It has been acknowledged that people are a significant source of competitive advantage; organizations adopt numerous policies and procedures to retain their talented employees for a long time. As a result, employee retention has emerged as one of the key drivers for organizational success, alongside reducing unnecessary expenses and improving employees’ motivation and capabilities. Employee retention, on the other hand, has been identified as one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century.
In recent years, the economy has changed dramatically as a result of globalization, in which organizations are judged against international standards and best practices. With expansion, workforce diversity, and the new nature of organizations, the focus is on people. As a result, organizations have found that these changes had a huge impact on their performance and that the key to quality transfer was the organization’s ability to motivate employees to participate.
Every great event in the history of mankind has had a physiological, psychological, and emotional impact. COVID -19 is a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, and the effects have been felt all over the globe. Happy & successful employees are a crucial asset for the success of any organization. While companies must consider how to retain employees at the best of times, employee retention became a pressing topic during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Workforces are dealing with these items on a personal and professional level. An unexpected departure of one employee can create many challenges for an employer, including work productivity, employee morale, and filling the vacancy. Those challenges are multiplied when several employees depart at the same time.
In the current scenario, a major challenge for an organization is to retain its valuable and talented employees. The management can control the problem of employees quitting the organization within no time to a great extent but cannot put a complete full stop to it. There are several challenges to it.
Challenges In Employee Retention
- Salary Dissatisfaction:
Retention becomes a problem when an employee quotes for an exceptionally high salary, which is beyond the budget of the organization. Every organization has a salary budget for every employee which can be raised to some extent but not beyond a certain limit.
- Job Opportunities Are High:
There is cut-throat competition to attract the best talent in the market. Companies go a long way to lure talented resources from their competitors. The availability of such lucrative offers makes it difficult to retain good resources for long.
- Hiring The Wrong Candidate:
Recruitment plays an important role, which is the future of any organization. A right candidate hiring will give a good future and a wrong candidate hiring will give a bad future. Candidates speak all kinds of lies at the time of interviews for getting a job. It is only later did people realize that there has been a mismatch and thus look for a change. And problems arise whenever the right candidate is into the wrong job.
- No Job Rotation:
Any employee gets bored if he/she does the same job for years together. The job might be good and interesting in the starting phase, but soon, it could become monotonous. In this scenario, the management must go for a job rotation and provide such employees the opportunity to do something new. And if there is no job rotation, then such employees might look for other avenues.
- Unrealistic Expectations of Employees:
An organization cannot meet the expectations of all its employees. An employee must be mature enough to understand that one cannot get all the comforts at the workplace. Sometimes, when the unrealistic expectations of the employees are not met, they look for a job change.
Factors That Can Affect Employee Retention
- Employees expect a well-defined Career Path that defines whether they will stay with the organization for a longer duration.
- Every employee wants good compensation and benefits from his job. Day by day, these expectations are going higher and higher. So, compensation is one of the major factors affecting employee retention in any organization.
- Employees gradually develop a cordial rapport with their employers over a period of time. It is like a comfort factor. This professional relationship is critical to ensuring employee retention.
- Almost 80 to 90 percent of the employees in any organization come from middle-class backgrounds and they seek job security. But in the present scenario, there are layoffs, downsizing, and organizational restructuring, which are affecting employee retention and loyalty, which in turn makes the employees look for other opportunities.
- The work environment should be good and healthy, which will create a beautiful place to work. The workplace or work environment will affect retaining employees. Employees, who are treated as assets to the organization, continue to stick with the company for a long time.
- Every employee should be recognized and appreciated for his/her great work performance. This will pamper the employee and he/she get motivated. If not, the employee gets demotivated and looks for another job, which affects employee retention.
- Every employee should be treated equally, and the information should be transparent. This will build trust among the employees in the organization. If there is no transparency and no fair reviews about the performance of the employee, then this could lead to employee dissatisfaction and quitting the job.
Strategies For Employee Retention:
- Strong Communication Channels
There should be an Open line of communication.
- Goals Change As We Grow:
Talk with your employees about their career goals. If possible, create a development plan to help them grow into management, if that is a goal or other ways in which you can help foster their goals.
- Enhance Communication Between All Levels Within Your Company:
By removing the level barriers, you may find that sharing ideas will help your employees and help your company to grow.
- Create An Open-Door Policy:
Let your employees know that they can come to you when they have an issue. Creating trust will help with productivity and performance.
- Create A Mentorship Program For Employees
A lower-level employee can grow into a great manager. Mentoring can help your company’s culture while also providing a way for management and senior employees to get to know junior employees.
- Invest In Employee Training:
If you have a training program in place for new hires, it helps to avoid any disconnect between current employees and new hires. This can be done virtually or in person as things begin to open up. And do not forget ongoing training for all employees to increase their skill set, as well as training for diversity & inclusion initiatives, HR and workplace protocols, and team-building skills.
- Do Performance Reviews:
Even if you have only a couple of employees, performance reviews are a way to let employees know how they are doing, and what they can be doing differently to reach their goals.
- Expand Their Horizons Within The Company:
Offer employees opportunities to develop into other departments—including shadowing a co-worker for the day. This gives them an idea of what others are working on and helps them see how everyone works together to achieve overall company goals.
Post-Pandemic Strategies For Employee Retention:
- Offer Flexibility In Work
The major reason employees want to continue working remotely is flexibility and the ability to improve their work-life balance. While there are undeniable benefits of in-person work like spontaneous interactions, better supervision, and more opportunities for mentoring, they do not negate the advantages of working from home.
Employers must consider the possibility of allowing employees to work from home at least part-time, moving towards a hybrid workplace that allows both in-person and remote working opportunities.
- Reinforce The Best Of Your Workplace Culture
The move towards a hybrid workplace creates the challenge of fostering a workplace culture that is consistent online and in-person. What matters to your organization? If inclusion is a priority, remote work can provide the opportunity to bring in hires from around the world that otherwise would not be available.
If training and mentorship are most important, think about how online tools can be used to foster these types of relationships. Whatever it is that makes an organization unique should be fundamental to the practices that underpin the return to work.
- Show Employees, You Care:
The post-pandemic economy is revving up. With many new opportunities for jobs both at home and abroad, employees will be able to choose where they want to work. The time is now for employers to show employees how they appreciate the resilience and flexibility they have shown during the pandemic. Supervisors should also meet with their employees and discuss their personal and professional goals. Retaining employees will depend on the ability to keep them motivated and engaged. This can include offering employees financial incentives while also offering the chance to get involved in new projects or on new work teams.
- Keep Tabs On Top Performers:
The most expensive employees to replace (and the most in-demand) will be top performers. Employers should home in on these individuals and make sure that they are being offered the growth opportunities and recognition they desire.
Conclusion
There are several factors why employees decide to leave a company. The good thing is, there are several strategies that you can implement to help retain employees. To help you with this endeavor, make sure to use a holistic HRIS or Human Resource Management System for your company. One that lets you manage employee performance, talent development, employee relations, plus more. If your current HRIS is lacking in some of these aspects, then it’s time to consider a solution like Everything at Work.