How to Improve Employee Retention

Employee retention in any organisation is critical. Every employee can be considered an asset who appreciates over time alongside their increase in productivity. Once an employee leaves a company, the value that they have built over that time is lost. Drawbacks of poor employee retention include erroneous investment of time and capital into an individual; a stunt in productivity and the associated costs of a new hiring cycle.

Why do employees leave?

According to research from the Society for Human Resource Management the five predominant reasons why employees leave are:

• Not enough challenge to their day to day work
• Lack of relationships with peers and managers
• Poor work/life balance
• Subjective employee performance metrics
• Lack of career progression opportunities

Methods for improving employee retention

Having identified the main reasons why employees leave their job, let's focus on some tips for overcoming these and improving employee retention.

Rewards and Recognition

There is a strong association between employee recognition and retention. Employees can quickly become disengaged if they feel they are being unnoticed. Acknowledging employees for their work generates a stronger emotional commitment to the organisation.

Every company should have a robust employee reward and recognition process and all employees should be able to participate. The process should have a clear set of information about behaviours that are being rewarded. Recognition should be closely linked to employee performance to promote behaviours that help the company grow.

Setting Clear Expecations

Managers and senior leadership often fail to communicate their expectations to their employees. This results in directionless, disengaged employees – a contributing factor to high employee turnover. One way to set clear expectations is through performance management software. A tool like PeopleGoal will simplify the feedback process, performance reviews and goal setting in your organisation, allowing you to focus on what's really important - communication.

Communicate a Clear Company Vision and Strategy

The better you communicate the company vision and strategy to the employees the more you will engage your employees. Especially when company growth is connected to employee progression. Make sure that your employees know the company goals and try to align their individual goals with organisational ones, so they can see exactly how they're contributing to the company's overall success.

Transparent Career Development

Having a clear roadmap of promotion for every employee gives everyone a clear path of goals to work towards. Employees will understand their position in the organisational hierarchy, and will know what they have to achieve in order to progress in the organisation.

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Our references for further reading:

Society for Human Resource Management: Research & Surveys