You’ve hired a golden employee, they’re productive, everyone on the team loves them and you can see loads of potential for your new candidate to rise through the ranks but how do you make sure your company is attractive enough to your best employees so that you can retain their talent?
Here are a few surprising truths about employee retention:
Recognition is Key
According to this report - recognition resulted in 50% less turnovers among new hires, with those being recognised for their efforts at a 13% turnover rate when compared to 30% in their unrecognised counterparts. Peer to peer recognition is as important, if not more, than recognition coming from top-level management and leadership. Allow your employees to nominate and highlight the excellence within your team – as it is them who sees the day to day achievements first hand.
Frequent and Honest Communication
In their document about their company culture, Netflix remark that “it is very important that managers communicate frequently with each of their team members about where they stand so surprises are rare. Also, it is safe for any employee at any time to check in with their manager by asking, “How hard would you work to change my mind if I were thinking of leaving?” In the tension between honesty and kindness, we lean into honesty. No matter how honest, though, we treat people with respect.”
Employee’s Like to Give Feedback
Ensuring employees are heard and their feedback is valuable to your organisation makes for a better more inclusive company culture. According to Salesforce, “Everyone should have a right to add value to meetings; no one should be made to feel invisible. If employees feel respected, they can be solid contributors to the company’s mission.”
Turnover is Expensive
Unsurprisingly, the cost of replacing people expends valuable resources and according to this article, the cost of replacing a highly skilled, highly efficient employee can exceed 200% of their annual salary. Business expenditure can be far better spent elsewhere. If you're battling with employee retention, it’s worthwhile spending some time and some resources figuring out where the problem lies before spending valuable profits on replacing them.
Millennials Will Leave
According to Bridge, 86% of millennials would leave their current position if career development and training are not offered. This is because, according to happiness and behaviour expert Paul Dolan, as humans we measure happiness by both pleasure and purpose over time. When millennial employees lack opportunity for growth and advancement, they’ll likely experience lower levels of happiness, overall.
Provide Opportunities for Progression
If there’s no opportunity for your employees to progress, there’s only one place they’re heading - the door. As employees pick up skills, experience and become specialised, they tend to seek out opportunities to be promoted into senior or leadership roles. Companies that have strong internal promotion structures tend to lead to stronger teams and happier employees.
At Staff Treats we help startups and SMEs retain their best employees through our reward and recognition program. Our portal offers everything from employee discounts, online GP consultations and salary sacrifice schemes. If you’re looking for ways to improve your employee retention, book a demo with us today.
