Employee Retention - Introduction
It is impossible for an organization to survive if its top performers quit. It is essential for the management to retain its valuable employees who think in favor of the organization and contribute their level best. An organization needs employees who are loyal and work hard with full dedication to achieve the organization’s objective.
Employee Retention is defined as an organization’s ability to retain its employees. It can also be called as a process, in which the resources are motivated and encouraged to stay in an organization for a longer period of time for the sustainability of the organization.
The ultimate aim of Employee Retention is to make both the stakeholders, i.e., employees and employer happier. It facilitates loyal employees sticking to the company for a longer duration, which in turn will benefit both the stakeholders.
Employee retention is not just a matter that can be dealt with records and reports. It purely depends upon how the employers understand the various concerns of the employees and how they help them resolve their problem, when they are in need.
Every organization spends time and invests money in grooming new employees and make them corporate-ready. The organization will be in complete loss, if such employees quit after they are fully trained.
Objectives of Employee Retention
It is very important for an organization to attract, hire, and retain the right resources. Most of the organizations are very effective, when it comes to attracting and hiring new talents, but they fail in retaining the same talents.
There can be many reasons for an employee to leave an organization. It is very essential for an organization to know the reasons, which can help the organization in making the job attractive and encourage the employees to stay with the organization.
The first and foremost requirement is to measure the key factors which influence the retention rates, such as salary expectations, employee engagement, working environment and boss/managers. Once these measurements are identified, the initiatives are to be planned and to be implemented for improvement of the retention rate.
The HR department has to provide the line managers with the right tools to retain talented employees. The retain policy should be designed with flexible schemes that can be changed according to the prevailing conditions. It is the manager who can influence the employee, but the Human Resources department has to provide the managers with the required tools and channels to influence the employees effectively.
In an organization, the core driver of retention policies are the strategies behind them. The team of line managers and the leaders are the owners of the documentation and the HR department has to measure the progress, successes and failures of the strategies applied. The ownership of the strategies falls on the team of line managers and the leaders, who need to protect the work interests of the employees and retain them.
Finally, the retention program has to be measured. The HR department has to measure the performance of the retention plan. They should measure the difference in the turnover, the development of the attrition and the satisfaction of employees in the program.
Employee Retention Strategies
Most organizations apply the following strategies to retain their employees −
Create open communication between employees and management.
Conduct "stay" interviews.
Provide some small perks.
Offer financial rewards.
Make sure employees know what you expect of them.
Use healthy competition and incentives to help keep workers motivated and make them feel rewarded.
Foster employee development.
Promote from within, whenever possible.
Employee retention also refers to the various policies and practices applied within an organization for employees to stick to their jobs and fulfill their responsibilities over a longer period of time.
