Attracting top talent is hard enough. But retaining top talent?
That’s a whole other story!
The majority of companies struggle with this issue, and it’s a huge problem because the cost to replace a lost employee goes way beyond the cost of hiring them originally.
However, there are innovative employee retention strategies that’ll help you maintain a positive candidate experience for all your future hires.
Here are some tips on how to overcome this challenge.
Why do employees have an edge in the current job market?
…because:
Recruiters are hungry for skillful employees
Employers across numerous industries find themselves hungry for top talent yet find it difficult to fill skilled roles due to a number of factors.
These factors include competition in the job industry, the high cost of hiring, talent shortages in various roles, and the impact of what has been dubbed the Great Resignation, wherein employees are leaving their jobs in droves.
In response to this growing issue, companies are re-evaluating how they’re engaging with candidates and are shifting their strategies to attract and retain top talent.
The fact that talent isn’t attracted by mere job openings alone is indicative of a major shift in employees’ priorities for finding new career opportunities.
As companies diversify their talent pool, the overall job market favors the employee’s ability to pick and choose their next employer.
The current job market is no longer a matter of employees competing for positions but companies competing to attract top talent and fill diversity quotas simultaneously.
A company’s social values, in turn, reflect on its employees, and working for a company that is known to have unethical practices may, in fact, prove to be detrimental to the employee’s social life.
Has the Great Resignation impacted the job market?
The Great Resignation is not going away, and employees feel more empowered than ever to take their pick of employment opportunities because employment opportunities are a two-way street.
Top employees have the ability to move to an employer that can provide the best opportunity for growth and where they can be supported by a top-notch work culture.
The risk is worth the reward.
Employers coming from past generations may see this paradigm shift in the job market as being due to lazy, entitled millennials, but it goes much deeper into the heart of social values between generations.
While previous generations were sold on the American Dream of marrying young, buying a home with a white picket fence, and starting a family, the concept of the Nuclear Family has been eroded over time.
Millennials are no longer concerned with the American Dream and settling down young and raising a family, and instead are more interested in establishing their own personal brand and redefining the world to reflect contemporary values.
Many employer practices in the past have been deemed unethical today, and millennials are not afraid to strike out on their own and start their own online business or pursue full-time employment on their own terms.
An untold number of employees have heard from bosses that “a monkey could do your job,” and millennials are calling the bluff.
Millennials demand a safe working environment and believe the world will be a better place if they work for an employer with the right values and work environment.
The businesses that will succeed in the future will be those that provide workers with a comfortable working environment while still adhering to a fair and fast pay structure and employment policies that support workers’ personal values.
How can you retain the best employees?
Tip 1: Create a positive environment for growth
It’s not enough to simply hire great talent, you need to develop them as employees.
Creating a positive environment for growth means creating an environment that fosters employee motivation and development.
Most employees today feel undervalued, underappreciated, and left with little room to grow.
In order to overcome these challenges, companies must create an environment that gives employees room to develop, allows for their voices to be heard, and provides them with the tools to succeed.
In fact, companies should invest in employee voice in decision-making to ensure their perspectives contribute to strategic initiatives and organizational growth.
Tip 2: Offer flexible working hours
Work-life balance is critical to employees today, as they no longer feel compelled to work tedious hours to earn a paycheck.
These days, employees no longer want to be forced to put in long hours and deal with the stress of work-life balance. The rise of remote work has allowed employees to choose where they want to work, and in doing so, allows them to work from wherever they want.
Also read: 4 sure-fire ways to maintain a high employee retention rate
Tip 3: Provide regular feedback
In numerous employee surveys, it’s been shown that millennial employees want recognition, encouragement, and validation.
While they can accept constructive criticism for performing better, they also want to be praised when they do something right.
Make sure to hold hybrid meetings, plan educative webinars, and use other strategies to engage team members.
To give employees the validation they need, companies must provide regular feedback. Feedback provides employees with the opportunity to learn and grow. Feedback can be as simple as “Great job on that presentation,” “Your Excel skills are amazing!” or as complex as “Your next project should include more numbers.”
Tip 4: Give them resources to optimize their performance
Investing in the best tools for workflow efficiency and productivity is an investment in your employees’ abilities to deliver results.
Whether it’s a top-rated CRM platform for your marketing department or an HR suite that makes it easy to manage payroll and benefits, or specialized payroll for small business software, these tools should be readily available for employees to use.
You are also stimulating growth in your bottom line by providing your employees with the tools they need to perform at their best. As employees can manage tasks more efficiently, they can be more productive and handle larger volumes of work without becoming overwhelmed.
Tip 5: Involve them in business strategies
When employees feel like they are simply working for a paycheck, they will put in the minimal effort required to get by.
However, by involving employees in the business’s goals, you are giving them the motivation to grow as an employee.
When employees feel like they are a part of the company’s direction and not wheels in a cog, they are more inspired to bring ideas to the table that can positively impact the company’s growth.
Team meetings should be more than just a time to hear updates from the top. Employees should be encouraged to bring their own ideas to the table.
