Employee retention is important to organizations in order to facilitate achieving a company’s goals and objectives. HR leaders consider improved retention a high priority over the next five years. Although retention is considered a priority, efforts to increase it have been stymied due to competing priorities and a lack of resources. The side effects of turnover are not only financially based, but are noticed in decreased productivity, knowledge loss, and a lowered morale.
Some interesting statistics on employee retention include:
- About 3 million Americans have QUIT their job each month since June 2017 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- 30% of employees leave a new job within the first 90 days of employment (Jobvite)
- 51% of employees are looking to leave their jobs (Gallup)
- Companies that support remote work have 25% lower employee turnover than companies that don’t (Owl Labs)
- 35% of employees report that they’d look for a new job if they did not receive a pay raise within the next year (Glassdoor)
- 44% of employees would consider taking a job with a different company for a raise of 20% or less (Gallup)
- 71% of retirees who returned to work originally retired due to a lack of flexibility in their work (Global Workplace Analytics)
With nearly one-third of employees leaving a new job within the first 90 days after starting a new position, it is important to understand the dynamics causing employees to quit. The top reason cited was that the day-to-day role was not what the employee expected. Other top reasons include: the employee had a bad experience that drove them away and the company culture lacked transparency.
Before addressing retention, the first step is to make sure that you hire the right employees—hire selectively. It is important to ensure that the new hire has the right skills for the position as well as being a good fit with the company culture, the manager, and the coworkers that they will interact with on a daily basis.
Once hired, onboarding and orientation activities will help to set new hires up for success. These activities can last for a few weeks or months depending on your organization. Aim to develop an onboarding process in which new staff members not only learn about the job but also the company culture and how they can contribute and thrive, with ongoing discussions, goals, and opportunities to address questions and issues.
Establish mentorship programs to pair a new employee with a mentor. The mentor can provide a wealth of knowledge and resources to the new employee while the new employee can offer a fresh viewpoint to the mentor (mentor should not be the supervisor).
Offering an attractive compensation package is essential in this competitive market. This includes salaries as well as bonuses, paid time off, health benefits, retirement plans, and other perks that distinguishes one workplace from another.
Work-life balance is important; burnout is a factor that impacts retention. What is your company’s culture? A healthy work-life balance is important and employees need to know that management understand its importance.
Employees like to feel that they have the possibility for advancement. Training and development programs send a message that the employer is interested in their career growth. It is import for managers to ask their direct reports about their career goals and determine how they can help them achieve their goals.
Providing opportunities for open communication and feedback is essential for employee retention. Direct reports need to feel that they can voice their ideas, questions, and concerns. In return, employees want management to be open and honest in their communication, especially feedback about their performance. Employees desire ongoing feedback about their performance.
Recognize accomplishments of both the individual employee and the team. This can be as simple as a thank-you note or as elaborate as setting up a group excursion. It is important to celebrate successes—to help employees feel engaged in their work environment
Employee retention matters; it is important to understand what is causing turnover within your organization. Employee exit interviews provide information that can help retain your remaining staff.
At WageWatch our compensation consultants are focused on your organization’s compensation needs and ready to help you ensure that your compensation programs are supporting your company’s business strategy and objectives. WageWatch also offers accurate, up-to-date benefit surveys, salary surveys and pay practices data that will allow you to stay current with the times. This information is highly beneficial in creating the best salary and benefits packages that meet or rival the industry standards. For more information on our services, including consulting, salary survey data, benefit survey data and market compensation reports, please call WageWatch at 888-330-9243 or contact us online.