Does your business have strategies in place to keep employees happy and motivated?
The estimated cost of replacing an employee is as much as 33% of their annual salary. While this impacts a company financially, the high turnover rate can also affect morale, decrease productivity and diminish your company’s reputation. It also takes your HR department time and effort to recruit, onboard and train new employees.
With the Great Resignation expected to continue into 2022, it is more important to put strategies in place to ensure your employees feel valued and appreciated.
Enable Employees to Grow Professionally
Build a learning and development program internally or provide employees with a stipend and time off to learn a new skill or earn a new certification that helps them grow professionally. Lack of career advancement opportunities and skill development are two of the main reasons employees will leave for new opportunities. Start a workplace mentorship program that allows young professionals to connect with seasoned employees in the industry to help them grow and obtain leadership skills. This is also an opportunity to build a program that helps mentor managers for your organization.
Providing employees with the right tools and programs shows them that you support their professional growth as well as an environment where employees of all levels can succeed.
Offer Competitive Benefits and Pay
Since the pandemic started, 62% of employees now feel employee benefits are more important when selecting or staying at a job. It is important that you are offering employees a benefits package that provides a variety of resources for their physical and mental health. Employees want benefits that will ensure they are covered in case of unexpected health emergencies.
Many companies are offering their employees more than just medical, dental and vision. Additionally, 60% of employees are interested in their employer providing a wider mix of non-medical benefits that they can choose from on their own. Offering voluntary benefits allows employees to build their own benefits to fit their current needs and provides employers with options of minimal costs. Benchmarking can assist in comparing your businesses’ benefits, pay and perks with competitors’ offerings, allowing you a look into what employees in the workforce are looking for from their employers.
Check out some new benefits that are trending for 2022 HERE.
Effectively Onboard New Employees
Retaining a new employee starts at onboarding your company takes time and money to hire the right candidates, and the onboarding process is the first experience they have with your business.
Did you know 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding?
Invest in the proper technology that can onboard new employees efficiently and effectively. Take time during the onboarding process to introduce employees to the departments in the company that they will be working closely with and make them feel welcomed and a part of the team from the very beginning.
Give and Receive Feedback
Are you checking in with employees on a regular basis? Supporting conversations between managers and employees, as well as reaching out to employees with surveys or one-on-ones can help you gain a pulse on employees’ attitudes toward your company and the culture. These conversations allow you to collect feedback and act on smaller issues before they become bigger issues that cause an employee to leave.
What feedback are employees giving during their exit interviews? By this point you can’t retain that employee, but their feedback could be valuable in preventing others from leaving for similar reasons.
Recognize Employee Successes
We all want to feel appreciated for the work we do. Often, employees feel their work goes unnoticed, and lack of recognition seems to play a part in why talented employees quit.
Celebrating employee successes does not need to be a large investment. It can be as simple as sending a company-wide email out recognizing a project or task that an employee has worked on or a monthly announcement celebrating milestone anniversaries.
You can also practice employee appreciation and build culture by providing employees with a small gift or hosting appreciation events.
Put these employee retention strategies to work today.
While all these strategies help create a positive work environment for employees, it is crucial to identify the root causes of employee turnover to develop a tailored action plan for retention.
There are many cost-effective practices that you can put into place immediately and build upon in the future. Not only will current employees appreciate the practices you put into place, but it can also help attract future industry talent in a competitive job market.
If you would like to learn more about increasing employee retention, benchmarking, or expanding your benefits packages, contact our team today.
Sources:
https://www.benefitnews.com/news/avoidable-turnover-costing-employers-big
https://www.metlife.com/employee-benefit-trends/metlife-expat-ebts-2021/
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/dont-underestimate-the-importance-of-effective-onboarding.aspx