By Leigh-Ann Athanasius
In today’s talent race, talent retention is a responsibility that extends much further than the HR Department. As an employer, you’re not only competing with other employers, but with the employees themselves as the barriers to self-employment/entrepreneurship continue to lower. The labour market is free flowing and highly competitive – both for workers and employers. So how can you reduce the likelihood of your top talent leaving you for ‘greener pastures’?
Salary and Benefits Audits
Assess your company’s salary rates often – the nature of today’s economy means that pay is a major driving factor as everyone tries to keep up with inflation, rising statutory deductions and overall increases in the cost of living. Ensure that your people are paid fair market rates so that you can take money off the table and focus on other aspects of retention that will help keep your staff with you.
However, if you are not able to compete with the salaries offered by competitors, then look at other benefits you are able to offer your employees. For example, the flexibility of a hybrid work environment may be more valuable to your team than a difference in salary. Many employees will consider all benefits when deciding whether or not to stay at an organisation so lean into the benefits like remote or hybrid work environments, leave days and other non-cash benefits. The idea is to make your organisation as conducive as possible to remain competitive with other employers in the industry.
Likewise, get your rewards and recognition (click the link to the left to read our article on rewards and recognition) right . Recognition is a powerful retention tool — but only when it feels genuine and personal. A generic “Employee of the Month” program that isn’t incentivised may lack the impact of tailored acknowledgments that reflect individual contributions.
Some examples include:
- Celebrating personal milestones, such as work anniversaries or certifications.
- Publicly recognising unique achievements during team meetings.
- Offering tailored rewards, such as additional time off for employees who value flexibility or development opportunities for those focused on growth.
The goal is to make employees feel seen and appreciated in ways that matter to them. By focusing on raising the base line in your compensation and benefits package beyond a salary increase, you can start competing with other companies in a more sustainable manner.
Customise Retention Efforts
Tailor your retention packages to the individuals rather than having a blanket approach to trying to retain your employees. What is it that the employee values? Be willing to adapt to employee’s unique career goals, work-life balance preferences and learning styles and you will be more likely to retain top talent. Additionally, you will attract top talent as your employer brand and reputation gets around the industry as a favourable organisation to work for.
Fully individualised retention plans can sound daunting depending on the size of your organisation, so an alternative is to cater the retention efforts to various segments of your workforce. For example:
- Different strategies could be applied to professionals at different stages of their careers i.e. entry level may be interested in mentorship while middle management may be interested in leadership opportunities.
- Pay attention to the priorities for the different generations of staff. Millennials may be motivated by better work-life balance whereas Gen-Z may be looking for purpose driven career growth.
- Developing life-event oriented benefits for your staff e.g. providing day-care for those with children, or study leave for those pursuing further studies.
By identifying and catering to these nuances, employers can provide what employees need most at specific points in their careers.
Invest in Development
Typically, when highly skilled people no longer feel challenged or that they are learning in their workplace, despite having enticing benefits packages, they will look for alternative opportunities. Therefore, career development is a critical pillar of retention. This is seen as particularly valuable to employees because it is an investment in their career as a whole and not just a benefit that they would enjoy while at your organisation. Some approaches include:
- Customised learning paths: Offer training that aligns with an employee’s career aspirations. This can easily be individualised as each employee will have different interests and growth goals within their career. Give your employees access to specialised courses and certifications that allow them to enhance their expertise.
- Mentorship programs: For a more internal approach, pair employees with mentors within the organisation who can provide personalised guidance. This gives the employees the chance to refine their growth within the organisation while developing a rapport with their colleagues. This also creates a sense of community within the company that may increase the likelihood of employees staying as they feel supported.
- Role flexibility: Allow employees to explore different departments or projects based on their skills and interests. By allowing employees to explore different departments or take on projects outside their usual scope, organisations can tap into hidden talents and keep work exciting and meaningful. This keeps employees engaged and shows them growth opportunities within the organisation which in turn will probably make them stay with the organisation longer.
While it may seem counter-intuitive to develop employees when there is the risk of them leaving, employees are more likely to stay where they feel their growth is being supported. All these new skills they are learning tend to be applied within their existing roles and further develop the company, so as a whole, they are worth investing in to keep your top talent engaged.
Understand Why There is a Turnover
To implement effective retention strategies, you first need to understand why employees leave. Conduct exit interviews to understand why people are leaving. Though we are encouraging having individualised retention programs, it is beneficial to have the general idea of why you have a turnover. If there is a common thread, then you know that is something that you can change that may help with overall retention within the organisation.
In the same vein, find out why people have stayed as long as they have. Everyone is always looking at why staff are leaving but it can be beneficial to know why people are actively choosing to stay. It gives you insight on what the positives of the organisation are from the employee perspective. These aspects can even be highlighted to attract new talent to your organisation.
During the recruitment season it is not only important to attract the right candidates to your organisation but also make sure that your top talent remains with you. Start by ensuring that your salaries and benefits are competitive and then look to individualising your retention efforts as best you can. The aim is to make your employees feel valued and increase the likelihood of them remaining at your organisation.
However, sometimes an employee may feel like it is simply time for them to move on despite your best efforts. In that case, a different way to look at the success of your retention efforts is whether or not former employees would refer your organisation to the top talent in their networks. Use your retention strategies to build a lasting relationship with your employees so that they will speak positively to your employer brand, and you can continue to leverage on their networks. Whichever way you look at retention, the goal is the same, to keep top talent at your organisation.