Increase Employee Retention – Get Your Employees Involved!

Posted by: Emma Berdanier on March 22nd, 2018

Improve Employee Retention Over Recruitment

Many managers and executives would agree – it’s easier to keep good employees than to recruit, hire, and train new ones (although your company’s pipeline for new recruits has to be a constant focus as well).  In today’s extremely tight labor market – Colorado’s unemployment rate is just 3.0% in March 2018 – having a strong employee retention strategy is paramount in today’s war for talent.

According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, the average cost of losing a good hire was $29,600 in 2017. A well-rounded HR strategy should include a solid look at what your company is doing to help incentivize and retain top employees.

Employee Satisfaction – Money, Company Culture, Perks, Benefits?

Of course, money is important.  But nowadays, having a good corporate culture seems to play a much bigger role in terms of overall employee satisfaction.  That’s no surprise when most of us spend more time at work than at home.  This fact hasn’t changed over the years, but companies are now waking up to the reality that they need to start changing their ways. They can either do this or risk losing their core staff to competitors.

With 5 generations in today’s workforce, don’t assume that everyone has the same desires and wants. Every business and workplace are unique — what works for one company, doesn’t necessarily work for another. The ability to work remotely on snowy days is a great example, but certainly not one that can be accommodated in every company, or for every position in every company.

Gather New Ideas to Improve Employee Retention

Consider taking an anonymous survey of your staff.  Have everyone type up and submit ideas of perks and benefits that are important to them. Keep it open-ended, without guidelines or restrictions, to allow you to hear the wide range of your employee’s ideas. Keeping the suggestions anonymous will prevent some of your less outspoken employees from not speaking up with their input. Once all ideas are gathered, appoint a staff member to compile a complete list. In this list, tally how many people are in favor of each idea. Use this to find the most popular ideas and go from there.

Get creative, encourage discussion and – most importantly –

IMPLEMENT some of your employee’s ideas and suggestions!