Developing an Effective Retention Policy

For most organizations, investment in employee development is considered to be a strategic imperative. However, like any other investment, it is not risk-free. So, how can one assuage the risk without taking the short-sighted perspective of looking at people as commodities?

You can develop your employees in a number of ways internally and externally by providing training, coaching, 360-degree feedback, job expansion and promotions. The various methods to be followed for an effective retention policy are:

• To offer a competitive benefits package that fits your employees’ needs – It is essential to provide health insurance, life insurance and a retirement savings plan to retain employees. There are other perks like flextime and telecommuting that go a long way to show employees of your willingness to accommodate their outside lives.
• Provide some small perks – Free snacks once a week will not be a bad idea, accompanied with a good conversation with the employees. These things help employees better manage their lives and also appreciate the efforts of the employer.
• Use contests and incentives to help keep workers motivated and feeling rewarded – These programs keep employees focused and excited about their jobs. It fills them with enthusiasm to work more energetically.
• ‘Stay’ interviews must be conducted – In addition to performing exit interviews to learn why employees are leaving, consider asking longer-tenured employees the reason behind them staying for so long. You can ask questions like what makes you happy at workplace? What we can do to help you improve your performance and enhance your motivation? What would you like to change or improve at workplace? What are your suggestions so that we work as high performance organization? The information collected from these questions can be used to strengthen employee retention.
• Promote within whenever possible – An employer should try and give a clear path of advancement to employees. There is a probability that employees become frustrated and stop trying if they see no clear future for themselves in the company.
• Foster employee development – This could be training your employee to learn a new job skill or tuition reimbursement to help further your employee’s education and development.
• Create open communication between employees and the management – It is important to hold regular meetings in which employees can share their ideas and ask questions clarifying their doubts. An organization must have an open-door policy which will encourage the employees to speak frankly with their managers without any fear of repercussion.
• Communicate your business’ mission – If an employee feels connected to the organization’s goals, they will be emotionally and mentally connected to your company with a much more stronger bond that any legal bond that you make them sign.
• Make sure employees know what you expect of them – It seems basic, but often in small companies, employees tend to have a wide breadth of responsibilities. If the employees don’t know exactly what their jobs entail, and your expectations from them, they can’t perform up to a standard and morale begins to dip.

We have many such effective ideas for talent management. To know insights and ideas specific to your industry, get in touch with us. We are expert consultants for Strategic HR and OD Initiatives. Please call us for an enriching interaction and association to improve employee engagement, performance and retention.