Employee Retention and Growth: Investing In Employees Is Good For Business
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about drastic changes in the workplace, redefining the employee experience. Most employers and employees were forced to quickly adapt with remote working technologies and maintain a dynamic culture. This meant more time at home with family but boundaries between home and work life are crossed, causing employee burnout.
Without that defining line, more than one third of employees are actually taking in more work than the previous year. And for more than 1 of 10 employees, this amounts to over 16 hours per week!
Another contributing factor to the increased employee attrition is the employee’s dissatisfaction with the pace of their career development. People have been working hard, which may come with expectations, yet there are no foreseeable opportunities for advancement
Not Investing In Human Capital Will Hurt Your Business
Employees play a huge role in every company’s success. So every aspect of it, from operations to company culture, is tremendously impacted when an employee leaves. Turnovers dampen morale, negatively affecting performance and productivity. Present employees who will take on the added responsibilities left behind by their co-worker may also feel less motivated and satisfied with work. There is also an opportunity cost associated with losing senior employees, who have the institutional knowledge, skills, and relationships.
Add in the financial cost of recruiting and training replacement workers which costs 33% of an employee’s salary, as determined in our LiveTiles Digital Workplace Trends 2021 study. It also affects quality of work as it takes time for the new hire to be up to speed and at par with their predecessor.
It’s understandable that training costs were the first to be cut off in your company’s budget during this crisis but it is now time to reinvest in people. Efforts to retain and nurture valuable talent is the key differentiator in today’s competitive job market as “employee retention percentage of your company is directly related to its productivity and growth.”
What You Can Do To Boost Retention Rates
Formal employee onboarding programs can increase employee retention by 25%. Host opportunities to welcome new hires before their first day to get them started on the right foot. These can be pocket events where they can complete pre-joining processes and interact with teammates, or welcome them with personalized resources.
Offer employee development programs for upskilling and reskilling as part of the compensation package. Make in-house training programs, knowledge transfer sessions, mentorship programs, on-demand learning opportunities, and participation in conferences and industry events available to facilitate growth. These activities keep everyone up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices as well as encourage critical and innovative thinking.
Develop good relationships with the people you work with. Organize social events outside working hours to improve employee engagement through dinners, team building activities, company-wide themed celebrations, and others.
Retain flexible or hybrid working arrangements.
High wages are not enough to keep top talent anymore. Employees today are looking for more choices on how, when, and where they can do their work. By providing these options, businesses allow workers to retain their work-life balance and show that they trust them.
Doing any of these deliberate strategies can foster loyalty and increased engagement as well as provide managers and/or human resource personnel the opportunity to learn their colleagues strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Furthermore, your company is now future-ready with a talent pool of well-trained, confident, and promotable workers.
Improving your company’s comprehensive employee retention program through employee experience management, with a thrust on learning and development programs plus overall human capital management, is a worthy investment for both you and your employees.
