What’s worker retention? 10 practical worker retention suggestions

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Within the wake of the Great Resignation, worker retention has turn into a priority for all corporations.

And we do mean all. Manpower Group’s survey of 40,000 employers in 41 countries revealed that 75% of companies – three in 4 – face immediate talent shortage challenges in 2024.

As a manager or people leader, you may’t afford to let good people walk.

Nevertheless, the accelerated shift to hybrid and distant work has rendered many classic worker retention strategies useless. Retention strategies for in-office employees have even modified.  

Why?

Because what employees value in a workplace has modified. 

We want to rethink – and rebuild – worker retention. That starts with asking a fundamental query: “What’s worker retention?”

Table of Contents

What’s worker retention?

Worker retention is when people select to stick with their current company and don’t search for other opportunities. 

Retention is greater than merely keeping employees. It encompasses all of the strategies an organization uses to interact employees in order that they are loyal and engaged.

From this angle, the query “What’s worker retention?” takes on a brand new meaning.

It ceases to mean ‘offering incentives to stop people quitting’ and starts to appear to be ‘making a culture where persons are engaged, motivated and thriving.’ 

How do you measure worker retention?

Worker retention tends to be measured through turnover. That’s the number of individuals leaving the corporate in a given period. 

Nevertheless, turnover is only one metric to measure worker retention. There are greater than 10 ways to trace your team’s retention performance. 

The main focus isn’t all the time on the ultimate act. 

Worker retention is complex and private, but with deep roots that managers can nourish.

As an alternative, you may measure worker retention by examining positive signals reminiscent of promotion rates, worker development and tenure of high performers.

What’s worker retention? 

It’s your worker who chooses to remain when a competitor offers them a job.

It’s someone recommending their company, services or products to family and friends. 

It’s a multifaceted people management strategy, culminating in an engaged workforce that collaborates and achieves shared goals.

Worker retention is all of those scenarios, not only turnover. 

Why is worker retention essential?

Worker retention is fast becoming a major competitive differentiator. 

There are a couple of key reasons for this. 

1. Turnover

The typical cost to switch an worker is between 33% and 200% of their salary. This counts direct hiring expenses (recruiters, job ads, interviewing time, equipment, software) and indirect expenses (training time, low initial productivity, dented team morale). 

The associated fee of turnover could be higher for senior and long-term employees. Nevertheless, frontline employees directly impact customer satisfaction and repair standards, so you may’t discount their importance.

2. Talent shortage

Consulting firm Korn Ferry thinks the worldwide talent shortage may lead to $8.5 trillion in unrealized revenue by the top of this decade. 

In 2024 alone, 42% of COOs see frontline labor shortages as a major challenge, and 35% of CEOs expect labor shortages to disrupt their business strategy.

These figures are especially daunting in a globalized and increasingly remote-centric job market. 

3. Productivity

Worker retention – that’s, motivating and interesting good people in order that they’re focused and never searching for jobs – has a major effect on productivity.

Recent research from Gallup suggests that engaged employees are 18% more productive and 23% more profitable. Firms with high engagement rates see 18-43% less turnover.

4. Publicity

Employees leaving your organization on a sour note could be destructive to your organization’s repute. 

It’s easy for potential candidates to make use of employer review sites or social media to search out anything negative that has been said in regards to the organization. 

Some turnover is natural. Nevertheless, it’s as much as corporations to make sure they part with employees on good terms. 

10 practical worker retention strategies

1. Recruitment and onboarding

Worker retention begins in recruitment. 

Setting the appropriate expectations and understanding your potential hires’ priorities on the interview stage ensures the connection starts on the appropriate foot. 

During onboarding, aim to transcend teaching a brand new worker in regards to the job and supply a transparent view of company culture. 

This isn’t all the time as much as you alone.

• Mentorship programs pair recent hires with current employees.
• Cross-departmental projects actively fight team silos and introduce recent hires to colleagues outside their immediate team.
• Socialization programs create shared learning experiences to reinforce team culture amongst recent employees.

Effective onboarding helps recent staff feel integrated and ready for achievement. 

2. Worker engagement

Engaged employees are obsessed with their work. They take pride of their organization. They’re more loyal to their employer and more prone to advocate for the corporate.

Gallup found that corporations with highly engaged workforces see 18% to 43% lower turnover, depending on whether or not they’re in a high or low-turnover industry.

There are a lot of ways to enhance worker engagement. Several overlap with other strategies mentioned here, reminiscent of recognition, work-life balance, remuneration and development.

Ultimately, if you happen to take one thing away from our guide to worker retention, let it’s this.

What’s worker retention? It’s worker engagement – a sustained, deliberate and personalized effort to supply employees with an awesome place to work.

3. Recognition

Worker recognition is one among your strongest retention strategies as a manager. 

In a 2022 study, Gallup and Workhuman found that employees who feel recognized are 56% less prone to be searching for one other job and 5x more prone to feel connected to company culture.

It’s an unlucky by-product of distant work that employees feel disconnected and distant from their corporations.

Recognition reels them back in.

This goes double for anyone managing distant employees. 

Just keep in mind that traditional strategies don’t all the time translate to distant teams. Our guide to distant worker recognition goes into more detail on this.

4. Training and development

LinkedIn’s research suggests that 94% of employees could be more loyal to an organization that invests of their development.

You may’t argue with figures like that.

Training is seen as an investment in employees’ careers, enhancing their morale and loyalty.

Provide opportunities for workers to grow and develop in ways which can be meaningful to them. 

For instance, if someone in your team shows a specific interest in data evaluation, consider whether providing training on a visualization tool may benefit the business and keep the worker engaged.

Or if one among your team all the time takes the lead in projects, you would possibly pair them with a mentor to develop their leadership skills. In addition to seeing a future with the corporate, your worker will know that you just recognize their potential.

5. Compensation

Money isn’t every little thing, but competitive compensation remains to be essential, especially in the present cost-of-living crisis. 

Employees must feel that their contributions are valued. Recurrently review and adjust salaries to align with market rates. If money is tight for raises, consider alternative compensation. 

For instance, you may offer advantages and perks like retention bonuses, extra vacation time, medical insurance, defined profit plan payouts or tuition reimbursement. 

6. Flexibility

An estimated 4 million workers within the UK have job-hopped because of an absence of flexibility. Half of those profession moves happened in 2023. 

The situation is analogous in most large economies, but flexibility is an especially hot topic within the UK. As we speak, recent laws is coming into effect that makes flexible working requests a day-one right.

Flexibility doesn’t need to mean fully distant or free-for-all hybrid schedules. It could mean:

• Flexitime.
• Annualized hours.
• Optional distant work days/weeks/months.
• Job-sharing.
• Compressed hours.

It’s best to work with employees to search out out what flexible working means to them.

7. Leadership

You may have heard that individuals don’t quit jobs, they quit managers.

Whether this remains to be true in 2024 is debatable. Nevertheless, effective management is undeniably crucial for retention.

If you wish to know what worker retention is, it’s a manager who communicates clearly, provides frequent feedback, appreciates exemplary work and supports employees who need assistance.

All these leadership qualities, set in a framework of shared goals, keep your employees connected, motivated and engaged.

8. Work-life balance

Latest research shows that 8 in 10 employees are on the point of burnout in 2024. 

The underlying reasons vary, with 40% feeling exhausted, 43% experiencing financial difficulty, and 37% unable to administer an enormous workload.

It’s as much as you as a manager to look at for the warning signs of burnout. 

These include working extra time too often, logging on during nights and weekends, missing work without a proof, or declining performance.

From there, you may work along with your team to set healthy boundaries or rebalance workloads. 

9. Tools and equipment

The suitable tools empower worker autonomy and minimize stress, especially in a distant environment.

Particularly, goal tools that solve the unique challenges of distant work:

• Project management tools provide visibility over work-in-progress.
• Time tracking gives employees ownership over their productivity and provides managers with peace of mind.
• Communication and collaboration tools keep teams connected wherever they work.
• Workforce analytics provides a central source of truth for productivity, scheduling, work-life balance and effective use of time.

Our tip is to search for tools that integrate seamlessly.

10. Wellness programs

In a world of sky-high stress, increasing costs and rampant burnout, 93% of staff consider wellbeing is as essential as their salary. Research from 2024 shows 87% would consider leaving an organization that doesn’t concentrate on wellbeing. 

Implementing wellness initiatives boosts morale, reduces absenteeism and lightens the burden of healthcare costs.

In response to a 2023 Gympass survey of two,000+ HR leaders, corporations with effective wellness programs are thriving:

• 85% saw a discount in talent management costs
• 78% saw a decrease in healthcare costs
• 90% saw positive wellness returns

Workplace wellness programs can promote physical, mental and even financial health.

Start by surveying your team to gauge their wellness needs. This means that you can tailor this system to maximise participation and impact.

From there, develop a comprehensive wellness program that gives options catering to diverse worker interests and wishes.

Be sure the programs are accessible, equitable and personalized. Measure participation and track the effect in metrics like absenteeism, productivity and turnover.

How workforce analytics helps with worker retention

Worker retention is likely to be complex, but you don’t have to ‘whack every mole’ directly. 

A strategic approach based on clear targets and well-defined business problems is simpler in the long term.

For instance, if employees report feeling burned out, start monitoring work-life balance signals to see where you may adjust workloads and set boundaries.

If people seem disconnected or disinterested, check in with their every day habits to discover distractions or streamline frustrating processes.

In the event that they want flexibility, you may provide it without losing visibility over how employees spend their time, due to real-time productivity dashboards.

• Discover high-performers and quiet achievers
• Provide autonomy through self-managed schedules
• Track progress toward team goals to foster a shared sense of purpose
• Give frequent, meaningful and personalized feedback
• Support employees who need guidance
• Discover training and development opportunities

A final word on worker retention

There isn’t a easy answer to the query, “What’s worker retention?”

Similarly, there isn’t any silver bullet to extend retention.

It takes time to re-engage employees, rebalance workloads to stop burnout, and reassure people who they’re in the appropriate place.

None of those can occur without good data.

Identifying the basis reason behind worker retention issues, designing tailored strategies to interact your team, and measuring the outcomes of your efforts requires a holistic and integrated workforce analytics system.In the event you currently have a strategy to track turnover, that is start. But take it from us: the actual insight resides in workforce analytics data.