What Companies Get Wrong About Retention

About 1 in every 4 workers quit their job this year, and this rate is set to grow before 2021 ends.

The number of people quitting or switching jobs is unheard of but not surprising, as more and more people have begun to completely reevaluate what work means to them and their personal values during this pandemic. However, it is catching many employers by surprise. Businesses in certain sectors like leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, retail and other service jobs have been taking most of the hit.

These high turnover rates were also led by women and long-time, or tenured, employees. Now, it’s no longer the case to assume that individuals who are quitting their jobs are simply young professionals making a transition in their life. This is something that employers are able to predict and prepare for. 

Losing mid-career or experienced professionals can cause much bigger disruptions within organizations. In addition, these types of employees are more expensive to replace, and tend to take longer to replace as well. Companies will need to start paying more attention to the data from these resignations in order to gather information so they can implement effective strategies to change their trajectory. 

One-Size-Fits-All Approach

A lot of employers are continuing to approach their retention efforts the way they had before the pandemic, using a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, using compensation reviews, using the same old recognition programs, using surveys for feedback on employee experience, and matching roles and performance with market rates. 

However, the situation we are in today is not like any others and calls for a different type of response to the data. Many employers prescribe solutions when they don’t understand or know where things are breaking down. Whether that be in the department, the team or on an individual level. 

Instead of launching company-wide surveys to find out how employees feel, it’s best to start looking at exit patterns. Find out who is leaving, what department they were in and how their quitting impacts the business. This gives managers a better idea of where the problems may lie, rather than measuring and averaging out employee sentiment throughout the entire company. 

When organizations make the effort to identify the groups that are in the most need for help in retention, they can then take specific actions to support these workers rather than just dole out generic programs and incentives. 

It’s also very important that employers measure employee satisfaction using a number of different types of feedback such as opinion surveys, or one-on-one meetings between managers and employees, to make sure that everyone understands what is going well and what needs improvement. 

Once employers understand what is causing their employees to be dissatisfied or what makes them leave, then they should be sure to implement solutions that directly deal with the root causes of the issues. Having focus on a specific approach is crucial, and employers should pay attention to employees who have expressed intentions to leave. 

One of the worst responses to this moment of turnover is mistakenly thinking that there is nothing an employer can do about it. There is always a solution and something you can do, whether it be going from person to person to understand their decision and create opportunities based on what they would need to change their mind. 

You can boost your employee retention efforts by using gamified platforms such as 1Huddle. You can use our platform to help you understand what’s working for your employees, while also keeping them engaged. 

Do you want to learn more about how 1Huddle’s gamified training platform can help you level up your own workforce? Request a demo today.