7 Things your Company can do to Retain Top Talent

Recruiting the right employees is only the starting point for creating a capable workforce. Often employees take the job because they are initially attracted by a competitive annual salary or benefits, but these reasons alone are not enough to keep them for long time.

So, how can you increase your employee retention rate?

In two words job satisfaction.

Managers should focus on creating a dialog with their employees, trying to understand their career goals and aspirations, but also setting up assignments and deliverables. Neglecting to know your employees’ professional ambitions, will impact your ability to tailor opportunities to meet their needs, and eventually you may lose them.

High employee turnover is costly but not just in terms of money, but less tangible terms such as knowledge lost with employee, the time to train, recruiting time and the overall productivity of your existing employees. It has been proven that to train a new employee to a base level takes an average 6.2 months – but that’s not a written guarantee.

So what can your company do to retain its talent?

• Lack of clarity about expectations.

  Engaged and satisfied employees need a clear idea of what their jobs entails and what their companies expect from them. It does not mean that responsibilities and duties cannot change, but when changes are made they should be communicate directly and clearly and come together with a specific framework which explains what is expected/needed from employees in term of tasks and responsibilities. Your great employees want to satisfy your expectations, but they need to know what they have to do to make that happen.

• Respect, recognise and reward.

  Monetary compensation and benefits are always a great incentive, but employees can look past that. Your employees will remember the way you made them feel more than things they receive. In order to retain talent, they need to feel valued, appreciated and respected for their good work. And feel that they are a good contribution to the company.

• Performance reviews.

  Thoughtful performance reviews help send the message that the company cares about the employee’s career. So it is important to discuss career goals, expectations and aspirations to ensure they know there is room to progress and grow. This is also a good occasion for conducting stay interviews with long-standing employees. The aim is understand the reasons why they choose to stay and a chance to understand the level of employee satisfaction and company climate. Their answers can help improve your strategy for retaining employees. It could be also helpful to define performance metrics for evaluating how much employees have contributed to achieving business goals.

• Support employee development.

  Help your talent exceed by providing necessary resources, specific tools or training for gaining a new job skills. Flexible learning options such as on-demand and mobile learning will help make sure that development resources are easily accessible for your people.

• Create a comfortable and honest work environment.

  Let employees speak honestly and openly within your company and listen to their ideas, suggestions and concerns about their job. Equally, treat your employees with the same transparency. Keep them updated on what is happening in the company, even if you need to communicate hitches or problems.

• Trust your employees.

  Encourage them to take more responsibilities and try to assist them with their tasks rather than manage them. Find a balance between giving your employees the control and the independence they need to complete their job.

• Hire from within.

  Organisations that have a policy to promote internally first, tend to generate more motivated staff and avoid disengagement. When new positions become available, let employees know that the company will initially consider promoting from within for the position, so they can apply if interested. Internal hiring presents positive aspects for both employees and employers: it creates growth opportunities and new challenges for your employees and as employers, you can save recruiting costs. An internal recruit will not need the same induction / orientation process, and far less training as they are already familiar with the company processes, goals, vision and ‘way of doing things’.