Employee retention is a critical issue facing today’s employers, as they compete for top talent in the newly-recovered global economy. With the cost of turnover estimated at between 1.5 and 2 
times an employee’s annual salary – plus such related soft costs as plummeting productivity and morale – it’s a serious threat with a resulting domino effect that hurts on many levels.
Effective retention starts with your hiring process and continues throughout a person’s tenure with your company. If your employees feel valued and excited about working at your organization and are fairly compensated, they won’t want to go elsewhere. Moreover, their commitment and enthusiasm will be evident to your customers.
Hire right to begin with.
Retention starts with identifying the right combination of skillset and cultural fit in job candidates. It’s also important to look for patterns of longevity in their work history.
- Look beyond a person’s resume. Have they stayed with previous employers through ups and downs? This speaks to loyalty, perseverance and engagement.
- Tweak your employment practices. The first stages are critical. Evaluate and optimize your approach to recruitment, hiring, orientation and onboarding.
Train and develop your workforce.
Employee education and development must be more than afterthoughts. Rather, they should be a core focus and an integral aspect of your culture and business strategy. Your commitment to training is accurately perceived by your workforce as an investment in their worth and is a powerful incentive for them to stay at your company.
Provide growth and advancement.
It’s your job as an effective leader to identify your employees’ unique talents and abilities and match them with their career goals. Then challenge them to grow and turn those aspirations into reality.
- The best performers always want to be learning. Continually find ways to teach employees new things that will not only benefit your company, but also help them advance.
- Promote from within. This provides people with clear, forward-looking paths to greater responsibility and compensation. It also sends the message that you value your employees and reward their business contributions.
You can never over-communicate.
Open communication between employees and managers helps foster a sense of community and shared purpose.
- It’s a two-way process. Hold regular meetings where employees can offer ideas and ask questions. Have an open-door policy, encouraging dialogue at all organizational levels without fear of repercussion.
- Reward and recognize. When you express your genuine appreciation, employees respect you and want to impress you even more. Utilize both ongoing, informal and more formalized “above and beyond” recognition strategies.
Offer the right compensation.
Assess your wage and benefit packages and be sure they’re tailored to the needs of individual employees. Salaries must be competitive, but the total picture is much larger.
- Find out what it takes to solidify retention. For some, it may be family health insurance, dental plans and on-site day care. Others may place a high priority on tuition reimbursement and discounts on gym memberships. Flexible scheduling and telecommuting continue to be among the most popular benefits that a company can offer.
Partnering with a specialized staffing expert can provide you with the resources and expertise you need to achieve your sourcing, hiring and retention goals. The PrideStaff Modesto team offers the service scope of a national recruitment firm along with the service level you’d expect from a local team. Contact us today to learn more.
