It’s being called “The Great Resignation” as millions of workers quit their jobs just as the economy started to gain momentum. Usually, an influx of voluntary resignation indicates a strong and healthy economy.
We all know that, unfortunately, that’s not the case this time.
There are multiple reasons (some would open up a whole political can of worms that we really don’t want to spill out) but regardless of the “why”, the most important thing to focus on is pinpointing the many various ways to boost retention rates across the board.
Three reasons retention is so important
1. Happy employees are loyal employees
It’s important to make sure your teams are happy in their work environment as it is directly correlated with their performance. An employee that is struggling with their performance could be struggling with something unseen, like personal finances or work/life balance.
2. Everyone wants to know that their work is beneficial
Morale depends on it, but it’s also crucial for management to ensure that everyone is staying encouraged and engaged. Positive feedback is the best feedback – an employee that feels like their work matters is one that is more likely to weather the economic storms beside the rest of the team.
3. It’s a lot more cost-efficient than finding and training new team members
Replacing an employee can easily cost about 50-60% of that salaried position. Yeah, that’s a lot of profit going out the door (literally). Then, consider that it will take a replacement up to 3-6 months to complete training and pick up where their predecessor left off. It’s not just about money, it’s about avoiding the dreaded time lag for training – even when shifting to an employee from another division of the company.
A recent retention study shows that 46 percent of respondents feel less connected to their company, and 42 percent say company culture has diminished since the start of the pandemic.
Sure, a pandemic is the best excuse to lose a bit of direction, but the key to getting back in the green (and/or staying there) is to pick up the pieces and reallocate them to build something better.
Something stronger.
That said, the company mission is a great place to begin as it can set the focus and goals for all other things within. It may be similar to pre-2020, but chances are very good that it will need a good alignment for a better balance in the current environment and beyond.
Gallup’s 7 stages of the employee life cycle are shown below, along with questions for consideration in each stage.
- Attract: What elements of our culture are we highlighting to attract top talent?
- Hire: Does our hiring process feel fair? Does our process pick stars?
- Onboard: Do we affirm the decision employees made to join us? Do new hires experience our values during the employee onboarding process?
- Engage: Do our employees show up every day enthusiastic and involved in their work? Do we build on strengths and purpose?
- Perform: Does each employee performance review seem fair and accurate? Are we driving expectations to higher levels?
- Develop: Do our top performers see a future with us? Do we offer flexible, personalized career paths? Do we continually coach career growth?
- Depart: Who are our talent competitors? Why does our best talent leave? Does our exit program create a positive experience?
The opportunity to minimize attrition is present throughout each stage, whether as a focus on current or future employees. It’s about creating positive experiences from recruiting to exit, and it can impact all team members. The opportunities are always there, they may just need to move closer to the top of the priority list.
Strategies to improve retention
The good new is that there are ways to minimize attrition rates, and they can be implemented throughout every stage of the employee life cycle.
Here is our cheat sheet on improving retention rates. We took the liberty of adding a couple of promo tips for a few of these, and we’ve got even more up our sleeve.
Each strategy should be absolutely intentional – it’s much better to be proactive than reactive as you only get one opportunity to retain your most valuable players!
You’ve likely heard us mention marketing kits a time or two. Their popularity within a business strategy skyrocketed in 2020 as everyone was working to find the best solution to connect with an entirely remote client base and workforce.
They were so effective that they’re staying around for a while.
Sure, they serve as a creative tool for a long-distance touchpoint, but the underlying benefit is based on a much more intentional yet somewhat unspoken strategy: RETENTION.
These kits, when done correctly, help to ensure longevity for top performers and maintain culture consistency throughout the workplace. No one needs additional volatility right now, nor do we ever want to lose all of the training and hands-on experience that we’ve invested into our most valuable resources.
Keeping the focus on the true MVPs…our employees…is the best retention tool on the market.
