Employee Retention: A Blueprint for Improving Success

This is the first article in our three part series on the Blueprint for Retention!

PART ONE: Understanding the Current State

Many business organizations are facing significant workforce challenges, including high resignation and absenteeism rates, driven by job demands and systemic issues. Key factors include:

·???????? Burnout from long hours and schedule inflexibility affecting stress and mental health

·???????? Understaffing escalating workloads- leading to, longer shifts, and inadequate rest, all of which contribute to a spiraling cycle and higher resignation rates.

·???????? Dissatisfaction from inadequate compensation, to keep up with growing inflationary pressures.

·???????? The lack of learning, growth and career advancement opportunities

·???????? Poor management and negative workplace cultures further fuel resignations,

·???????? Difficulties in maintaining work-life balance

·???????? Lack of appreciation for feeling valued, i

Little to no autonomy, no purpose or meaning in work, safety on the workplace, working from home/hybrid models, costs of turnover....and more

In some cases the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues, intensifying stress, burnout, and safety worries, thus increasing resignations. Addressing these challenges necessitates systemic changes like better working conditions/manageable workloads, competitive pay, career development chances, improved workplace culture, and ensuring worker safety. However, before taking these actions, fundamental understandings of employee retention are crucial to create a foundation for developing effective programs.

The Psychological Contract

The?Psychological Contract?— the set of things that employees and employers believe they owe each other and are owed in return. Many of these beliefs are societal in scope. Others emerge from personal experiences on the job. But for the psychological contract to hold up, you need both?mutuality?(both parties have a shared understanding of expectations) and?reciprocity?(both parties believe they're getting a fair deal). Do that, and you generate the kind of trust and loyalty that leads to high productivity and low turnover. Fail to do that and —?well, that's where many organizations find themselves right now. A world in which the psychological contract is profoundly broken.

Determining your WHY

All organizations should assess and understand WHY IT IS IMPORTANT to retain their workforce talent:

Examples include:

·???????? One: Facing labor shortages in your sector for some labor skills (i.e. Nurses, trades, technical experts and developers) underscores the crucial need for improving employee turnover.

·???????? Two: Costs- Gallup places the value of a satisfactory replacement employee as equal to?one-half to two times the original employee's salary . As a result, if your business is struggling with employee retention, it can significantly affect your bottom line and damage your company's brand in the process.??It is currently estimated that average turnover rate for employees in all work sectors in 2023 was 15% to 20% annually.

·???????? Three: Loss of qualified skill and knowledge impacts business operations and customer service.

Without a strong commitment to address and improve employee retention it will be challenging to achieve organizational success. In a constantly changing workplace with increasing stresses and demands, employee retention requires constant diligence and a focused, shared responsibility to build the rewarding experiences and loyalty that leads to retention.

Defining Roles and Responsibilities

The truth is everyone has a role to play in employee retention, but everyone must know, engage with, and buy into their roles to achieve success. Too often people get busy with work and operational responsibilities and forget or overlook the people side of the business. Let’s take a closer look.

·???????? First, we have Owners and Senior Leaders: They set the vision and tone of the company, defining its culture and values. They also establish budgets and what resources they can commit to ensuring talent retention. They are also the ones that identify this is a priority for the company/organization. Without their strong commitment to talent retention, it will be difficult to achieve success.

·???????? Secondly, Human Resource Department: Responsible for retention strategy design and implementation, including talent acquisition, training, and development. They also play a key role on monitoring workforce trends, surveys, and feedback to determine issues and concerns.

·???????? Mid-Level Managers: They play a pivotal role in daily interactions and implementation of retention strategies and most importantly are in the strongest position to influence and impact almost all crucial employee retention drivers.

·???????? Employees. Managers, Human Resources and Executives are not mind readers. They do not directly know the unique, personal goals, needs, interests, frustrations, disconnects, negative emotions and feelings……. for each individual employee. There must be a process and forum for employees to express their needs and explain their challenges, in order to make improvements.? As well, senior executives cannot be continually creating new financial packages, benefits coverage or company wide programs to meet these needs and the employee has to have some accountability to work with their team and manager to build a desired workplace culture where they have input and are part of the solution.

NOTE: It is important to understand that when employees resign their careers it is NOT always based on financial compensation. There are many non-financial factors that are equally important, if not even more important. Factors such as culture, career growth, safety, rewarding work experiences, their relationship with their direct supervisor, purpose and meaning, feeling valued and appreciated……. and many more and personal needs that, if not met, often lead to dissatisfaction and resignation.?

Roles, Accountability and Ownership

Once the commitment to retaining talent is made, roles in the retention process must be defined and clarified so everyone understands this priority and is aware of the expectations and how they personally contribute to improved retention followed by what actions they need to take.

Senior leaders need to define their human capital plan and what values, behaviors and attitudes they want to cultivate. Then roles, expectations and goals need to be communicated throughout the organization to make sure everyone is on board.? Here we will focus on the management levels and departments as they are the key players in building culture, policy and values.

Building accountability and ownership of key roles in the employee retention process across different levels of an organization involves a multi-faceted approach that ensures everyone from senior leaders to mid-level managers plays an integral role in fostering a culture of retention. Here are strategies/examples to achieve this:

For Senior Leaders

o?? Establish Clear Expectations: Senior leaders should clearly define and communicate the importance of employee retention as a key organizational goal. Setting specific, measurable objectives related to retention rates can help in tracking progress and holding leaders accountable.

o?? Lead by Example: Leaders must embody the values and behaviors they wish to see throughout the organization. Demonstrating a commitment to employee well-being, development, and engagement can inspire similar actions among managers and staff.

o?? Incorporate Retention Metrics in Performance Reviews: Make retention rates a part of senior leaders' performance evaluations. By linking these metrics to their performance reviews and compensation, leaders are more likely to prioritize retention efforts actively.

For Human Resources

o?? Develop and Implement Retention Strategies: HR should be tasked with creating comprehensive retention programs that address key factors such as career development, recognition, and work-life balance. This includes regular employee surveys to gauge satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

o?? Training and Development: Provide training for managers on effective leadership, communication, and engagement strategies. HR can offer workshops or e-learning courses that focus on building a positive work environment and fostering employee growth.

o?? Monitor and Report on Retention: Regularly track turnover rates and analyze exit interview data to identify trends and problem areas. HR should report these findings to senior leadership and recommend action plans for improvement.

For Mid-Level Managers

o?? Empowerment and Responsibility: Empower managers with the authority and resources to address retention within their teams. This includes making decisions on recognition, team-building activities, and addressing individual employee needs.

o?? Encourage Ownership of Team Culture: Managers should be encouraged to develop a team culture that aligns with organizational values and supports retention. This can be achieved through regular team meetings, one-on-one check-ins, and open communication channels.

o?? Recognition and Reward: Train managers to recognize and reward employees' contributions effectively. Implementing peer recognition programs or regular feedback sessions can help reinforce positive behaviors and achievements.

By integrating these strategies, organizations can build a cohesive approach to employee retention that aligns the efforts of senior leaders, HR, and mid-level managers. This collective approach not only fosters accountability but also creates a shared responsibility for maintaining a positive, supportive work environment conducive to employee retention.

Secondly, there needs to be a way to measure how people are doing in their assigned roles and how employee retention is being affected. Goals and metrics to measure progress need to be established to track progress and understand where further improvements need o be made.

Typical Metrics Include:

1.????? Overall Turnover Rates

2.????? Reason for Departure (third party survey, exit interviews)

3.????? Involuntary Turtnover Rates

4.????? Voluntary Turnover Rates

5.????? Average Length of Tenure (i.e. # Months, # years)

6.????? Employee Satisfaction/Happiness/Engagement Surveys

7.????? Compensation Rate Comparisons (i.e.-Industry, job titles, skills)

8.????? Turnover rates across demographic categories (age, gender, ethnicity/race, roles)

9.????? Turnover rates per department and manager.

10.? Recruitment success (time to replace candidates, quality of hire, recruitment/hiring costs

11.? Turnover rates of High Performers/ Quality, Reliable Employees vs. Low Performers Or vs A Percentage of Total Turnover

12.? Operational challenges created by departures

13.? Onboarding Measurements- Quantify and Qualify by position, categorize length of tenure, job description, engagement levels, training support, recruiting policies

14.? Leadership effectiveness and how employees feel about the ability of their leaders/managers to lead ...

NOTE: As your employee retention programs and strategies progress it is crucial to have the detailed data required to make improvements to your employee retention programs.

This overview of the current state is designed to get you thinking.? What is and isn’t being done?? Where does the organization place value?? Continually focusing on hiring the best and brightest or a combination of well thought out retention policies combined with hiring great talent?? As you consider your own situation, we’re going to move to the ROI (cost impact) of employee turnover and whether developing solid retention strategies makes fiscal sense in the second of our three-part series.

If you would like to take advantage of our worksheet/exercise guide to help you determine how and why employee retention is important to your organization contact us and we will send you the exercise guide document.

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Need Your Managers to Play An Increased Role In Your Employee Retention?

Manage2Retain is pleased to announce a new workshop program designed to ensure mid-level managers play an active and successful role in the employee retention process!

• Manager-Employee disconnects are often cited as the # 1 reason why employees resign.
• “50% to 75% of employees leave because of their manager or reasons their manager has influence over.”

These results have been confirmed in several polls and research studies.

Common Disconnects:

1. Lack of Recognition/Appreciation
2. Micromanagement vs Needed Independence
3. Mis-Communication Challenges
4. Lack of Trust/Poor Relationship
5. ....and many more!

Learn more about this exciting new program and how it could help you ensure your mid-level managers cultivate the loyalty and relationships that generate improved retention.

Learn More and Register

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Want to build effective non-financial programs that retain talent?

Ask about our Retention Risk Analyzer and Business Case Calculator tools to determine potential risks of losing your talent and/or understanding the ROI from retention strategies.

Contact us. We can help! Schedule a no obligation discussion at our Calendly link (https://manage2retain.com/contact-us/ ) or email us at [email protected] .