Employee Retention Ideas

Retaining employees is a task cut out for Human Resource (HR) managers. There are certain scenarios wherein a manager can do little to prevent an employee from leaving. These are the few 'out of the blue' cases like - an employee deciding to move out of the country; personal illness not allowing him to work any longer; a higher-education, etc.

In these circumstances, it is difficult for a manager to convince an employee to stay on. But, as mentioned before, these scenarios are quite rare and the main reason behind employees leaving an organization is the lack of job-satisfaction.

Before we go and divulge some details on employee retention ideas, it is important that we get down to the root cause of the problem, and the first step towards this is to know why employees leave in the first place.

• The expectations of the employee are not met.
• The employee is not satisfied with the functioning of the management.
• The employee feels that he can't grow in the organization.
• The employee feels that he is under-paid.

• The employee feels that his work is not being recognized.
• The employee feels that his workplace is a sweatshop.
• The employee feels stagnated, and feels changing the organization will challenge him.
• The employee feels that his job is not secure.

'If the employees have a problem, they will talk to me', this is one of the common statements that we get to hear from HR managers these days, but this might not be the right thing to do, and it is always better to take a proactive approach in solving all the professional issues of your employees.

It has been generally seen that employees inadvertently show some signs while they are contemplating making a shift, and as a manager it becomes your responsibility to look-out for these signs and work on them. Let us take a look at some signs which can help you in gauging whether an employee is considering quitting your company.

This is easier said than done, as today there are so many ways in which employees make the HR managers believe that they are the right choice for the job. But, if you grill the employee a bit more during the interview, chances are that he/she can make revelations which can be an indicator for you to decide if the candidate is worth investing in.

So, HR managers should carefully fact-find as to why the candidate needs the job. Sustained questions may give you an insight about the candidate's behavior. Also, a thorough background check is necessary to be sure about the employee's credentials.

If you are planning to start out any new projects or you have reviewed company policies, make sure that you communicate it to all your employees. This helps in keeping rumors at bay.

Don't wait for the employee to knock on your door. Instead reach out to them by conducting one-to-ones and assuring them that whatever they discuss will remain truly confidential. This can help in cases where female employees are facing harassment from their immediate superiors but think that the person is far too important for the company to complain about.

Conducting employee satisfaction surveys also helps the organization to take a retrospective view of itself. Make the employees believe that whatever issues that they are facing would be looked into.

Doing the same job everyday brings a monotony in an employee's professional life. This is also one of the reasons for employees quitting the organization.

Every employee wants to climb the corporate ladder so it is the job of the organization to provide enough growth opportunities from time to time. This can be done by having internal job promotions, where the employees can compete against each other to go one step up in the organization. This also helps in employee motivation.

Be flexible in your approach when it comes to accommodating employee's requests for leaves, vacations, etc. Because apart from being employees, they have a personal life as well. This promotes goodwill among the employees.

Allow the employees to come up with ideas. Never under-estimate their potential, this way may be you can create future leaders for your organization.

Well not all employees leave because of money, but most of them do! Having a fair compensation package plays an important part in job satisfaction. Ensure that you reward exceptional performance with incentives and tenure with a healthy raise.

Employee turnover is the ratio of the number of employees that have to be replaced in a given time period to the average number of employees. In other words, employee turnover gives the managers an idea about the number of employees leaving the organization in a particular time-frame.

All companies brainstorm on improving employee retention and look forward to that golden mantra with which they will be able to retain their good employees. As Jeffrey Pfeffer says, "Retention is the key to economic success ", a sound employee retention plan is the need of the hour.