Retention of High Potential Employees
Employee Retention
Employee retention concerns are emerging as the most critical workforce management challenges of the immediate future. Recent studies have shown that in the future, successful organizations will be those which acclimatize their organizational behavior to the realities of the current work environment where longevity and success depend upon flexibility and innovation. In fact, the dynamics of the work environment will have to reflect a diverse population consists of individuals whose motivations, beliefs and value structures differ vastly from the past and from one another. This occurrence is especially true in light of current economic uncertainty and following corporate downsizings when the impact of losing key employees increases exponentially.
Impending shortage of highly-skilled employees who possess the indispensable knowledge and ability to perform at high levels suggest that companies are failing to retain high performers. Ultimately, understaffed and less qualified workforce hinders organizations ability to remain competitive in this evolving market. Therefore, need of an hour is to develop employee retention strategies and get them to stay.
Employee Retaining Tips
Retaining talent is the top priority now while managers facing a difficult challenge of motivating and retaining the employees in an environment of increased uncertainties. Retention strategies are those which effectively satisfy the needs of all employees and consequently enhance the ability for companies to adapt more effectively to ongoing organizational progress. High employee turnover especially in service and knowledge based industries results in opportunity loss, reduction in customer loyalty, and lower productivity. Researchers suggest that losing at talented employee/manager creates direct dent in customer satisfaction, potential business opportunity and overall moral of organization. Therefore, it is imperative to retain key employees who are critical to the long-term success and health of your business.
The following list of retention factors are not meant to be exhaustive of all the possible theories related to employee retention and turnover. Rather, it’s a review of retention factors that will surely work towards the preservation of an organizations most valuable asset – employees.
- Skill Recognition: Acknowledgment of individual’s work accomplishments, enhances individual performance, effectiveness, and prolongs employment.
- Working Environment: Findings from recent research show that the appreciative approach, operational and professional freedom and open culture, positively influences employee retention.
- Training: Research supports that Training benefits whether tangible or intangible; associate with higher levels of adaptability, consistency, competency, productivity, independence, and loyalty in employees at any age
- Benefits: Smart employers always use variety of monetary or non-monetary compensation strategies to retain their valued employees. These include
- Offer stock options
- Provide Childcare facilities or other benefits that reduce work life stress
- Arrange for professional learning related support
- Fund fitness/ club membership, networking related support etc.
- Enhance involvement in organizational decision making
- Timely and Transparent Communication: This looks easy but many organizations fail miserably in ensuring this. Timeliness and transparency in communications is most effective tool to build strong relationship with high potentials based on trust and openness. Transparency related to decisions that are close to employee hearts (project assignments, promotions, increments, designations changes, pay/benefits eligibilities etc.) have greater impact on talent retention and motivation.
- Innovative Compensation and Benefit approaches: An attractive benefits package will not only retains valuable staff but also helps sustain high morale.
Needless to say, retaining your best employees with these mentioned measures ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied co-workers and reporting staff, effective succession planning. However, one thing is sure that employers find replacement and hidden organizational cost very high while employees find the fiscal and psychological costs extremely challenging to survive in one workplace for long. Thus, a company must strive be more transparent, open and competitive in the market.
Take a look at your organization. What is your management team doing to preserve the top talent? If you wish to know more about the methods of retaining employees in your organization, get in touch with us. We are a team of highly qualified and experienced professionals in HRM and OD practices based out of Pune.