The Great Resignation of 2021 hasn’t quit yet. According to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, another 4.5 million people quit their jobs in March 2022. Employers are searching for ways to increase employee retention. They want to retain (or even rehire) their top talent, but how can they possibly win the battle against “quitting” when it’s so trendy?
Here’s a little secret: Almost half of employees wish they’d never left their previous job.
A UKG study shows that nearly one in five employees didn’t have another job lined up before they quit and out of almost 2,000 surveyed, 43 percent admit to being better off at their old jobs. So what can you take away from these seemingly impulsive decisions by employees to exit? How can you improve your talent management capabilities, increase employee retention and optimize employee satisfaction and engagement?
It’s Not Just Another Place to Work
Increase employee retention by showing (and proving) that there is a future with your company. Give them a reason to stay. People tend to return to the place where they feel valued and respected. Here are five steps designed to help you create a better work culture and retain top talent in the workplace:
1. Create a Safe Space for Open and Honest Discussions
Employee surveys are valuable, but they should always be paired with one-on-one’s, stay interviews and meaningful conversations that build trust and camaraderie. The first step to preventing people from leaving is ensuring they feel comfortable coming to you with frustrations and concerns. You can’t fix what you don’t know about.
2. Actively Engage Employees
Unfortunately, many managers are saddled with so many competing responsibilities that it can be challenging to spend adequate time actively managing their people. Even the best managers need to spend more time having wellbeing discussions, career pathing and aligning business objectives with employee needs and contributions.
3. Foster a Supportive Environment
When talented people choose to migrate to what they perceive to be “greener pastures” or wish to expand their network by considering outside companies, be supportive of that decision. There are plenty of great opportunities out there and it should be acceptable for your employees to want to try and capitalize on them. When your people feel comfortable sharing outside ambitions with you, including job searches, that creates a level of trust that will never be forgotten.
Once an employee shares the desire to leave your company, you now have the immediate opportunity to show them why they should stay. If you find out through a letter of resignation that a top employee wants to make their exit, it leaves you with little to no time to change their mind.
There is also a very beneficial (and increasingly common) caveat to this: Should the new opportunity not pan out as expected, your previous employee may look to return to your company in the future.
Rehiring former (or “boomerang”) employees may feel unconventional, but it could provide a talent pool of team members you have experience with who could hit the ground running. The Harvard Business Review took a look at the performance of rehires, noting that, not surprisingly, their behavior and level of competency seems to remain consistent after being rehired. This could be good news or bad news, depending on your specific situation.
4. Make Impactful Changes in the Workplace
According to the previously mentioned UKG study, employees surveyed claim the following changes could have made all the difference in retaining them:
- Pay increase
- Promotion or title change
- Hiring more support
- Greater remote-work flexibility
- Greater independence in their role
While some of these fall outside the scope of a manager’s control, most of them are areas where managers can partner with leadership or human resources to bring about the desired changes. These types of changes could take time to implement and more often than not, you’ll find that employees will be satisfied with being updated on what it is you are doing behind the scenes on their behalf.
5. Ask for Help to Increase Employee Retention
There is no shame in admitting you’re bogged down with complex and time-consuming administrative tasks that prevent you from focusing on the bigger picture: your employees. Hiring an outside team of HR professionals experienced in human capital management (HCM) software to automate the following tasks can be beneficial to your organization:
Managing your day-to-day effectively shows employees that you not only value your time, but theirs as well.
Automate Your Workflow
Your most valuable asset is your employees. Increase employee retention by showing them you know exactly how important they are to your business. With Quanta HCM as your HR partner, tedious tasks are automated so that you can focus on employee satisfaction and culture.
Don’t spend too much time focusing on the back-end of your business.
Contact us today and experience seamless onboarding, top-notch workforce management and benefits administration with our custom-tailored HCM platform. Why wait?
