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The Importance of Employee Retention

Every business invests time, money and resources into a recruitment programme, but may not invest the same into retaining and nurturing their new recruits. Investing in employee retention can deliver a great return through a committed and motivated workforce, with individuals feeling valued by your organisation.

Recruitment is just the starting point in creating an engaged and productive team. The next step is to retain new starters, as high employee turnover results in considerable costs both in terms of wasted time and lost productivity. Consider some of these tactics in an effort to retain your employees.

Offer a competitive benefits package that fits employee needs. Provision of health insurance and a pension plan are often seen as key to employee retention. But, other “perks” such as flexible working, go a long way to showing employees that you are invested in their work/life balance. More than ever before, it is easy to implement flexible/remote working as the upheavals of the past 8 months have demonstrated how successful it can be. Whilst it may not be for everyone it can be a quick win in demonstrating to an employee that they are trusted and their contribution to the business is valued.

Whilst it’s common practice to perform an exit interview and ask reasons for leaving, have you considered talking with those employees that don’t leave. Try asking why they stay with your organisation and what, if anything, would make them leave?   What would they change or improve if they could?  This information can then be utilised to strengthen your employee retention strategies.

Promote from within whenever possible and nurture employee development. An employee may become frustrated and stop trying if they can see no clear future for themselves within your organisation. Put career planning and succession planning processes in place and develop the right people to be in the right place when needed.

Make sure employees know what is expected of them. If they don’t know exactly what their job entails and what is required, they cannot perform up to the expected standard and, as a result, morale can suffer. Regular reviews of performance and identification of training needs can also help cement understanding of individual roles and responsibilities.

And, let’s not forget about on-boarding. The first few weeks are a critical period for you to engage with your new starters. They are forming their first impressions and deciding whether or not they’ve made the right decision to work for your organisation. Good recruitment and on-boarding practices, plus ongoing efforts toward employee retention, will ensure that you not only recruit the right people for your organisation, but also maintain a long, productive and mutually beneficial relationship.

The ichris Human Capital Management product suite from Frontier Software delivers flexible and intuitive tools to help you recruit, nurture, reward and manage your employees. With easy to use interfaces, anytime access and real time reporting of data, ichris supports you at every stage of the employee lifecycle. Data can be extracted in a variety of formats and emailed to relevant parties on a schedule to suit you; ensuring that strategies for workforce planning and employee retention are efficiently recorded, managed and monitored.


Article originally published on HR Grapevine November 2020.