High staff turnover rates are incredibly disruptive to business growth, so it’s important your organisation can keep hold of its people. Not everyone is replaceable and losing long-term employees can have a detrimental effect on productivity and morale.
Of course, new hires are good as it means you’re growing, and they can introduce fresh ideas and different ways of working that drive your business forward.
In most cases, companies want to hold onto their employees to prevent these five detrimental factors from occurring:
Now, the causes of high turnover between organisations can differ. So, regardless of industry, we’ve listed the most common reasons employees give for resigning.
We then discuss why employee retention is important and the negative factors it can prevent.
To conclude, we’ll explain why training is an effective retention tool and offer five useful retention strategies for your business.
The most common reasons that explain a high employee turnover usually centre around problems with corporate culture. In other words, people feel they would be a better fit in a different organisation.
Other common reasons include:
Employee retention is important as it keeps your business stable and promotes a better employee experience.
Businesses who don’t understand the importance of employee retention often experience several poor business outcomes, including:
Hiring a new employee is expensive. Just think about the disruption to workflow and money spent on recruiting fees — you could be left thousands of pounds out of pocket.
That’s on top of the loss of knowledge that occurs when valuable employees leave your business. Companies who hold onto their staff get to reinvest the money they would've spent on hiring. This could go on benefits or on promoting their top performers into senior positions.
When you choose the wrong people for the job, they won’t engage with your organisation and are unlikely to stay very long. On the other hand, people who enjoy their work are motivated and report high levels of employee satisfaction.
According to research by Gallup, 59% of engaged employees said that their role brought out their most creative ideas. Consequently, if you want to drive innovation it’s important you hire the right people who will stay for many years to come.
With fewer experienced employees handling queries, complaints may increase and customers could start losing faith in your company.
It’s important to note, there’s a positive correlation between employee retention and customer service. Businesses who have the best customer relationships also tend to deliver exceptional employee experiences.
You’ve probably heard the old Richard Branson quote, but it gets constantly used for a reason. So, to keep your customers happy, focus on your employees first.
A lower headcount results in more employees picking up the tasks of ex-colleagues. Plus, when you do hire a new employee, they'll require training and time to get up to speed with the demands of their role.
This level of disruption may echo throughout your entire business, particularly if several departments are losing employees at the same time.
To mitigate the effects of lost productivity, you could hire a freelancer or consultant who can take over the role in the interim.
As professional bonds between colleagues break, you may begin to notice a significant culture shift.
Employees may no longer work effectively as a team, while they wait for the next person to hand in their notice.
Additionally, more experienced colleagues may have lost relationships with other departments, which contributes to miscommunication, frustration and further cultural instability.
Offering training and career development opportunities is a huge incentive for employees who want to acquire new skills.
The benefits of training don’t just include a highly skilled workforce, but also:
Employee engagement plays a crucial role in any retention strategy. Engaged employees find meaning in their work and care about their performance. To boost engagement amongst your teams, think about implementing these five strategies.
When your employees have access to perks and discounts, they can buy more of the things they love, instead of worrying about the cost of living as much.
A comprehensive discount scheme can set your company apart from the competition, helping you attract and retain new employees, especially if you also offer a good salary.
Discount schemes tend to include savings on a wide variety of purchases, from everyday purchases to larger, occasional ones. With Perkbox, your teams can benefit from over 9,000 perks and deals.
The easiest place to begin making wellbeing improvements is the physical environment. At the most basic level, employees should have a desk assessment to ensure their desk and chair are a good fit. Furthermore, offices with plenty of natural light and quiet zones are highly productive environments.
Once you’ve taken care of the workplace environment you can turn your attention to addressing the mental and physical wellbeing of your employees. Investing in a wellbeing program with plenty of resources is a great way to take care of their health.
With an ever-expanding library of wellbeing content, Perkbox has plenty of resources including guided meditations, sleep stories and on-demand workouts.
Recognition and reward isn’t just about reinforcing positive behaviours, it’s also a great way of showing your teams appreciation and letting them know you value their contributions. Acknowledging when an employee does a great job not only makes them feel good, but also promotes a strong and supportive company culture.
Employee experience programs tend to include recognition features that make shouting out colleagues simple and easy. With Perkbox, your teams can send recognition to each other via an app. What’s more, they can also add company values to each recognition, so everyone knows what behaviours drive company success.
Additionally, managers can attach Reward points to each recognition they send and employees can redeem these Reward points from the Rewards catalogue. Not to mention, there are over 8,500 rewards they can choose from.
Giving your teams training increases employee satisfaction, motivation and engagement. They’ll grow more invested in your organisation and will want to stay for a long period. This is especially true if your training is highly specialised to your organisation.
Upskilling your workforce not only extends the employee lifecycle, but also keeps you ahead of the curve, as institutional knowledge remains in your organisation. We recommend collecting feedback on the types of training your employees will find most beneficial, so your learning programmes add the most value to their development.
Flexible working allows employees to vary the hours or location of their work, so they can achieve a better work-life balance. For some companies this may look like an employee working from home a few days a week, or staggering hours across different days.
According to the CIPD, the benefits of flexible working don’t just include an increase in engagement and loyalty, but also job satisfaction and productivity. In fact, engaged flexible workers can generate 43% more revenue and uplift the performance of disengaged employees by 20%.
A common misconception is that an organisation only needs to implement a retention strategy in times of high voluntary employee turnover. However, many successful companies go to great lengths to keep their staff, despite having a low turnover rate.
Employee retention strategies have a halo effect. They not only make employees stay in your company but also boost productivity and promote higher levels of engagement, which ultimately increases revenue.
The main goal of any retention strategy is to keep turnover as low as possible. To do this, it has to improve the employee experience. Perkbox helps improve important elements of employee experience, such as wellbeing, perks, and recognition.
Plus, with over 8,500 different rewards with international retailers, what better way is there to show your appreciation than allowing employees to choose their reward from the extensive Rewards catalogue? Or, receive a custom reward, for that personal touch.
Employee engagement refers to the emotional connection a person has with their place of work. Usually, when a person has a strong connection with their organisation they’re unlikely to look for a role elsewhere.
Employee retention on the other hand, describes the ability an organisation has to hold onto its employees. Because engaged employees are less likely to resign, most retention strategies focus on how they can boost employee engagement.
So, to improve employee retention, it’s important your company’s policies include measures that focus on both engagement and retention.
Engage and retain your employees no matter where they’re working — in one building, remotely or across multiple locations.
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