Organizations are facing immense economic pressure to sustain themselves. It’s a fact that retaining existing but talented employees takes around 3 times less effort than recruiting new candidates. After all, if finding potential employees is tough, finding the talented cream is tougher! Employee retention is an exercise to prevent talented employees from quitting an organization as they are assets to the organization.
The 5 most critical strategies to retain employees are…
1: Proper retention begins by recruiting deserving candidates
Firstly, the employee retention process begins at the job application stage, reviewing to further levels of the recruitment process. As a leader, one should observe that candidates don’t just match the job description (JD) but can also gel with the organizational culture. Cultural fit is an essential point to ensure during the hiring process ideally through an assessment centre approach.
2: Parity between job description and the related tasks
When one hires candidates for a particular job and there is a mismatch of the related tasks with the initial job description, it’s never a win-win situation for all. The hired candidates reflect low productivity when they underperform on the given task. The seniors also have to spend their time polishing the recruited candidates. Ultimately, the entire organization’s man-days get wasted. For example, a content developer can’t perform the task of a web chat administrator. JDs can’t be too technical as they lead to such disparity! Hiring managers must clarify the expectations during interview rounds to avoid any misunderstanding at any later stage.
3: Provide competitive benefits
Thirdly, companies need to provide benefits to employees that have a competitive edge over industry rivals. The benefits should be something beyond immediate material gain to boost employee long-term retention. Had it been pre-pandemic days then one could have provided a performance-based sponsored trip to domestic or foreign destinations. In this post-pandemic era, one can provide a stock option or life insurance privilege. The absence of such creative beneficial ideas could make employees search for greener pastures.
4: Provide on-the-job skill development opportunity
One can provide the workforce with state-of-the-art Learning & Development programs on the latest technologies that don’t just come in handy for organizational tasks but also develop employees’ portfolios for their careers.
5: Earning trust through a people-centric culture
Lastly, one needs to earn the employee’s trust for retention through means of transparent communication, ethical leadership and providing a proper work-life balance. It is important to inquire by written or verbal communication about how much employees enjoy their job at the workplace. They should also never be overburdened with work. Permitting them with flexible work arrangements or load sharing can surely prevent burnout.
It’s highly understandable that as a leader, one needs to ensure that the organization’s employees are retained as the most valuable assets than just mere human resources. The strategies explained above will help not just in talent development but also to reach out openly and transparently towards the workforce. Undoubtedly, employee retention won’t remain a bone of contention for organizational growth and business sustainability.
