In a fast-changing job market with roles harder to fill than ever, it’s no wonder organisations are focusing on why employee retention is important.
With estimates of the cost of recruiting a new person into a role ranging from £7,000 to more than £22,000, being able to hold on to your people, even for a little bit longer, makes financial sense.
From a cultural point of view, having a stable group of employees gives you more chance of having an embedded and secure culture than if there’s a constantly revolving door.
And recent research publicised by the World Economic Forum links employee turnover to decreases in product reliability in the manufacturing sector.
Changes to the recruitment market and their impact on employee retention
In many ways, the recruitment market in the UK is unrecognisable from five years ago. From the number of jobs available to the pace at which roles are filled, it is very much a candidates’ market right now. The reasons why are varied and complex, but include the impact of the pandemic on how we view work, Brexit, and the increase in people having portfolio careers, which contain a few different types of role, and “squiggly careers”, which don’t take a route straight up the career ladder, but instead meander around. Recent research from suggesting that post pandemic lots of people chose to stop seeking employment meaning unemployment rates are the lowest since the 1970s compounds the fact that attracting new talent is challenging.
There’s more choice for people who want to move jobs – whether staying within their organisation or looking elsewhere for a new role. And the current situation with static pay being eroded by inflation makes taking a new job with a bigger salary even more tempting.
But there have also been changes to the ways companies recruit, with a growing recognition that academic qualifications aren’t the be-all and end-all. PWC recently announced it was removing the requirement for a 2:1 degree for new recruits, for example.
Teams are also far more time-poor, with managers having less time to devote to recruitment, and HR teams with wide-ranging responsibilities which mean they can’t offer as much support to recruiting managers.
All of these factors mean retaining as many employees as possible, reducing your organisational churn, is more important than ever.
Investing in your people to improve retention
When I first started working in an HR team, a couple of decades ago, training and development was very much focused on making sure people could do their current job. This is still true in some organisations, but many others have made a shift towards providing learning and development opportunities which consider people’s future aspirations, focused much more on the person rather than just the job role.
Imagine being told your employer will invest in you now and for the benefit of your future career, even if that career will be with another organisation. How would that make you feel? It’s likely you’d feel valued in both your current role and that your future potential is also being recognised. And that’s a pretty big incentive to stay working for your current organisation for a bit longer at least. Richard Branson’s famous quote from back in 2014 seems even more powerful these days: “Train them well enough so they can leave, but treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
So what else can organisations or managers do to retain their good people? It’s about getting creative and supporting agile careers. Creating opportunities for people to explore other roles – whether through formal secondments or working on other projects – can help them feel like they have development opportunities. Taking on other roles can help people understand what more is possible, but also explore what aspects of a role they like and want to do more of – as well as the opposite.
Provide good learning opportunities from personal development courses, training on new technologies or tools for your profession or industry to help people stay relevant and up to date. Events to share best practice and learn from each other can also work really well. Get creative think about what your teams need to stay connected to the organisation and to help their lifelong learning.
The role of managers in reducing employee churn
At the core of improving employee retention is the relationship between a person and their manager. Being able to have great-quality conversations and managers spotting their peoples’ strengths, then creating opportunities to harness and explore them further, are a great way to improve engagement, and therefore retention. Managers need to really get to know their team members individually, understanding how to motivate and get the best out of them, but also knowing when they are at their best and what work they most enjoy will help to keep people engaged. Always be looking for ways to support your team’s continued growth and development.
Early in my career I was at risk of redundancy and my manager suggested I try a role in a different team. It wasn’t something I would have considered, but with their support I felt confident to apply for the role. It led to me falling in love with learning and development – and I never would have tried it without my manager spotting what I was great at and pointing out an alternative role in which I could use my skills. Strength spotting and giving your team regular feedback and encouragement is a great way to unlock hidden or unrealised potential. Cultivating a culture of feedback where both parties can talk about their strengths and what they could work on improving is a brilliant skill. Working together to find opportunities to improve provides a supportive experience for the employee and builds loyalty. It’s never been more true that people don’t leave bad organisations, they leave bad managers. So the employee-manager relationship is one which needs real focus and care and one of the most important in terms of its impact on employee retention.
Another strategy is to provide Mentoring. Mentoring can be a great way to support someone’s development, providing a dedicated time and space for them to focus on their career, their personal learning and development with someone who isn’t their line manager can be hugely powerful and rewarding experience which makes them feel valued and supported.
It doesn’t have to be as part of an organisation-wide formal mentoring scheme, although I’ve worked with companies doing these in different ways both formal and informal to great effect. Equally, encourage your employees to grow and develop by being a mentor, offer and support opportunities for them to help others flourish.
In this volatile job market, it’s easy to see why employee retention is important – and why investing in your employees learning and career development is a vital ingredient to minimise losing your top talent.
If you want to offer some career coaching or career development sessions to show your employees you want to keep them email me to book a free initial chat about how I could support..
Featured image courtesy of: https://unsplash.com/@theshubhamdhage
