Across America, employees are clearing out their desks. The widespread movement coined the “Great Resignation” has employees leaving their jobs in search of greener pastures. As a result, businesses are in need of effective employee retention strategies to offset the influx of resignation letters.
According to Harvard Business Review, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021 alone. By the end of the same month, there were 10.9 million open jobs across the U.S. Evidently, something about our existing workforce dynamic isn’t working. So how can we, as leaders, preserve our teams?
Here are five employee retention strategies to not only mitigate the effects of the Great Resignation but also foster a workplace environment your employees will never want to leave.
Let Them Be Heard
The most important of all employee retention strategies is to give your employees a voice. Anytime you stifle your teams’ voices, you teach them their perspectives don’t matter, and worse, you shut yourself off to potentially valuable feedback.
Transparency is the key to showing your employees you value their voices — especially if your company is in the process of addressing workplace practices that previously discouraged open and honest communication.
Above all, the most lasting engagement strategy is the manager’s investment of time and energy in listening to individual employees and fostering meaningful dialogue. As managers listen and take action, loyalty and commitment will follow.
Give Performance Feedback
Respectful feedback fosters growth. As a leader, you demonstrate that you’re engaged and that you care about your employees’ success within the company by offering regular, constructive feedback.
Make a conscious effort to acknowledge each individual’s hard work and express appreciation, and let your employees know that they matter to you, your clients, and the organization’s success.
Likewise, create ways for employees to share input both publicly and privately. The best way to determine whether your employee retention strategies are working is to welcome feedback with open arms. In return, show your appreciation by providing a safe, unified workplace.
Support Professional Development
If you want your employees to invest their time into growing your company, you need to demonstrate that the company is investing in them, as well. Too many employees today complain that they don’t see a clear path to advance or know where they stand within the company.
Take action to work with your team to establish and regularly revisit their career goals. Perhaps the company can fully or partially cover courses related to each employees’ career advancement or host workplace events dedicated to training and sharpening skills.
Also, remember that employee retention strategies don’t have to be complicated; they can take many avenues beyond supporting formal training. Showing interest in your team’s professional development can be as simple as giving employees temporary job assignments in areas of interest or even offering peer coaching opportunities within the company.
Prioritize Work-Life Balance
A healthy work-life balance should be at the top of every company’s list of employee retention strategies. Most organizations today have high expectations for their employees. Alternatively, ambitious employees may put pressure on themselves to go “above and beyond,” by working overtime or taking their responsibilities home with them.
But for workers, this can mean less time devoted to personal care, leisure activities, and family. They may start and end the week exhausted and eventually resent the company. When your team members are well-rested and have adequate time to care for themselves and their families, they perform better at work.
Consider voicing explicit expectations discouraging your team from working during off hours. With work-from-home allowances extended during the pandemic, employees are expecting flexibility, so it may also be worth creating a hybrid work model where employees can opt to work from home.
Earn Their Trust
Employees perform better when they trust managers and the people assigning them tasks. They are more likely to achieve the goals that are set for them when they believe in the person who’s getting them to do the work.
Implementing the above employee retention strategies will naturally gain your employees’ trust, but other strategies include being open and willing to admit your own mistakes, avoiding favoritism, and getting to know them personally.
By building a foundation of trust with your team beyond a traditional employer-employee relationship, your employees will feel more inclined to stay loyal to you and your company.
There’s a saying that people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses. Perhaps the Great Resignation is a wake-up call for leaders to brainstorm new employee retention strategies and show our teams how valuable they are to us.
How does your company show appreciation to its employees? Leave a comment below!