Employee recruiting is a dog-eat-dog industry, but what can get lost in the competition is the importance of employee retention. If your employee recruiting numbers are high but your employee retention numbers are low, you need to reevaluate your business.
Employee engagement is the key to business growth. If an employee is engaged and feels prideful about their workplace, they are much more likely to produce greater results. To this end, according to Forbes, only 15% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs. Additionally, disengagement costs the U.S. alone more than $550 billion in lost productivity each year.
But how can HR provide a better employee experience? How can you ensure that your employees stay engaged? Here are three surefire ways to ensure that your employee retention can remain as high as your employee recruiting.
Incentives and Rewards
The power of employee incentives cannot be understated. Employees give their time and efforts to their workplaces, so incentives can easily show that this is not in vain. Recognition goes further than most realize, and sometimes demonstrations as simple as “Good Job!” emails are enough to boost morale.
Beyond that, an incentives program can be a great way to keep employees engaged and constantly striving for recognition. A tiered points system can allow employees to always feel valued for something, even if they don’t win a “grand prize.” However, it is important to keep these systems realistic and in check, so as not to turn friendly competition toxic.
Rewards for hitting specific targets can be monetary or gift card-based. Bonuses are nice, but they are not a long-term solution. Again, small gestures go a long way. Any employee at any workplace will appreciate a free meal, so restaurant gift cards are always a safe bet.
At the end of the day, the reward itself is not what is most important. What is most important is consistency and ensuring that you are always recognizing even the smallest achievements of your employees. Consistency will always boost employee retention.
Check In and Train Often
In keeping with the theme of consistency, consistent check-ins and developmental opportunities are other helpful ways to keep employees engaged. Development opportunities can be stressed in the employee recruiting process, and are likely to peak the interests of prospective employees.
Consistent training and development opportunities will ensure that your team will always be properly set up for success. Informing your team of these development opportunities will make them feel like you always have their best interests at heart. Employees will always be more engaged with teams that want them to succeed.
Development starts with feedback, and employees today are always interested in where they stand with regard to job performance. By providing consistent — even weekly — feedback, employees can better themselves, which in turn will increase employee retention.
Checking in can be one-on-one in person, through internal communications channels or company-wide through messaging, offering additional feedback and training opportunities.
Listen!
Building upon the act of consistently providing employees with feedback, HR professionals can improve engagement by listening to employee feedback. Employee retention is all about having employees feel like they are valued. As such, what better way to prove their value than by showing them that their feedback matters to their company? This approach can also aid your organization in helping to address issues that had been heretofore unknown.
HR can invite feedback through monthly or quarterly anonymous surveys and other such tactics. However, the key to seeing the fruits of this labor is by demonstrably showing that you are listening.
Formal feedback channels will improve company culture. Additionally, you as an HR professional can also emphasize this aspect of your culture in your employee recruiting process.
Engagement = Retention
Some companies may be fine with “churn and burn,” but companies truly invested in themselves should be all-in on retention. According to recent studies, organizations with strong engagement exhibit a growth trajectory 2.5 times higher than companies with lower engagement.
Moreover, true to the “churn and burn” approach, only 85% of business leaders believe engagement is important. Shouldn’t that number be 100%? You as an HR professional can use these simple tools to keep your engagement high, and in doing, foster greater employee retention.
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