An increasing number of businesses are now feeling the impact of the Great Resignation. It was reported that over 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs just in August 2021. The rise of remote work opportunities and changing workplace expectations have intensified the race to retain employees.
Have you heard about the term “quiet quitting”? It refers to doing a job and not putting in more time, effort, or passion than absolutely necessary. People want to fulfill their primary responsibilities but they’re not ready to show up early, stay up late, or participate in any non-mandatory activity during work. In short, quiet quitters don’t want work to be a central focus of their life.
As an entrepreneur or employer, you have to reconsider what makes your company worth working for in circumstances where employees don’t hesitate to switch jobs. Do you feel your business is at risk of losing top talent? Have you already begun losing some of your talented workers? If yes, it’s high time to reconsider your employee retention strategies.
Master the art of retaining employees
While more workers are changing jobs, organizations are finding it hard to fill the open job positions quickly. It feels like there’s a race to retain and attract talent across industries. We know how top graduates considered investment banks as a highly rewarding career path a few years ago.
Today, even investment banks struggle to attract and retain talent. Regardless of your industry and business size, here is what you can do to perform well in the ongoing race to retain employees:
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Improve employee engagement
The first thing you can do to retain your top talent is to promote your workers’ engagement with your company. If your employees feel disengaged, they’re more likely to quit. Therefore, start listening to them and show them that their opinion is of great value. Give them opportunities to speak up about your business processes and how they can be improved.
Make them feel that they have the freedom to change certain things to bring about improvements. At the same time, don’t force your workers to take part in any employee engagement-related activities. Just talk to your employees to know what they prefer.
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Offer fair and competitive salaries
We can talk about dozens of employee retention strategies. However, paying your employee competitive and fair salaries is probably far and away more important than anything else. If you’re not paying what your employees’ time and hard work is worth, you’ll keep losing your staff.
So, make sure your employees are able to afford the cost of living. If you want to increase the workload of a worker, be sure to increase the reward. Also, do some research to know what your competition is offering to their employees. To win the race to retain employees, offer the top wages.
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Let your employees work remotely
In today’s world, companies don’t have much freedom to decide whether or not they should let their employees work from home. It’s a wise move to see remote work as an opportunity rather than a problem. While the pandemic is winding down, allowing your employees to work remotely can be beneficial for both you and your employees.
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Offer more flexible work options
A report from Apollo Technical found that 72% of workers prefer a flexible work model over returning to the office full-time. Along with allowing your employees to work remotely, offer flexible work options to improve your retention rate.
People often feel more productive when working outside of a traditional workplace environment due to reduced commuting and fewer interruptions. So, think of offering your workers flexible work hours so they can work when they find themselves the most productive and efficient.
Another important thing to consider here is the positive impact of reduced work hours or work week. It’s possible to incorporate a flexible work week without losing productivity.
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Promote a work-life balance
The latest data shows that despite improvements in work-life balance problems, 30% of workers feel their job is preventing them from spending time with their families. Poor work-life balance is one of the leading reasons people quit their jobs.
As an employer, you must strive to promote work-life balance for your employees. Flexible work options, remote work, and reduced workdays are some of the strategies to promote work-life balance. Besides, respect your employees’ time away from work.
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Invest in your employees and their development
Deloitte conducted a survey in 2022, finding that less than half of the respondents think their employers were making investments in their professional growth. It also revealed that only 34% of staff are happy with their company’s investment in developing their skills and career.
Workers continuously look for career development opportunities. If your workplace is stagnant and offers no incentives in terms of employee skills development, retaining top-performing employees is likely to become harder. In a competitive job market, you can enhance your ability to attract and retain talent by investing significantly in your employees’ future.
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Create an attractive culture
Do you have a work culture that your staff wants to be part of? A company’s culture matters when it comes to employee retention. A healthy work culture not only helps you attract talent but also makes it easier to retain the existing one. So, work towards creating a good culture and give your employees a solid reason to stick to your organization. Here are some quick tips for creating a better company culture:
- Be flexible with your staff
- Organize more cross-functional events
- Schedule playtime to reduce burnout
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Modernize your HR department
While you need to do your best to retain your existing talent, don’t forget to have a strong hiring and retention system in place. Wiggli is a premium talent management solution that addresses most of your hiring and talent management challenges. Implement such tools and say goodbye to old-fashioned HR practices.
Closing thoughts
If you’re facing talent retention challenges or talent shortages as an employer, fix this problem by increasing your attractiveness to existing workers. Make your workplace more attractive to new and existing employees.
