HR Advisor had a great article yesterday about retention:
A recent survey states that one in three employees is likely to leave your company in the next 6 months. That number is staggering, and so is the cost it can have on your business. What’s worse is that projections don’t show this trend changing any time soon. As we discussed, between cash compensation and stock options, there are some ways to keep your talent on board.
Let’s be realistic. A small boost in pay or offering a few shares at a discount price won’t mean much if your employees are feeling stagnant. When a worker feels mired, he or she is more likely than ever to seek fresh employment. If that’s the case at your company, it’s more important than ever to consider new ways to keep your employees engaged.
Any retention package can be easily ignored by employees if they are not feeling engaged. It’s worse if they feel another job will keep them better engaged. Some employees are even willing to take pay cuts if it means they can find engagement at another company. So it’s no surprise that engagement has been shown to increase retention, especially when combined with other retention practices.
Some of the most successful types of engagement include:
- Gamification. This includes competitions, goal-setting exercises, performance rewards, success statistics, and status recognition. Studies have shown this type of approach to be very successful.
- A clear career path. Create a future for your employees. A survey by Mercer suggests that 78% of employees would stay with their current employer if they knew what their career path was.
- Trust. Lack of trust still causes many employees to leave. If you generate trust between your managers and employees, you’ll see fewer of them walk out the door. Recent trends show that transparency over cloak-and-dagger politics goes a long way.
- Recognition. Even the quiet employee likes to know he or she is doing a good job. A reminder through verbal communication or official recognition helps an employee to feel recognized.
- Background skills and talents. The same survey by Saba Software, Inc. reveals that 31% of employees felt that their employers did not recognize their background skills and talents—the things that they are good at that their current job doesn’t make use of. Allowing employees to make full use of their capabilities, if possible, can help them feel engaged.
The bottom line is that it is a battle for good talent out there. You have a major investment in the people you have now, and losing them costs much more than most people imagine when you factor in not only the costs of finding and hiring new people, but lost productivity as well. In fact, we have a great turnover calculator tool at Mitton Media. If you want a copy, give me a call at 713-594-1947
