Employee retention strategies are critical for your company’s success. Losing an employee can cost you 1.5 - 2 times that person’s annual salary, with the exact amount varying by position. Executive turnover can cost 213% of (a very high) annual salary.

Although the dollar amount is staggering, your company loses more than that. High rates of turnover also cause:

• Decreased productivity
• Low employee morale
• Poor employer brand

All this is to say you need to focus on implementing employee retention strategies to enable your business to thrive. We’ll outline the best ones in this article.

Top Reasons Employees Resign

Before discussing innovative employee retention strategies, let’s go over the most common reasons employees quit. This will help you better understand how to structure your organization and culture.

Some main drivers of turnover include:

• Dissatisfaction with work or the company
• A planned change (i.e., becoming pregnant, moving out of state)
• Better options elsewhere
• Lack of professional development opportunities
• Poor experiences (i.e., workplace harassment, lack of support mechanisms, unfair boss)

With that, let’s discuss the best employee retention strategies to combat the drivers of turnover.

Employee Retention Strategies

Here are 5 employee retention strategies to try today.

Strategy 1: Hire for Culture Fit

Hiring for culture fit ensures your new employees uphold your brand. It also means current employees are more likely to get along well with new hires. Employees who don’t mesh with your existing corporate culture are more likely to quit.

Do you understand your company's culture (or what you want to build)? Your employees create company culture, so you need to have a strong understanding of it first.

Certain values to consider are:

• Flexibility
• Independence
• Collaboration
• Timeliness
• Fairness
• Competitiveness
• Formality
• Equality
• Honesty and integrity

Consider where you want your company to fall along these values and which are most essential.

Assessing culture fit begins during the interview process. Here are some questions to ask:

• Why do you want to work at this company?
• What culture allows you to succeed?
• What best practices do you find meaningful?
• How would you describe our culture based on what you’ve seen?
• What values create your ideal workplace?

Analyze whether or not the environments candidates succeed in match your organization. If not, they aren’t the person for your company.

Strategy 2: Develop Employee Engagement

Sadly, only 21% of employees feel “very engaged,” despite disengagement costing US businesses over $450 billion yearly in productivity. Disengaged employees are more likely to resign, and while they’re there will bring down morale and discourage others.

You can use a few strategies to foster engagement at work, so add them to your list of employee retention strategies.

First, create a culture that understands the importance of feedback. Not only do you want to listen to feedback, but make sure to act on it. 90% of people say they’re more likely to stick with a company that accepts and operates on feedback, so this is to your benefit.

You’ll also want to conduct employee engagement surveys regularly to keep tabs on how your workers feel. Seek to understand if they feel heard and valued and what you can do if they don’t.

Strategy 3: Create Excellent Onboarding Processes

An effective onboarding process can reduce turnover by 82%, so getting this right is critical. 

Here are some ways to develop excellent onboarding, so make sure to add these to your list of employee retention strategies.

First, start with a warm welcome. This can include:

• Sending a welcome packet
• Setting up the employee’s workstation in advance
• Finding people to greet the new hire on day one
• Pairing the new hire with someone to help them settle in
• Scheduling introductory calls with essential team members
• Scheduling regular check-ins with the new hire’s boss
• Announcing the new hire’s arrival on the team
• Helping this person complete any paperwork

One main issue with most companies’ onboarding processes is that the support stops after the first day or week. Continue guiding and checking in with your new hire for at least a few months.

Strategy 4: Offer Flexible Work

Companies that offer remote work experience 25% lower turnover, so consider making this one of your employee retention strategies. Covid-19 taught us many things, including how much work can be done outside the office.

You don’t need to go from entirely in-person to fully remote overnight. Instead, consider a hybrid model that allows employees to work from home at least some of the time. You don’t have to assign “in-person” and “remote” days; you could give employees the support to work from home when needed and ask that they come in the rest of the time.

Transitioning to flexible work takes time and consistency. To support the process, ensure your tech stack offers excellent communication tools. You’ll also want to hone your virtual meeting process so people from home can attend calls without being in the office.

Strategy 5: Give Employees Recognition

Managers who consistently acknowledge good work can lower turnover by 31%, so your list of employee retention strategies should include recognition. Companies recognizing their employees multiple times per month experience 41% better employee retention.

Recognition can take many forms. Consider social recognition, where you acknowledge great work in front of peers. You can also reward people financially with bonuses or vouchers for stellar performance.

Some creative employee recognition ideas include:

1. Shoutouts
2. Company swag
3. Fun experiences (vacations, outings to amusement parks, dance lessons)
4. Free food
5. Thoughtful notes
6. Mental health days
7. Volunteer days
8. Wall of fame
9. Acknowledging work-iversaries

Try these recognition ideas today to reduce turnover. 

Lower Turnover Starts at the Top

Poor leadership creates unpleasant work environments, and negative experiences at work drive employee turnover. Your employee retention strategies will only be as effective as the leaders who support them.

Further, if you’re experiencing a turnover problem at the executive level, this will be the most costly to your business.

No matter the position you find yourself in, Jennings Executive will ensure you have the best leaders at the helm of your organization. Contact us today!

‍