Why You Need to Evaluate Your Retention Strategy (Before It’s Too Late!)

An effective employee retention strategy should be high on your company radar. It goes a long way toward successfully advancing your business strategy, goals and vision.

High turnover can be devastating to your bottom line – costing you an average of 50 to 60 percent of an employee’s annual salary. Robust retention programs help avoid and offset replacement costs. They also help reduce indirect expenses such as decreased morale and productivity and ultimately, lost customers.

  • Unfilled positions translate to work not getting done. Recruiting, training and onboarding new employees takes a great deal of time and resources. There’s a learning curve for most new hires before their work becomes profitable. Taking the necessary steps to keep your current employees satisfied helps ensure that productivity is not interrupted.
  • Recruitment is tied to retention. Employees are more likely to stay with a company that fulfills the promises made when their employment offer was extended. Provide your job candidates with a realistic view of their work environment and culture, advancement opportunities and job expectations.
  • Good retention strategies strengthen morale. Employees who enjoy what they do and the atmosphere in which they work are more likely to remain loyal. Strategies that target employee engagement help build morale and give team members a sense of pride.

How to Optimize Retention

As you strive to build retention, try walking in your employees’ shoes. Think about things from their perspective. Of course they want to be treated and compensated fairly. But they also want:

  • Work/life balance: Especially among millennial employees, work/life balance trumps most other job benefits, even including compensation in many cases. Offer alternative work arrangements that give people a measure of control over their schedules. When it’s easier for employees to deal with pressures on the home front, they are likely to be more productive on the job – and less likely to leave, even if offered more money by a competitor.
  • Good communication: Effective communication has a significant impact on employee loyalty and retention. Are managers accessible to their team members? Implement an open-door policy and make everyone aware of it. Be sure your leadership team is reaching out and providing constructive feedback. For instance, instead of standard annual performance reviews, schedule more informal conferences every few months. By communicating more often with employees individually, management approaches can be adapted to their particular needs and personalities. Frequent team communications carry equal importance.
  • To feel appreciated: Hardworking professionals want to feel they are valued by their employers. Appropriate, sincere praise makes an enormous difference.

How Your Staffing Firm Can Help

The right staffing partner can help you address retention issues while maintaining productivity and profitability. It all comes down to the right strategy for your company and its unique talent needs. One option is to keep your staff right sized by adding temporary employees when you are experiencing changes such as increased workloads or customer demand. As an added plus, you may find valuable permanent employees in the process.

To learn more about your options and the best direction to take towards employee recruitment, staffing and retention, contact Employment Professionals Canada today. We can help build solutions that work for you. Contact us today to learn more about our recruitment services in Southern Ontario and the Niagara Region!

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