More than 50 million people quit their jobs in 2022, in what came to be known as the “Great Resignation.” Although the mass-quitting period is now at an end, LinkedIn recently reported that 51% of employed workers are still seeking a new job in 2023. Common reasons that employees choose to leave a job include the desire for better pay, stronger company culture, access to remote work, and greater career advancement. Because high employee turnover rates add significant cost to a company’s bottom line, businesses benefit exponentially from fostering employee motivation. In fact, companies with motivated team members see 27% higher profits yearly, with a 38% increase in productivity. With so many employees feeling uninspired about their current job positions, organizations should take the time to prioritize how to improve employee retention.
Employee motivation is a necessity in today’s competitive workforce, both for company dividends and for business innovation. In this article, we’ll break down nine key employee retention strategies that can help supercharge motivation levels among your employees.
Table of Contents
- Show them the money, really.
- Allow remote work.
- Offer flexible scheduling.
- Prioritize strong management.
- Provide opportunities for growth and professional development.
- Take advantage of employee feedback.
- Promote a work-life balance as a part of company culture.
How Vitay helps businesses with improving employee retention and engagement
Conclusion
7 Tips for Improving Employee Retention
1. Show them the money, really.
It’s the #1 reason that people quit their jobs; the pay just isn’t good enough. Attempting to keep good employees onboard with small perks here and there can’t compare to offering fair compensation. If you want your team to stay loyal and committed, salary should be a primary motivator. Pay rate clearly communicates to an employee how much the company values their skill set and hard work. Equitable compensation not only improves employee retention, but it also helps ease the mental load of financial strain from student loans, mortgage payments, and the general cost-of-living. When employees can spend their energy on long-term financial planning and skill development, they’re more likely to be motivated in their current position.
Not only will higher pay boost overall employee satisfaction, but it can also attract top talent by improving your company’s reputation. By prioritizing competitive pay, businesses cultivate loyalty and job satisfaction, encouraging employees to stay on for the long haul. Higher compensation has also shown to enhance employee engagement, leading to higher productivity levels overall.
2. Allow remote work.
Propelled by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, remote employment has emerged as a leading trend for offering a better work-life balance in the job industry. Remote work allows employees to organize work hours around the rest of their lives, reducing stress levels and enhancing the typical day-to-day grind of a 9-5. And working from home eliminates any time lost from a daily commute, giving employees back hours each day while saving them money on transportation expenses and work attire.
By escaping the confines of the office, employees are afforded the freedom to create a workspace that fits their personal needs. With greater access to sunshine, exercise, comfort, and nutritious meals, remote employees live more healthy lives, leading to better productivity and stronger job performance. Plus, employees can work from anywhere, allowing them access to more affordable living options, as well as restful vacation destinations. With so many benefits to working remotely, it makes sense why companies that allow remote work have a 25% lower employee turnover rate.
Additionally, businesses also benefit from investing in remote work capabilities in other ways. In fact, mid-size companies with a remote or hybrid work model save an average of $1.2 million per year. And companies who use remote workers can expand their hiring pool beyond a brick-and-mortar location, allowing them a more diverse workforce and a bigger database of potential talent.
3. Offer flexible scheduling.
Studies show that employees who are permitted a more flexible schedule experience higher work productivity, thanks to better sleep, fewer sick days, and a more accessible creative workflow. When companies prioritize schedule flexibility, employees feel valued and trusted, increasing job satisfaction and engagement. As well, workers who can adapt their work hours to their lifestyle experience lower levels of employee burnout, a major source of turnover in the workplace. Plus, a flexible schedule affords working parents more time with family, another major incentive for employee retention.
When workers can ensure that family events, medical appointments, and relaxation can more easily be integrated into their work lives, they feel a stronger sense of control over their time, leading to better employee engagement. This empowering flexibility not only minimizes stress, but helps fortify loyalty toward the company. Ultimately, offering flexible scheduling is a win-win strategy, enriching employees’ lives while building goodwill towards a company that trusts its workers.
4. Prioritize strong management.
Sometimes high levels of employee turnover can be traced to poor management. In fact, Gallup reports that 70% of employee motivation is determined by management quality. Great managers nurture professional growth, communicate well, and offer equal measures of appreciation and constructive feedback. They also help facilitate opportunities for employees to grow within the company. In contrast, poor management can lead to a hostile environment, where conflict goes unaddressed, business goals are unclear, and employees feel disengaged and devalued. If your employees are struggling with motivation, it may be time to do an internal audit of your management team to determine how effective they are in positions of leadership.
Signs that current management is low-quality:
- Employees feel micromanaged
- There’s a lack of communication and guidance regarding tasks and deadlines
- Leadership regularly “plays favorites”
- Complaints about discrimination and bias are common
- Leadership either stokes or ignores conflict within the workplace
- Employees are often encouraged or expected to work beyond their typical work hours
- Employee burnout is part of company culture
- Employees feel unheard or unsupported when bringing up concerns in the workplace
- Management fails to show recognition for employee achievements
- The team experiences a general tone of negativity from the top down.
- Employees feel a poor sense of direction and don’t receive feedback regularly
- Leadership is inconsistent with commitments, making empty promises and failing to respond to requests promptly
Bad management can significantly impact employee retention rates. When employees feel poorly managed, they’re more likely to consider leaving their job for a more positive and constructive environment. Conversely, good management encourages employees to feel autonomous, fostering a strong sense of ownership and purpose. By creating a culture of equity, individual growth, and trust, managers not only create inclusive workspaces but also bolster employee satisfaction, leading to a more engaged and loyal work team.
5. Provide opportunities for growth and professional development.
Recently, the term “quiet quitting” became a trendy explanation to describe employees who seem to only give a bare minimum effort. However, some claim that “quiet quitting” is simply a way to criticize workers for doing their jobs to the extent that they’re paid, rather than working overtime or outside of work hours for free. Forbes proposed that the true solution to the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” was to strengthen opportunities for personal development and growth within the company. When it comes to their employee retention strategy, organizations have an opportunity to implement solutions that address “quiet quitters’” before those employees take further action.
When companies create a retention strategy that emphasizes personal development, they empower their employees to aspire to higher career trajectories within the company. By providing individualized learning paths, mentorship programs, and support for career development, businesses create a workplace that prepares employees for long-term success within the organization. Plus, when cross-functional learning and skill-building are encouraged, employee engagement increases, another win-win for both employee productivity and employee happiness.
6. Take advantage of employee feedback.
Exit interviews, regular surveys, and open communication channels make it possible for businesses to gain insights from current and former employees about key factors affecting employee satisfaction. When businesses take the time to properly conduct exit interviews with departing employees, they can discover the root causes of their employee turnover. But organizations must take continued action after these exit interviews to address the issues that get raised. By listening thoughtfully and creating opportunities to implement feedback, organizations can help minimize turnover in time.
7. Promote a quality work-life balance as part of company culture.
When a company takes the time to foster and promote a proper work-life balance for its employees, a few things happen:
- Employees feel permitted to set boundaries and to fully disconnect from work during their personal hours, leading to lower levels of burnout over time.
- Employees who feel comfortable taking their PTO hours and enjoying their time off feel more valued and trusted by the company, leading to greater loyalty and morale.
- Studies show that employees with a better work-life balance are not only happier but are also more productive across the board.
So, what are some of the ways that organizations can promote a better work-life balance for their staff? As mentioned previously, flexible scheduling and a hybrid workplace model allow employees to better manage their sleep, their health, and their families. Additionally, businesses can:
- Invest in quality health insurance for workers
- Adopt communication strategies for addressing high workloads
- Encourage employees to take breaks and to take time away when needed
- Implement a “Right to Disconnect” Code of Practice
- Offer resources for counseling and stress management
- Offer paid work-out hours that allow staff the time to exercise during their work day
When organizations make work-life balance a principal part of their business strategy, workers and managers feel empowered to create a healthier workplace, ultimately boosting their employee retention rate.
How Vitay helps businesses with improving employee retention and engagement
Vitay helps businesses improve employee retention and motivation through its user-friendly, time-saving approach to reference checking and employee feedback. Here’s how Vitay assists companies in boosting employee engagement and retention rates:
Streamlined Reference Checking
Vitay is a cloud-based platform that simplifies reference checking with its automated system for processing job candidates. Vitay helps businesses of all sizes to make better-informed hiring decisions by providing digital reference forms that are easily customizable, along with AI-based technology that turns candidate responses into a fully analyzed performance report. By efficiently verifying that candidate have the qualifications and suitability for a potential job position, companies can reduce the risks of hiring anyone under-qualified. This, in turn, leads to stronger employee retention, as both the hiring team and the new employee can move forward confidently.
Talent Feedback Tools
Vitay’s talent feedback capabilities allow businesses to collect and analyze insights about the recruiting process, including onboarding, hire performance, and candidate suitability. HR professionals can easily monitor new hires with weekly, monthly, and quarterly check-in surveys as needed while simultaneously gathering information from supervisors about new employee performance.
Vitay provides HR teams with access to detailed feedback reports on how new hires are doing, including whether there are any issues that need to be addressed. Companies can then deal with concerns as soon they arise, improving staff retention from the start.
Versatile Pre-Screening Tools
Vitay’s pre-screening features make it simple to process through potential candidates and quickly assess their qualifications. With a more streamlined application system, human resource teams can evaluate candidate data more quickly and thoroughly, leading to better interviews and more time saved in the long run. With Vitay, the hiring process gets digitized and organized automatically, so hiring teams have all the info they need to choose the best person for the position, leading to better retention rates and greater satisfaction on both sides.
Comprehensive Exit Interviews
While some voluntary turnover is inevitable, businesses can greatly benefit from performing exit interviews with each departing employee to determine their reasons for leaving. With Vitay, businesses can design customized questionnaires for specific job roles and departments, making it easy to tailor exit interview to employee. When exit interviews are tracked, they begin to reveal systemic issues about an organization, helping businesses to begin to form a strategy for addressing the issues that drive turnover.
Vitay helps businesses optimize their hire and exit processes, fostering a feedback-driven culture and providing high-value data-based insights into company culture. By facilitating smarter hiring choices, streamlining the onboarding experience, and nurturing employee communication, Vitay assists organizations with creating a better work experience for their teams.
Conclusion
Properly addressing employee retention requires an extensive strategy that fosters worker motivation from many sides. When companies take the steps to develop a culture that highly values work-life balance, businesses can increase employee retention and motivation. Prioritizing motivation in the workplace helps minimize the costly effects of high turnover while paving the way for sustained innovation and success. Businesses that create an environment where employees feel connected to their role and to the company’s mission get paid back in employee motivation, productivity, and loyalty.
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