Best Practice: Attracting and Retaining Talent
Employees can only stay where they are happy
Retaining talent is important when you spend the time, effort, and money hiring top candidates. As employers try to figure out how to keep their good employees happy, a lot of books have been written, and exit interviews have been done.
Salary, retirement benefits, and vacation pay are significant reasons employees accept certain positions, but they are insufficient justifications to keep them on your payroll for the long term. Your staff retention rate will rise as a result of job satisfaction. In this article, you will learn useful methods you can employ to keep your talent.
Why Employee Retention?
The ability of a firm to maintain its employees under contract results in a more reliable, effective workforce. Companies that are serious about keeping their best employees create policies and initiatives to lower employee turnover.
A company with high employee turnover is likely to experience problems with its business operations. Replacing staff members takes time and resources from the company, and hiring new employees takes even more time.
Those who successfully generate high staff retention rates are in a better position to accomplish corporate objectives and attract new personnel. Statista reports that respondents reported an average annual turnover rate of 18 percent during its 2017 poll.
The ability of a company to retain its employees, particularly in competitive hiring markets, has profound implications for its ability to function at a high level without the disruptions that staff turnover brings, making it a significant competitive differentiator.
How to Retain Top Talents
Gathering Information about Employees
Managers must comprehend what their employees need to provide the best benefits for their employees. The best way to know what employees need is to ask them questions. You can set up frequent one-on-one sessions with each team member to begin. Ask them which talents they are most confident in.
In addition to checking on their ongoing projects, you can also inquire about their desired activities for this period. Ask about any areas that appear incredibly challenging. Engage in active listening during these encounters, and try to approach discussions with genuine curiosity rather than judgment.
This calls for closing your laptop and taking notes the traditional way. It’s a good idea to restate what staff members say in meetings in your own words to ensure you understand what they’re saying.
Increase Work Opportunities
Once you’ve determined which talents your team members wish to acquire, look for opportunities to support their growth. Encourage your employees to leave their comfort zones, gain experience, and develop confidence.
You could engage them in a challenging conversation or outline a step-by-step course of action. By doing this, you are assisting your team members in honing their communication abilities in a secure environment.
As new challenges develop outside formal training and during regular work experiences, it also allows managers to assist their staff in efficiently upskilling and reskilling regularly.
You can also help your employees by providing flexible work opportunities. According to an online survey by LiveCareer, 81 percent of professionals enjoy working remotely, and 65 percent say it has positively affected their work-life balance and mental health.
To create an environment in which people feel valued enough as individuals to be given the time and space to flourish, every challenge your employees face must be viewed as an opportunity for practice and growth.
Provide Learning Opportunities
Employees should have varying degrees of autonomy over their own development. A more experienced employee may be encouraged to create or seek out their growth opportunities. A less experienced employee frequently requires more structure in relation to essential learning areas. In either case, providing workers with a degree of autonomy is essential.
People naturally develop novel approaches to doing new tasks when left alone. Making mistakes while experimenting with autonomy is just as acceptable as making gains. You can then identify skill shortages and come up with ideas on how to fill them.
You can provide your employees with learning opportunities by creating training, providing them with books and learning materials.
Regularly Provide Feedback
Setting clear expectations is the first step in receiving feedback, which is an essential part of this process. Employee performance feedback, both positive and negative, should be provided on a regular basis. During this time, be patient and examine your employee’s work thus far, taking note of both accomplishments and shortcomings.
Recognize an employee’s effort without passing judgment if they tried something new, but it didn’t work out. By developing a plan for progress, whether it involves setting specific goals or assisting employees with time management, you can ensure that they actively apply what they’ve learned.
Time Management
Time management is key when retaining top talent. If a company is constantly losing people due to poor management, it may also risk losing its best people. Time management is essential for keeping everyone on track and maximizing efficiency.
Improving time management means you can do more in less time and get more done in less time. It is important to utilize your time wisely, as time is a precious resource that companies have.
You should ensure that you schedule time for your team to de-stress. Finding ways to relax will help employees avoid burnout and improve their overall well-being. Avoid overloading your employees with too many tasks. Taking on too much at once will only increase their stress levels.
Conclusion
An efficient hiring procedure creates the framework for each of the strategies described below. Put yourself in a position to select applicants who are a good fit for the position and the company.
After identifying the necessary competencies and skills for success, use dependable hiring tools to locate candidates who possess these qualities. You will be rewarded with a high staff retention rate and devoted employees who contribute to your company’s long-term success.
Source: Economic Development NZ e-Newsletter (24 July 2022)