Are Employees Trending in or OUT of Your Business?
Oct 13,
Fact: Less than half of employees are satisfied with their career development, advancement opportunities, and recognition from their workplaces (Kido, 2015). Fact: The top reasons employees find new jobs are poor benefits (53%), dissatisfaction with potential career opportunities (35%), and readiness for new experiences (32%; Chronister, 2015). Scary fact: Only about 1/5 of organizations have a retention plan in place (Kido, 2015).
The fact of the matter is, as Nelson (2015) points out in her recent article, it is not 2011 anymore and employees have choices about where they work. We have slowly but surely climbed out of the recession and employees have ever increasing freedom and flexibility to move around to different jobs, organizations, and industries. What hasn’t changed is the dreadful cost of employee turnover and all the expenses that go with it. As the ball seems to be in the employee court, what do recent trends suggest that organizations should do to retain their very best talent?
First and foremost, the best talent wants to feel challenged and see that they have career advancement opportunities (Chronister, 2015). All of the recent trending articles on employee retention call focus to this point. When employees are not being developed or don’t anticipate room for growth, they will eventually feel stunted and will move on. Plus, top performers have the desired skills and abilities that allow them to move on to something bigger and better. Rather than watching this happen, become the bigger and the better thing by empowering your workforce – learn the three fastest ways to empower your employees. Don’t let skills and efforts be underutilized or go unrecognized. Assess your talent regularly and keep tabs on your employees’ readiness to move into different and more challenging roles.
Another key trend in employee retention is individualized consideration. How do you motivate workers? Well, it depends. How should you reward employees? It depends. How should you communicate with employees? Again, it depends. When employees have experiences that are tailored to their strengths, interests, and values, work feels more meaningful. As the SVP of Google’s People Operations points out, meaningful work makes people want to stay; perks are nice but aren’t what ultimately makes them productive (Goudreau, 2015). Individualized training, feedback, coaching, and benefits can show your employees that you value them, can earn their loyalty, and make it more likely that they’ll not only stay, they will stay and continue to be your top performers.
Getting a new job is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions (Nelson, 2015). There is still time to ensure that leaving your company is not #1 on your employees’ list this New Year’s Eve.