The Great Resignation is far from over. According to a recent Bankrate survey
, approximately 55% of workers are expected to look for a new job in the coming year. To stop the talent drain, employers across the country have rushed to implement new measures to keep their employees engaged. However, despite their efforts, few employers have seen positive results. Here are a few reasons why:
- They don't look back before looking ahead. An effective retention strategy must first examine any pre-pandemic employee concerns. Embarking on a hiring spree without improving fundamental problems will only serve as a stopgap that will cost more in the long run. While employee issues vary vastly from company to company, poor leadership, low salaries, and unsustainable workloads tend to be the most common workplace challenges.?Too often, these employee matters are left up to individual teams to address. However, implementing company-wide measures helps increase employee confidence, equity, and job satisfaction. If one of your managers is known to create unhealthy work dynamics, fix it. If employee morale is low, figure out why and correct it. An organization's success depends heavily on employee engagement and trust. In the end, employees are more open to staying at their job if they genuinely believe their workplace culture will improve.
- They ignore workplace mental health. Poor employee mental health costs employers billions of dollars every year through high levels of stress and burnout, disengagement, absenteeism, and high turnover. Employees with mental health concerns will continue to struggle at work without the appropriate workplace supports and accommodations in place. All employees, including the 1 in 5 employees who live with a mental illness, deserve a psychologically safe and emotionally supportive work environment. Kickstart retention by establishing and funding an employee-led mental health resource group or committee. Empowering a diverse group of employees to identify the gaps and needs of their co-workers helps strengthen overall engagement and provides leadership with actionable insights that can pivot the course of employee retention.
- They think benefits alone are enough. Basic benefits were once the reason to stay at a company until retirement. Nowadays, benefits have become standard and are only a part of what entices an employee to stay. Regularly evaluating your benefits package will ensure you maximize your budget and pay for benefits your employees will actually use. For instance, benefits brokers like to include things like unmonitored wellness programs, discounts on theme park tickets, and vacation packages. However, few will benefit if you don't provide enough PTO, if salaries are below industry standards, or if they feel like they're jeopardizing their job by using personal time off. Instead, work with your mental health committee to identify ineffective benefits and consider perks like child care and college tuition reimbursement. Benefits with utility serve as personal development tools that employees can then utilize on the job and help to improve the quality of life at work and home. As a way to attract and keep top talent, employers across industries are being intentional in selecting perks. In the post-pandemic world, employee needs look different, and organizations must understand what employees value most.?
Mental Health America (MHA)'s Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health applications for our 2021-2022 cohort are now open! To make positive workplace mental health accessible to all employers, we significantly reduced the application cost and streamlined the entire process. Click here
to learn more about the Bell Seal, a one-of-a-kind certification that celebrates employers at the forefront of positive employee mental health and wellness.
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