Innovative Employee Retention Strategies for 2023
Innovative Employee Retention Strategies
Are my employees happy? Are they actively looking for a new job? What can I do to keep them around? All questions I would regularly ask myself as a manager.
Hiring great candidates is an important part to an organizations success but overall employee retention should also be a priority. Here are some practical and innovative employee retention strategies your business might want to look into.
Table of Contents:
- Innovative Employee Retention Strategies
- Employee Training and Development Plan
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What Are The Benefits Of Employee Development?
- Employee Retention Quotes
It’s every manager’s worst nightmare. Your best employee asks to “talk,” which is followed by a conversation about leaving for another company.
Great. Now what do you do?
Not only did your best employee leave, but you will likely take an expensive hit trying to replace them.
Chatter circulates around the office, with others wondering why they left. Contemplating if maybe they should be looking for another job as well.
Finding new talent in today’s economy is not easy when you know that skilled employees are in high demand. This is one of the many reasons why keeping ALL employees satisfied should be at the top of any employer’s list.
HOW TO RETAIN AND DEVELOP EMPLOYEES
Companies and organizations put a great amount of time, effort and investment into hiring the best employees possible. And while hiring top talent is great, some say it’s even better when such organizations invest in developing and retaining their current employees.
Highly talented and sought-after workers know they are in demand. If they receive a great offer, what’s holding them back?
With such a large investment going into these kinds of employees (insurance, benefits, etc.), losing them to another offer hurts the organization, and you’ll have to start the process of looking for great talent all over again.
So, how do you fix it?
Innovative Employee Retention Strategies
In order to retain your employees, you need a good employment retention strategy. These are the various rewards and benefits you can offer that will keep your employees interested in working for you for a long time to come. Good employee retention strategy should feature:
1. Training
Building on their skills and talent through training not only benefits the employee but also your company as a whole. Your employees will become more motivated to work and their productivity will increase in return.
Make sure you are preparing employees for the future of work by training them on up and coming technologies. “Automation will eliminate an estimated 73 million jobs by 2030” – McKinsey Global Institute.
While this stat might look terrifying for our future of work, history has also taught us that new technologies and advances also bring on new jobs. New positions you can train employees for!
2. Salary And Benefits
The most important factor people consider before accepting a job/position is the salary and benefits that come with the role. Employees want to feel that they are receiving value equivalent to what they are offering to your company.
As an employer, your employees’ salaries should reflect how much value they are adding to your company. You don’t need to pay them an overwhelming amount of money, but a payment worth the compensation of their time and energy should do the trick.
You can even take it a notch higher by giving them salary enticements, such as a raise, if they hit a certain target or after a certain period of time.
While deciding what salary they should be paid, clarify what is expected of them so their salary reflects how well they have aligned themselves to the goals of the company.
Benefits also play a large role in employee retention. These benefits can include health insurance, life insurance, paid holidays, maternal or paternal leave, a company car or anything else that would be relevant to the employee. The benefits need to be exceptional if you want to be competitive and retain your employees.
3. Employee Engagement
Every employee wants to work in a place where they feel valued and that their feedback is important. They want to be in a place where they feel their contribution to the business is important, where they have the freedom to express their opinions without fear of intimidation, and where the work environment is open and honest.
As an employer, you must meet and discuss their concerns and contributions, not just through chance encounters in the hall but during face-to-face discussions.
Engage and encourage them to come up with innovative ideas and solutions. Listen to their suggestions and always be available when your employee asks for guidance.
“A Business Review study found that an outlet to voice workers’ frustrations improved retention within an organization (voluntary leave was 20% lower within this group).”
— Harvard Business Review
4. Great Culture
Your employees need to be in an environment where they can grow, learn, and advance their career within the company. This is the kind of culture you need to create in your company.
This is best achieved by providing assistance for those looking to advance their education, giving employees challenging and stimulating work, and tapping into their passion, allowing them to focus their time and energy on projects they enjoy.
In addition, you need to create a culture where you positively reward your employees when they meet their goals.
One way of rewarding them is through monetary bonuses, But public recognition also gets the job done. Recognition builds employee loyalty and creates good will.
Employee retention requires you to make your talent feel appreciated, respected and worthwhile. When your employees feel undervalued or unappreciated, they will look for employment elsewhere.
It is also important to keep in mind that the praise must be sincere. Your employees are smart and can tell the difference. You need to create an environment that makes your employees feel like an asset. This can be as simple as saying hi when you see them and calling them by name.
This might seem trivial, but it shows your employee that you have taken time to know their name and that you value them as a part of your company.
Note: Retention and commitment require both sides to make an effort. If an employee isn’t willing to meet you half way, it might be time to move on from them.
Employee Development Plan
The need to train and develop your employees may come up due to a number of reasons, such as performance appraisal that shows a need for improvement, succession plan to help replace a removed or promoted individual, piloting a new management team or system, technological changes in the business to keep up with, or simply wanting to see your employees succeed .
There are countless avenues to consider when creating an employee development plan that will work for your company. Some steps to build out your own plan include:
- First and foremost, look to align the development needs of your employees with your company’s business needs. Identify the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies in order to support these business goals, and then talk to your employees to get a better understanding of their career goals (consider your short and long-term business objectives).
- Note: It’s important to recognize the difference between an employees goals and the type of development plan you’re pushing. Not every employee wants the same thing. If they enjoy their current position or have another type of training program in mind, forcing them into a unwanted development plan won’t work.
- Run through the various trainings you have available and move forward with the best match. There are an endless amount of training and development options such as one-on-one coaching, group sessions, online classes, and conferences.
- Set a goal or end date for when the training should be complete.
- Check in before, during, and after the process to see where they sit regarding their developmental goals. This will help you evaluate their progress and the overall impact of the development plan.
- Apply the employees new skills to the workplace.
Related Articles
- Short Motivational Quotes for Employees
- Productivity Performance Review Phrases
- Qualities of a Good Employee
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What Are The Benefits Of Employee Development?
There are many benefits to developing your employees. It can increase their job satisfaction and overall morale, it can increase their motivation to continue working for you, it can improve on efficiency and help reduce costs, and it can also increase innovation within your company.
While it could feel like it is only your employees who are benefiting from the training, that’s far from the truth. All of these benefits trickle down to an improvement in the productivity of your company, meaning a more efficient and profitable business.
Employee Retention Quotes
“People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise, and rewards.” – Dale Carnegie
“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees they will take care of the clients.” – Richard Branson
“You don’t build a business – you build people and then people build the business.” – Zig Ziglar
“Never push loyal people to the point where they don’t give a damn.” – Peter Drucker
Wrapping Up | Innovative Employee Retention Strategies
Effective employee retention strategies vary depending on a variety of factors, including: industry, culture, demographics, and organization size to name a few.
Although retention/development strategies have their nuances, certain themes seem to appear within them. They all have some form of:
- Personal/professional development
- Great culture
- Sense of purpose
- Proper compensation
- Engaging management
If you do your part by giving employees a good reason to stay around, that’s exactly what they will do. Good luck with your retention and development plan!
What does your company do to keep top talent around? Let us know in the comments below.
Looking for more recruitment industry news and resources? Check out the Chad and Cheese podcast for some fun, quick hitting discussions!
Title: Innovative Employee Retention Strategies for 2023
Category: Employer Resources
Tags: how to retain employees, retaining employees, employee retention statistics, employee retention quotes, employee training and development, employee retention strategies, employee retention rate, what is employee turnover, innovative employee retention strategies, employee retention quotes, quotes about employee retention. why I believe training helps retain employees
Author: Reid is a contributor for theJub. He’s an employment and marketing enthusiast who studied business before taking on various recruiting, management, and marketing roles. More from the author. | Author Profile
