Safeguarding your organisation: employee retention strategies for future success

Effective retention strategies improve loyalty, boost productivity, and increase staff engagement. Companies with high retention rates are primed for long-term success.

The numbers involved in hiring a new employee when someone leaves are eye-opening.

According to reports in Human Resources Director Magazine, the average amount spent on recruiting a new candidate has risen from $10,000 to $23 000 in Australia in the past 12 months alone, with the Australian HR Institute reporting that “The cost of replacing an employee is approximately 1.5 times their annual salary.”

High turnover rates have lasting impacts for most companies, but the solution doesn’t just lie in a more effective recruitment process; it stems from creating positive workplace environments.

This makes sense because spiralling turnover rates usually dictate how happy or not employees feel in their current roles.

However, as organisations respond to increased staff turnover by seeking to engage their employees differently, new strategies, ideas, and policies must be embedded that underscore the importance of employee retention.

Here are a few actions you can take to help retain your top talent and safeguard your organisation.

Prioritise professional development

A key reason organisations struggle to retain their best employees is because there is no clear path to long-term growth and development.

If you don’t challenge your employees, many will soon grow bored and start looking elsewhere.

But a professional development program that is consistent, tailored towards different departments and their needs, and crucially, takes a top-down approach by including managing and leaders in professional development goals can significantly improve staff retention rates.

There are different ways you can introduce a culture of continuing professional development in your organisation, depending on your goals, budget, and workforce needs.

You may opt to manage your training program in-house.

The two main advantages of in-house training include cost-savings and the potential to create authentic materials that draw on specific examples from your workplace to address your business challenges.

However, there are disadvantages to in-house training that are worth considering.

Creating all the resources, tools, training materials and tests will suck up a lot of your time.

Plus, you'll also need employees in your organisation who are adequately equipped and capable of delivering high-quality sessions, which could result in extra training before you’ve even rolled out your professional development program.

One workaround could be collaborating with an established external provider for some of your training needs.

This way, you won’t have to invest as much time in resource building and upskilling suitable employees. An experienced training provider will have access to high-quality resources and a dedicated team of professional instructors.

But what if you want the more immersive, tailored options usually associated with in-house training?

Nowadays, with rapid improvements in technology and delivery, you can find training providers more than capable of personalising their learning solutions to fit an organisation's specific needs.

Offer your employees a better work-life balance

Employers cannot be expected to provide the perfect work-life balance that caters for all their staff, and employees should always take some responsibility for balancing their personal and professional commitments.

However, there are steps organisations can take to help their staff develop a healthy work balance that fosters a longevity mindset at work.

Flexible and remote work arrangements

Employees tend to value employers who allow them to manage their own time and understand that the conventional 9 to 5 workday isn’t going to work for everyone all the time.

Giving your staff autonomy over their work builds trust because it shows you have confidence in their ability to complete tasks.

Also, the transition to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic introduced employees to a hybrid work-from-home culture, which many now consider a standard aspect of their work routine and anticipate their employers will continue to accommodate.

Support for parents

Organisations often lose talent because they have not cultivated an environment that supports working parents.

While it might be unrealistic to expect all companies to offer excellent childcare facilities, you can do things to ensure parents enjoy a better work-life balance so you can maintain their skills and knowledge.

• A comprehensive system for maternity, paternity, or shared parental leave.
• Job share opportunities
• Dependent care benefits, including daycare allowances

Meaningful perks and benefits

One way to improve employee retention is to give your staff compelling reasons to stay.

Employee perks enhance workplace culture and increase productivity because if your employees feel valued, they'll be motivated to work harder and engage with your company’s mission and vision.

It's essential to think carefully about what type of perks will make a meaningful difference to your employees in the workplace.

Games tables, nap pods, and free snacks might sound fun, but they don't offer long-term benefits and can do more harm than good.

Here are a few examples of company perks that can make a genuine difference:

• The option to purchase extra annual leave
• Additional superannuation contributions and salary packaging
• Novated car lease
• Learning and development opportunities.

Improve your internal comms

Communication should be the bedrock of any business.

Sharing accurate information such as long-term and short-term goals, plans to achieve these goals, and new policies and regulations keeps everyone on the same page and working towards the overall success of your company.

Clear and consistent communication also reduces the risk of misinformation, misunderstandings, confusion, and strategic misalignment between different teams and departments – all of which can lead to a general disconnect across your organisation, likely impacting employee morale.

Let’s look at three tips for implementing a consistent communications strategy that will help maintain a smooth flow of information from the top down.

Cascade information to the right people

Yes, it is always a good idea to keep people informed, but that doesn’t mean your entire workforce needs real-time updates about everything connected to your organisation.

A clear plan for how you cascade information, to whom, and when will help you better manage your internal communications.

This is particularly important when you’re sharing potentially sensitive information that could have far-reaching impacts for your organisation.

Without a strategy in place, you risk your staff hearing information taken out of context or factually incorrect, which might result in heightened anxiety and a loss of confidence in your leadership.

Communicate regularly to keep your employees informed

It might seem obvious, but be consistent with your messaging. Communicate regularly, and if you have preferred mediums for distributing different types of information or reaching out to specific departments or teams, be consistent.

A scattergun communication approach will only cause confusion and likely result in critical information being missed or misunderstood.

Your leadership team should set the tone to ensure that all written and verbal communications align with your organisation's vision and culture. It’s a good idea to reinforce this by holding regular training sessions and workshops to ensure your leaders are all aligned on messaging, especially if you have new hires.

Keeping your internal communications on-brand is vital. Organisations tend to focus their efforts on external branding to external stakeholders, but meeting client expectations will take a lot of work if your employees aren’t on board with the same messaging.

Make communication a two-way thing

Lastly, it would be best if you practised two-way communication whenever possible. If the flow of information in your organisation is purely one-way, there is no space for feedback, interaction, or problem-solving.

It’s understandable why some managers fear feedback, but by encouraging your employees to provide honest observations, you’ll earn their trust and potentially gain some valuable insights you might have overlooked.

Create a culture of recognition

Who doesn’t like to receive positive feedback from their manager or other colleagues in their organisation?

Recognition builds self-esteem, improves morale, and is a great way to motivate your staff so long as you don’t go overboard and start lavishing praise on your employees for every task they complete, or it will quickly become meaningless.

A great way to be consistent with how you give praise is to create a recognition program that rewards and recognises individuals or teams who demonstrate excellence in their work.

There are many different types of recognition programs you can customise, but the core components often include the following:

Agreement between company leaders: Your leaders must discuss your recognition program and agree on the fundamentals, particularly the recognition methods you’re planning to introduce.

Time-alignment: Are you going to recognise employees or different teams weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually? It’s important to be consistent with this from the outset; otherwise, your recognition program might quickly stall.

Employee involvement: Taking time to engage with your employees over what types of recognition they value and their preferences for receiving it will help you develop an inclusive and personal recognition program.

You can recognise your staff in many different ways, but beware of monetary incentives because this can lead to perceptions of favouritism and a work environment where employees are in competition rather than working as a team.

Good recognition ideas include professional development opportunities, personalised gift cards, team outings, and social media callouts.

The benefits of employee recognition programs include:

Lower staff turnover

Recent studies have revealed that 37% of Australian workers plan to move jobs in the next six months, citing poor leadership and workplace culture as key reasons.

If you create a strong culture of recognition that improves relationships between employees and your organisational leaders, your retention rates will likely increase, and you'll save time and money.

Talent attraction

One of recruiters' biggest challenges is finding the right people, with a perceived lack of qualified candidates fuelling a highly competitive market.

But if you’ve taken clear steps to build a more uplifting company culture that you can easily promote to prospective new hires, your organisation will act as a talent magnet for the best and brightest.

Your current employees will play a part here too; people talk about their jobs – especially when working in an environment where they feel valued.

Employee retention is crucial for business success

Attracting new staff in a competitive market where demand outweighs supply and favours highly skilled candidates who can often choose from a range of job offers makes it more important than ever to hold onto your best employees.

By implementing effective retention strategies, you’ll be well positioned to create a hard-working and positive workforce who understand your company’s core values, vison, and can help you achieve your long-term goals and strategic objectives.

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