Employee Retention: How to Prevent Your Best Employees from Leaving

In this highly competitive world where there is a race going on between recruiters to hire top talent you are lucky if you have the best talent working in your organization. But, only hiring them is not enough. There was a time, when, as a recruiter you could relax after hiring a talented candidate. Today, if you do not adopt retention techniques, then there is a huge possibility of them leaving your organization for better prospects.

According to the 2015 Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study, 45 percent of employees surveyed would switch jobs, even though they are satisfied with their current one. This change can be attributed to the largely dominated, candidate driven recruitment market.

The employee retention part has now become quite critical. It can make or break the reputation of your organization. If you look at the best workplaces across the globe, there are three things that help them retain top talent in their organization:

• Lot of freedom to make decisions
• Great communication across the organization
• A culture that encourages employees to grow as both professionals and human beings.

These three things if applied in your organization can give you a competitive advantage in retaining top talent in the long run. Along with these there are some other tips that will prevent your top employees from leaving the organization. Let us look at them.

1. Give freedom to the employees while conducting their jobs

It has been observed that employees thrive in an Entrepreneurial setting which makes them more invested in an organization. This means that you need to give them more freedom and ownership in their job. For example; if your graphic designer wants the freedom to access internet without any restriction, you need to ensure that he/she gets it. Here, the designer is looking to freely access internet to research on the different images to come up with creative representations. If this freedom is not given to them chances are they will leave the organization as their creative necessities are not being fulfilled.

2. Make the job a pleasurable activity for the employees

This is a very important thing as most of the employees leave an organization when they feel that the work is no longer a pleasurable activity for them. Try to make the employee’s work more enjoyable and fun-filled by highlighting the beneficial work elements of the job. For example, if a highly talented finance personnel is planning to leave your organization to pursue a teaching career, you need to co-craft a role for them in such a way that a third part of their job involves teaching cross-functional partners the basics of finance and how to work with people in finance. This creates a win-win situation for both.

3. Be consistent while following employee policies and your expectations from your employees

Employees often leave an organization where there are unclear rules and expectations. On top of this, if you are not consistent in the application of the established rules and policies it is a red flag for the employees. For example; if you reprimand an office clerk for abusing an office property while a manager gets away for the same act it will cause dissatisfaction amongst lower level executives. This makes them feel unsure about their footing in the organization and creates a divide between junior and senior management. This is probably one of the major reasons for employees to join or actively petition to form unions too.

4. Appreciate the efforts of your employees

It is a very simple thing, but if implemented properly can make heaps of difference. Recognizing the efforts and achievement of your employees is a great practice for a manager. The recognition can depend a lot on the achievement and the person in question. You can consider a pay raise, a bonus, gym membership, giving them a day off, offering a coupon to a local spa, additional vacation days, an affordable insurance or a simple pat on the back for a job well done. Most of the times, employees feel appreciated when they are recognized for the efforts put in during the work which is a great incentive for them to continue for a longer period of time.

5. Create growth opportunities for career progression

One of the major reasons for employees to look for employment elsewhere is due to lack of career progression. Everyone wants to progress in their job. This makes the case for promotions. If your organization is small without much scope for promotion, the next best thing to do is to expand the responsibilities of the employee or diversify their role to enhance their skill sets and experience.

6. Communicate with the employees frequently and show them your respect

This is a very important tip as most of the time employees complain that their superiors or HR professionals in their organization do not communicate with them often. The best way to deal with this situation is by actively communicating with the employees and seeking their inputs and ideas for improvement.

Never talk about one employee to another as it can erode your trust in the eyes of that employee and he/she will think that you are talking behind their back. But, you can always discuss about a particular employee with other managers in order to improve their performance.

Always show respect to the individual by following up sincerely on any questions, emails and complaints raised by the employee with genuine concern and care. Never ignore or treat the employee concerns as irrelevant.

7. Never overwork your employees

This is the last tip, but often, the most important one. Employees do not want to work in an organization for a longer period of time where they are consistently overburdened with work. Keeping them busy is fine, but there is a very thin line of demarcation between keeping employees busy and overburdening them with work.

There are different ways to improve the efficiency of an individual but, giving more work is not the smartest thing to do. If you set unrealistic timelines and goals it will make the employees find another job. It is one of the ways that makes your employees feel that they are being punished for emphasizing quality over quantity.

Always have a stress-free work environment that makes your employees give their best output in terms of quantity and quality which will not only enhance their productivity, but will also make them stay in your organization for a very long time.

Conclusion

There will be times when even after trying the tips given in this blog you are not able to stop your top employees from leaving the organization. This is can be due to the fact that sometimes the opportunity that they have in hand is too good to pass. But, still there are plenty of things that you can do to improve the employee retention rates in your organization. Put these tips into practice and ensure that your top talent stays with your organization for the longest possible time.

Note :- This article was originally published on – https://www.talentnow.com/employee-retention-how-to-prevent-your-best-employees-from-leaving/