategies

A common misconception when it comes to establishing retention strategies is that salary is the number one driver to retain staff. For some people this may ring true, but would account for the minority of the Australian workforce. It is worthwhile considering the many other factors which make employees feel good or bad about their roles.

Commonly employees cite the following reasons for being unhappy in a role and wanting to resign:

• Unhappy with the company culture and physical working environment
• Feeling under-appreciated
• Lack of support or tools to get the job done
• Little or no opportunity for career progression
• Inadequate compensation

Track retention

First and foremost, if you don’t track your company retention, you have no idea how well your current retention strategies are performing or where you could improve, this is especially important when you have worked so hard to recruit what you think are the right people in the first place. It’s best to get some reporting in place before any initiatives are introduced to your workplace as they could be either unnecessary or counter-productive.

Invest in training of senior staff

It’s no surprise that having good supervisors and managers goes hand in hand with retention. Steve Miranda, MD for the Center for Advanced HR Studies at Cornell University stated that “employees don’t quit jobs, they quit managers”. Whilst this might seem a little dramatic, it is essentially true; your employees’ primary relationship is with their supervisor, so by arming your supervisors with the knowledge and training needed to develop positive working relationships, you may be giving them the tools they need to retain your employees.

Hire the right people

Whilst traditional interviewing techniques are a great tool for developing an understanding of someone’s personality, there still needs to be a great importance placed on skills. Hiring someone with the right skills to do their job well is more likely to lead to a longer tenure.

Career Pathways

All employees want to strive for something more, and this will vary from person to person. Find a way to give each employee a tailored path to more responsibility, recognition and better salary. Everyone likes to feel a sense of accomplishment and have their minds challenged, working towards goals and making a difference to the business will increase their desire to stay and improve their sense of belonging.

Can you be flexible?

Too many rules will drive away great employees. In order to keep employees functioning at their most efficient, it’s important to offer a healthy work and life balance. Everyone has a life outside of the office, and excellent employers are able to accommodate some of the needs and responsibilities of their staff.

Re-evaluate the other benefits you offer

You may have an impressive list of other benefits your company offers, but if it’s not relevant to your employee demographic then you are likely missing the target completely. What is valuable to a business owner may not be relevant to your younger employees.

Stress

Facing stressful situations is a common driver to resign from a role. An excellent way to further retain staff is to give them the necessary training and tools to cope with stress.

The main challenge when establishing a retention strategy is firstly taking an honest look at your business and understanding why employees leave. The second part is finding ways to implement your strategies throughout your business to get them to stay.