Employee Retention Has Never Been More Important
It has been a tough, couple of years in the labor market, but people are coming out of Covid with more aspirations than before. Not since World War II has a worldwide event had a greater impact on working lives. The pandemic spawned what’s been called the Great Resignation and the Great Reshuffle.
HR departments everywhere recognize this sea change has created a highly competitive job market in a constant state of flux. Employees are demanding a new work vision focused upon what matters. Many entrepreneurs, business owners and corporations can relate to the fact that businesses across the industry spectrum are struggling through challenges of hiring and retaining talent.
According to a recent study by QuestionPro Workforce and RADICL, 4 key indicators that are impacting people’s fulfillment at their work and lives are:
Only 47% of workers say they feel fulfilled with the life they’re living right now.
Salary is still key for attracting talent, with 50% of workers ranking salary as the number one factor when choosing a work opportunity.
Workers are ready for change: 73% of workers said the pandemic has given them courage to take actions on the changes they want to make in their lives.
When asked about being fully aligned with a company’s values: A third of workers (33%) said that the company would have to pay up to, or over 20% more compared to the offer where their values are truly aligned, and 16% said that there is no price, they would need to be fully aligned with a company’s values before they accepted their job offer.
How does a company work to align organizational values to those that there "would be" employees are seeking? The 3 key areas to push organizational and worker alignment include; recognition, reward, and promotion. Your workers that exemplify your organizational values should be recognized company-wide through public awards communications or small ceremonies. Recognition encourages others to seek it and you’ve already shown the significance of achieving organizational value alignment through recognition programs. You must be consistent in how you recognize your talent, or this aspect will ultimately fail.
Rewarding employees who are routinely and consistently displaying company values is another effective way to foster employees and their peers to strive towards your desired values. Small bonuses must be budgeted into each department to support and encourage leaders to identify, recognize and reward those exceeding expectations. Promoting your exemplary employees is another way to demonstrate to your workforce that aligning to company values is noticed and leads to future responsibility and benefits. Both these promotable and promoted employees represent the future of your business. I know some leaders are reading this and thinking they cannot afford these key activities, I assure you, this is much cheaper than the alternative.
Employee Benefit News (EBN) says it costs employers 33% of a departing worker's salary to onboard a replacement. The results of 34,000 exit interviews found that 75% of employee turnover was preventable. The top reasons respondents gave for leaving were; career development (22%), work-life balance (12%), managers' behavior (11%), compensation & benefits (9%) and well-being (9%). Remember before, that compensation was the number one reason workers gave for accepting an offer, but it is number four when it comes to retaining a worker.
The EBN study also highlighted indirect costs, or “productivity costs,” due to turnover. Indirect costs stem from knowledge lost when employees leave, the time spent finding a replacement and the time new hires need to become fully functional. So retaining employees, through recognition, reward (small bonuses or paid time off) and promotion, is a much less expensive alternative. It causes much less disruption to your business productivity as well.
