A recent study by the American Management Association (AMA)
revealed the average cost for employee turnover to be about 30
percent of an employee’s salary. Turnover is not only costly
but can interrupt organizational objectives due to lost
expertise. It can impact productivity, employee morale and can
result in a loss of customers.
Now more than ever, businesses need to find ways to develop
and implement retention solutions to meet their workplace
needs. Employee retention takes energy, effort,
and resources. Employers must be creative and open to new
strategies to keep their employees from seeking employment
opportunities elsewhere. WORKFORCE CENTRAL FLORIDA (WCF)
offers some tips to guide employers along the way:
- Review your interviewing and hiring
practices. Analyze your hiring process and selection
systems. Interview potential new hires to ensure that you have a
good match between the candidate and your organization. Many
companies require a battery of assessments including behavior-based
testing and competency screening. Consider implementing a
new-hire orientation process, which provides employees with the
information, resources and tools to get them off to the best
start.
- Conduct assessments and surveys.First you need to
identify what is causing turnover in your organization, and
assessments will help you do just that. Surveys, small group
interviews, online questionnaires, focus groups, one-on-one
interviews and exit interviews are proven methods. Routinely
conducted assessments provide you with insight into existing
problems so you can make internal improvements to reduce turnover.
Knowing why your best employees stay with you and why some leave is
essential to developing effective retention solutions.
- Provide routine feedback. Employees desire feedback to
gauge their success not just during annual performance
reviews. Clearly communicate goals, roles and responsibilities
so expectations are understood and met. Employers should provide
ongoing, fair and objective feedback on performance. At a
minimum, feedback should be formally provided on a quarterly
basis. Coaching and feedback of this nature can impact
employee morale, productivity and mention retention.
- Implement effective training programs. Provide
opportunities for training, cross-training and career
advancement. Invest in sound management training to equip your
leaders with the necessary tools on engaging, managing and
retaining employees. Career development assistance helps keep
the employees engaged in their work and develops the employees
you’ll need in the future.
- Reward and recognition. Enable employees to balance
work and life by allowing flexible work schedules. Implement
an employee reward and recognition program. From a simple
thank-you note, to formal recognition programs that provide
monetary rewards to top-performers, these proven techniques will
ensure that employees feel valued, respected and
appreciated.
- Communication is key. Provide ongoing communication
throughout all organizational levels. Employees simply want to be
kept informed. Whenever possible, ask employees for input
about decisions that affect them. By doing so you are creating
a corporate culture that encourages employee
involvement.
- Be Competitive. Offer a competitive salary and
benefit package with components such as life insurance, disability
insurance and financial incentives. Analyze your competitors’
compensation packages and what they are doing to attract new
recruits. Remember that different benefits will be important
to different people; your package should appeal to the masses.
