15 Smart Employee Retention Techniques in 2024
One of the most crucial problems managers face in this 21st century is finding a work culture that retains more employees. This challenge of retaining employees is threatening and very concerning.
The talent pool is ever replenishing, yet attracting these talents and keeping them along is not a walk in the park. It requires thoughtful strategies, solid corporate background, and maintenance of lots of Dos and Don’ts. To stay ahead of the competitors, it’s a prerequisite to establish itself as a business that has mastered employee retention techniques.
Why should you worry about employee retention?
The best employees leave their jobs for various reasons. You can't blame them for all reasons because everyone wants to get what they deserve. Unfortunately, employee retention has been a critical hiring problem for many years and is far from being solved. Here are four reasons to fix this problem.
1. Scratch on the Reputation of the Company
There’s no shortage of talents in the world. Still, there is a shortage in the number of organizations that keep attracting ‘highly talented’ individuals for their reputation to keep them well treated. So, regular employee layoffs or deliberate leaking of talents keeps people’s eyeballs rolling on your organization, and they make a conjecture that something is not going very well. This is a red spot on your corporate reputation.
2. Talents are Leaked out of the Company
It’s essential to retain employees because no one wants to lose the people who could strengthen your corporate reputation. Talented people get appreciation everywhere they step in, and they only think about leaving when they feel disgruntled in any organization. That’s how the talents are leaked out of any organization.
3. Involves a High Expense
When the worthwhile employees leave your organization, you face financial drawbacks too. Because when they leave, the money spent on their recruitment, training, and orientation flows outside the organization. The saddening part is that these ‘built-up employees’ would join your competitors and serve them with the skills and knowledge they gained from your organization. So, indirectly, you’re spending your hard-earned money for the betterment of your competitors!
4. New Talents are Demotivated to Apply for your Job
The layoff or intentional leave of the employees can put the organization’s image in jeopardy. The candidates waiting to join your organization as young blood will now rethink and reconsider. This is a significant blow to your reputation as you’re currently leading a company that can neither retain its old employee nor captivates the potential one.
15 Innovative Employee Retention Techniques in 2022
The world in 2022 is overwhelmingly quick and competitive. Successful companies aim to retain the best employees to minimize cost and maximize organizational functionality by keeping up with the pace of innovation and technological rush. Therefore, it’s essential to be thoughtful while recruiting and laying off, as your loss of talents could be others’ points of gain.
In this blog, we discuss 15 innovative and smart employee retention techniques that can benefit you as an organization owner or manager.
Recruiting suitable candidates in the first place
Four out of five employees leave the office premises for good because of the wrong decision to choose them during the recruitment process. So, making a reasonable decision while recruiting is wise for the recruiters. Assessment examinations during the recruitment process can give insights into the candidate’s ability and character. It’s important to be preemptive in the recruitment process to rip the reward of success in the future.
Don’t pick the Individualistic Guy; Choose a Team Player.
Collaboration is the buzz word revolves around the corporate spectrum. Team players are the ones who bring the accolades to the home. People who are individualistic and love to keep themselves aloof from the crowd might have hard times mixing up and, therefore, unable to unleash their full potential. On the other hand, team players are more likely to be manageable if you think of employee engagement. So, HR’s job is to ensure the inflow of the team players and group workers as they can do magic for the organization.
Show Respect to Organizational Diversity
Great companies of today’s age are above any prejudices irrespective of race, class, sex, language, ethnicity, etc. But the problem is when we focus microscopically, we see a lot of discrimination behind the scenes. Bullying in the workplace, inflicted on the racial and ethnic minorities, is not a very uncommon scene that is needed to be resolved.
The prevailing culture inside an organization can significantly impact the mind of the employees. If they find any particular issue that can contaminate the work culture, it will be enough for them to consider a permanent leave. You should worry about where the surroundings could exploit your employees. You should be remodeling the organizational culture, which will create a feeling of respect for the diversity prevailing inside the door.
Amazing Onboarding Experience
When the newly recruited employees step onto the office premises for the first time, you must make them feel at home from the words go. So, don’t hesitate to arrange an onboarding program that brings joy to the minds of the new employees. Don’t forget that you won’t get a second chance to create the first impression.
Make them accustomed to the work culture from the first day. A friendly and meaningful onboarding experience makes them feel worthy from the first day. This is a valuable technique if you contemplate retaining your employees in the long run.
Reasonable Salary and Benefits
It's pretty simple to comprehend that employees are attracted to higher salaries and better amenities. To retain employees in the long run, you must restructure the salary scheme, and you should be working hard to give them the intangible benefits that cross their hearts.
Make them feel that they are getting a justified salary and if they are performing better, consider a raise. Salaries, bonuses, and benefits are the things that attract the employees’ eyes in the first place. If they find them unreasonably low and narrow, they find the game over for themselves. So, be sensible and start working on improving the remuneration scheme.
Say ‘NO’ to Micromanagement.
This is a severe problem for any organization. But unfortunately, some managers can’t do anything but micromanage. They can’t help themselves but put their disbelief on the shoulder of the employees.
Lack of faith in the organization makes the employees feel like prisoners and what they want then is to escape the shackle of mistrust. Micromanagement is a grave issue in some of the world’s finest countries. To eliminate the problem, focus on building trust in the employees and being patient.
Be a Leader, not a Bossy Figure.
Treating the employees like brothers and sisters is a virtue that a few managers can master. Try to unleash your leadership capabilities, and don’t be judgmental all the time. A natural leader doesn’t expect everything to be perfect. But, he has the charisma to turn bad things around through proactive and preemptive techniques. Leaders enable the organization to survive in the long run, not the bosses. So, to retain employees, act as a leader, and be visionary.
Focus on Maintaining Work-life Balance
Focusing on creating a work-life balance is one of the crucial factors that a manager can contemplate. As a manager, your job is to find the imbalance in employees’ professional lives and personal lives. If you can make the employees feel that you are concerned about the fact and you’re working on making impactful progress, that’s enough to create a sense of trust in employees regarding the organization.
So, try to work hard on this aspect as maintaining the work-life balance is crucial for productivity. Employees might consider leaving the organization if they find their work-life balance is impaired due to your actions.
Recognize Employees’ Achievements
Naturally, we want to be recognized and congratulated for whatever we achieve in our professional and personal lives. We all love to see that his achievements are highlighted and acknowledged by our peers and surroundings.
So, as a manager, you are responsible for recognizing and celebrating your employees’ accomplishments. It will make them feel valued, and they will be more intent to extend their work-life in your company. What an easy way to retain employees!
Don’t Miss out on Acknowledging Employees’ Efforts.
Achieving something is excellent and worth praising, but not everyone becomes successful in a particular thing. But, again, that doesn’t mean only the winner put effort, and everyone else just watches the time flowing. So, being a manager, be sincere in acknowledging the efforts and diligence of your employees.
Some people are born with particular talents, and conducive surroundings can make them better with time. But other people who put effort into that might miss out on the chance to perform in higher stages which hinders them from enlisting themselves in the hall of fame. So, be respectful to the people's labor in work. It’s another beautiful way to retain them.
Applaud in Public, Criticize in Private
Commendations and Critics are essential in building up morale and strengthening employee ethics of working. Don’t be harsh on them in any circumstances. If you find blunders, ask them questions you need to clarify and be critical to them if required, but that should maintain certain secrecy.
But while in the office space or outside the office, you’re in the middle of people, don’t bring out the wrong side of your employees in any circumstances. Instead, try to praise them for whatever good they have brought to your organization. It’s an excellent way to retain them for an extended period and improve employee performance.
Let your Employees Become Creative.
Every single thing can have hundreds of ways to be done. A creative person always focuses on bringing changes in the work processes to make a work looks better and feels more effortless. Being a manager, you should encourage the employees to be creative.
Allowing some innovation means the creative individual can make everyone’s work-life better, and that would bring a sense of belongingness to his mind. In addition, an innovative employee who is free to apply his creativity in the workplace is less likely to leave the workplace for good.
Consider Bringing Change in Work Schedule.
Bringing changes in the work schedule is another good way to boost flexibility and retain employees. However, doing the monotonous task every day for a certain number of hours might hurt employee productivity, leading them to screw up in the middle of a project.
Being involved in decision-making could undoubtedly influence the management to alter the work schedule, eliminating monotony and bringing refreshed agility to work. A 9/80 work schedule might be a fantastic way to step into more restored work life. Additionally, you can invest in a workforce management platform and it will ensure you to have optimal schedules for employees, better customer service, and better operational efficiency.
ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan)
Thinking financially and bringing financial incentives into your plan to retain employees is sensible to give the plan a wise look. ESOP or employee stock ownership plan is a strategy closely related to corporate finance that helps employees get some ownership in the company they are working in. It motivates them to work harder to bring prosperity to the workplace that they ‘own’ (by heart or by stock!). This can be applied if retention is an issue written in the manager’s notebook.
A Sense of Belongingness is Necessary.
Employees working in your organization will be retained the day when they will feel like their home. Home is where the heart is. Tying employees’ hearts to the bondage of the workplace is a master tactic a few managers can execute. Be analytic to see where are lacking and where to plug the hole via mass repairment.
Be sincere and proactive in finding out the missing part of the workplace amenities that hinder attracting employees to stay longer. Creating a sense of belongingness, i.e., making employees feel at home, can be a genius technique to retain them for a long time.
Conclusion
Over the years, employee retention has become an issue for many world-beating companies. Managing the employees to work for you a bit longer is now a concern that can’t be dealt with overnight to see a result. Yet, the techniques mentioned above are proven and efficient enough to bring the desired effect if appropriately applied.
Furthermore, these techniques are the ones that can bring radical changes in the mindset of employees, and they will help you to change your outlook towards the organization that you are managing. So, sit tight, apply these employee retention techniques, and see your result!
Author:
