If you want to tackle your employee turnover rate, make it easy for workers to stay. These 24 effective retention
When workers leave your organization, it’s not just the loss of a team member. It can be expensive to replace them and can hurt the morale of your employees. A high turnover can also impact productivity as you work to replace an extra set of hands.
So let’s take a look at some field-tested employee retention strategies. These ideas address the most common reasons workers leave. They help you create a work environment where people want to stay.
Send out surveys
If you’re not sure where to start, begin with metrics. Find out what is making your workers consider leaving. Ask what workers are struggling with in the workplace and what would make them stay.
Surveys are only the first step. Once you’ve gotten feedback, create an action list. If you’re hearing that workers are frustrated by one part of your organization, work on changing that. If employees are overworked—for example—you may need to hire more staff or even temps to give your team a break.
Follow up to make sure the change happens. You might want to make surveys a regular part of your operations, as they can help you address problems before they cause someone to quit. They also let you evaluate any initiatives you launch to encourage workers to stay.
Conduct exit interviews
An often-overlooked employee retention strategy is to ask each departing employee why they’re leaving. Once they’ve made up their mind, they may not have much to lose. They may be willing to be honest with you about the problems they’ve faced.
Chances are, others may have some of the same challenges. Fixing the problems you hear about can keep other workers from leaving.
Ask workers who are leaving to explain their decisions. You may find that employees are leaving to pursue better opportunities. They may be leaving because work no longer fits their current circumstances. Either way, you can get a sense of what you may need to change.
Update your onboarding process
Set your workers up for success from their first day. A strong onboarding and training process helps make your team members feel part of the organization right away. It also gives them the information they need to jump into work.
When creating an onboarding process, here are some things you may want to focus on.