If you’re an employer, there’s something that should be a big concern of yours - perhaps even bigger than sales, revenue, and ROI. And that’s employee retention.
A good employee retention strategy can help you maintain your workforce happy, engaged, and committed to your company’s mission and goals.
Why Employee Retention Seems More Complicated Today
In an article by Amy Adkins, millennials are defined as “the job-hopping generation”, explaining that today, 60% of millennials are open to new job opportunities, which is 15% higher than non-millennial workers.
Also, 21% of millennials claim to have switched jobs within the last year, which is 3x the number of non-millennials who have done the same.
All in all, millennials “show less willingness to stay in their current jobs”.
And since this generation was born between 1980 and 1996, it’s a big chunk of the workforce today.
In fact, according to Pew Research Center, millennials became the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, which means that roughly 35% of the American workforce are part of this generation.
This becomes concerning when we learn that the millennial turnover costs the U.S. economy approximately $30.5 billion annually.
According to Sharon Florentine, senior writer at CIO, “the costs of employee turnover are increasingly high — as much as 2.5 times an employee's salary depending on the role.”
There are also other softer costs to consider when an employee leaves, like lower levels of productivity, a decrease in engagement, cultural impact, and training costs for new employees.
So how can you as an employer keep your workforce happy and engaged?
Easy: with an amazing employee retention strategy!
Why You Need To Implement Employee Retention Strategies
In the end, your most valuable business asset will always be your employees.
They’re the ones who get the work done, ensuring that the machine’s gears keep on turning and that your numbers crunch out perfect.
And as we all know, top-tier talent is hard to get. But it’s even harder to maintain.
When it’s done right, employee retention strategies have amazing organizational benefits, like improved performance, higher productivity, increase in employee morale, better quality of work, and of course, a reduction in turnover.
7 Top Employee Retention Strategies For 2021
From providing amazing perks and competitive salaries to ensuring open communication to guarantee engagement, there are many ways to make sure your employees are happy.
These are our top 7 employee retention strategies for the upcoming year.
1. It All Starts With Recruitment
Hiring high-quality talent isn’t everything. You need to hire the right talent for your company.
You need to identify – from the screening and application process – which applicants match your company’s culture so that they will be engaged, happy, and committed.
In summary, you need to be able to find candidates who will stay the course. This is why at KP Staffing, we work extremely hard to ensure we find the right person for the right job.
2. Provide Paths To Advancement
And, frankly, a salary increase never hurt anyone, especially when it comes to retention!
In a nutshell, promotions are one of the best incentives to keep your employees happy.
A clear career path with motivating advancement is one of the best employee retention strategies out there.
3. Ongoing Education
Corporate training and scholarship support are both great employee retention strategies.
They show employees you care about their skill set and are willing to invest in the acquisition of new technologies, processes, or skills.
Also, bear in mind that many people wish they could deepen their current knowledge with a master’s degree or a particular course, aiding them there as an employer could be what makes an employee decide to stay with you for the long haul.
4. Perks Make The Difference
Benefits and perks have a huge role in keeping your employees healthy, happy, and above all, engaged.
And benefits can go a lot further than just healthcare coverage or vacation days.
Financial rewards whenever the company and the employee reach an expected performance goal (or even surpass it), flexible work schedules, availability to work from home, equal paid parental leave, daycare services, employee discounts, paid time off, yearly bonuses, and even a great cafeteria service are a few of the perks you can consider offering as a company.
5. Competitive Salaries
This one is a no-brainer.
This Glassdoor survey discovered that 45% of employees who resign do so because of salary. So yes. Money matters, whether we like it or not.
So a great employee retention strategy is to ensure your salaries are competitive.
6. Don’t Take Your Employees For Granted
Sadly, a good employee is easily taken for granted.
Be aware of employees who may not be openly complaining, but are quietly feeling burned out, exhausted, overworked, or frustrated with their workload and responsibilities.
“Some employees, because of their personality or nature, won’t even realize they are overworking themselves. Perhaps you don’t expect it of them, but they have a work ethic that demands a constant nose to the grindstone approach.”
Chad Halvorson, When I Work
It’s important to always keep these employees in mind, and be sure you are providing paid vacation, a random paid day off, or even address their pain points by implementing organizational changes.
And always have clear communication with your employees – a front door policy works best.
7. Watch Out For Your Managers
As the old saying goes: people leave managers, not jobs.
Many employees leave their jobs because of a bad manager, and not because of the company, products, or even job responsibilities.
So ensure you are providing thorough training for your managers in order to build leaders, not bosses.
Although there are many more employee retention strategies, we believe that these 7 are the most important ones.
They’re the ones that ensure you are giving your employees everything they need to be happy and engaged, from an amazing salary and great perks, to open communication to address any pain points.
At KP Staffing, we have been helping employers find the perfect candidate and employees find the perfect job for over three decades.
We understand the community, the going pay rates, and the challenges you face when recruiting new talent or looking for a new job.
So whether you’re a company in need of personnel or a job seeker, we know what you’re looking for, and we have the resources to find it.
Get in touch with us today, and let us help you find what you’re looking for.