Employee turnover is a fact of business. However, more than sixty percent of employee turnover is voluntary. That means that the majority of employees vote with their feet. If you’re a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) or are similarly responsible for employee retention, you need to keep your people invested in their jobs.
We looked at some of the leading research and perspective on employee retention and found that the words “engagement,” “recognition,” and “rewards” were always part of the mix.
So how do you get and keep employees engaged (and keep employees)? Let’s look at three strategies that will help.
Effective Employee Retention Strategies
Lesson One: Track Retention and Contributing Factors
The human resources and management giant ADP has a research division devoted to helping its client organizations get better results. That includes higher employee engagement and retention. They track forty attributes that can help keep—or lose—your best people. In general, the causes fall under the categories of job elements, how well your organizational structure works, compensation, and staff demographics.
If you want to increase employee retention, take a page from ADP’s book: Track it. Track employee retention and its contributing factors. You’ll want to note when there’s an uptick or downturn—and then figure out why.
The main causes of employees leaving vary by company, and you’ll be able to address some causes better than others depending on your business model. You might not be able to raise pay across the board, for instance. The idea is to zero in on the contributing factors that are most under your control, and take action.
Lesson Two: Offer Financial and Non-Financial Compensation and Benefits
ADP’s findings echo many others by noting that salary and wages are not the only employee retention tools available. Deloitte found that organizations with reward and recognition programs that increase employee engagement have voluntary turnover rates 31% lower than those that do not. The benefits of high employee engagement go beyond retention, too. Organizations with employees who are highly engaged with their work average twice the annual net income of those with less engaged employees, according to Aberdeen.
Here are five things you can do to increase employee engagement, loyalty, and retention:
- Create a positive corporate culture
- Manage employees well
- Recognize and reward them
- Offer flexible work environments
- Offer great benefits packages
Every member of your workforce should know about all of the benefits you provide. With recognition and rewards, you can tailor programs around specific results. A good engagement program will encourage call completions, customer satisfaction, or any other metrics and targets your organization wants to improve.
Selecting the right non-financial rewards is crucial to recognition and reward program success. No one wants cheap trinkets. You want your employees bragging about the rewards. Choose wisely, and the word will spread: “How did you get that jacket?” “Cool headphones—where’d you get ’em?” Seeing the rewards in person will help reinforce the program’s popularity and help you get better results.
Lesson Three: Provide a Clear Path to Recognition
Forbes posts regularly on the topic of employee retention. In a recent article, the business publication highlighted an often overlooked avenue for improving retention: recognition. As Forbes notes, “Not everyone can rise to CEO, but every employee can build skills. Find a way to recognize those skills and challenge employees to gain even more skills.”
The benefits of an effective recognition and reward program are clear for employers and employees alike. Employers get a team motivated to accomplish strategic goals and hit the metrics set out for them, while employees get public recognition and rewards they’ll want and talk about with colleagues. Everyone will benefit from increased employee engagement. And by recognizing effort and personal development, you encourage additional growth and job satisfaction.
If you structure your employee engagement program {Insert link to our SLP when ready} properly, with challenging but reachable goals that encourage the types of accomplishments you want to promote, your organization and employees will benefit. Your team will feel publicly acknowledged and praised, helping your company reach its strategic goals and hang on to its most valuable asset.
Getting Started
Inproma’s employee recognition and rewards programs are proven to improve employee engagement and are great tools for helping retain your best people. We customize programs to help achieve your organization’s strategic goals, and to get better results than financial compensation alone. If you need to improve employee engagement and retention, let’s talk.
