4 Actions that Can Help You Optimize your Employee Retention Strategies

Recruitment processes can take some time. In general, it can take weeks and, depending on the position, even months for the Human Resources area or the recruitment agency to find the ideal candidate. That requires time and money, which are not resources we can use carelessly. 

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to avoid all that inconvenience? That’s where employee retention strategies enter the picture. If you want to know more about this interesting concept, here we show you some of the best practices to improve talent retention in an organization. 

What is employee retention? 

Employee retention is the ability organizations have to keep their employees. This idea is directly related to the concept of employee turnover, which represents the direct opposite and is the amount of people that leaves the organization in a period of time. 

Keep in mind that a company that constantly losses workers will has to give time, money and effort in finding, evaluating and training new talent that can fit the vacant positions. That’s why personnel retention has a direct influence over the company’s general performance. 

 Strategies to retain employees

1. Adopt the culture of feedback 

If the goal is to increase personal retention rate in an organization, one of the first talent retention strategies you can apply is requesting feedback from employees. This gives you useful information about the employee’s needs and, as a result, all the different aspects in which the company could improve. 

By requesting feedback and applying corrective measures, you achieve two things: Initially, you meet the employees’ demands making them feel more comfortable in the organization and less likely to leave. 

Additionally, the simple fact of considering your employees’ opinion will say a lot about the company. Since they perceive that they are actually being heard, employee satisfaction levels increase, as well as chances of retaining talent. 

Lastly, you cannot forget that employee’s needs and their perception about the organization can change over time. Therefore, if you really want to increase personnel retention, you have to make feedback a company’s policy and not just an isolated event. 

2. Create a culture of professional development 

One of the main reasons employees have for leaving a company the feeling that if they remain there, their career will stagnate. Current professionals have bigger ambitions tan before. If they cannot learn anything new and no longer see possibilities for growth in the organization, it won’t be long before they leave looking for new challenges. 

For that reason, adopting a culture of professional development can offer good results. How to do it correctly? Well, if it fits the organization’s structure, employees and prospects need to know the career path they can follow inside the organization. 

Often, some companies offer the possibility of getting to higher position, but they fail to announce this as a benefit. This is an opportunity that has to be clear since the first day of work. It can turn into an incentive for workers and a reason for seeing themselves inside the company in the long term. 

However, if the company’s structure doesn’t allow promotions, you can create a program of continuous training. To do that, some organizations have agreements and partnerships with educational institutions. That way, employees can receive exclusive training sessions, payment benefits, discounts or studies grants in the partner institution. 

You might also like: How to optimize your talent acquisition strategy and process?

3. Create employee wellness programs 

Employee wellness programs are one of the best ways to increase personnel retention in an organization. These are basically a set of actions that focus on increasing the satisfaction and quality of life of employees at work. For that purpose, the first step is identifying a need in employees. 

The next step is applying the set of actions that aims to meet that need. As a result, the turnover rate tends to descend. Finally, it is necessary to monitor the impact of the actions implemented with surveys. Some examples of successful employee wellness programs are assistance programs such as childcare or leisure programs. 

4. Make employee exit surveys 

This is a concept that not many people consider, but is one of the best techniques for employee retention. In general, employee exit surveys are very similar to employee satisfaction surveys. The main difference is that it has to be applied when employees are about to leave the company. 

Why is it so useful? Because the person is about the leave the organization, so you can expect more direct and sincere answers. That way, you can see the company as employees see it. Of course, once you have the feedback about the points that can be improved, you have to apply the corrective measures. 

These are some of the best employee retention strategies. If you apply the right strategies, you won’t have many problems retaining talent in your company. 

At Talent2Win, we strive to align your company’s business objectives with the best Talent Acquisition strategies available. If you want to learn more about the services we offer, do not hesitate to contact us.