How to improve Employee Retention Rate especially in Business Slowdowns
“People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and reward” – Dale Carnegie
The challenging economic environment today, presents many demanding and intense perspectives where layoffs, bailouts and foreclosures are common anxieties. As stress and anxieties increase, the pressure cooker like situation does not appear to have an early resolution unless organizations take cognizance and adopt a more humane approach.
According to the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Report of 2017, one key trend says – “The employee experience: Culture, engagement and beyond”.
Employee retention, needs to focus on building an overall employee experience as a culmination of the following:
All-encompassing goal setting: Employees want to understand exactly what tasks they are trying to accomplish individually, and as part of a team and corporation. Today’s generation does not want a target to be thrown at them, they want to be part of the process of target setting with a perspective on their contribution towards the big picture.
Continuous Communication and feedback: Communication is the key to any effective human resource process. Likewise, it is said that “Good people move on – either psychologically or physically – when their hunger for feedback isn’t satisfied.” Hence, creating a transparent workplace through communicating and sharing is a basic leadership requirement today. Leaders need to have short, frequent conversations with their team members about their career development. Provide constructive feedback regularly and look at setting up people for continuous success.
Work environment – essential in creating the employee experience: If we spend about a third of our lives sleeping and about another third working, doesn’t it make sense for a company to provide a workplace experience that allows us to fulfill our personal and professional goals? A workplace must meet the employees’ emotional, intellectual, physical, technological and cultural needs, and this can lead to creating a deeper emotional bond.
Recognition and appreciation: Organization’s need to care for employees who in turn care for the organization. Former CEO of General Electric Jack Welch stated, “The top 20% must be loved, nurtured and rewarded in the soul and wallet because they are the ones who make magic happen.” Recognizing employees is a key to showing the employee that the organization does in fact care. It is said that nearly 80% of employees who quit their jobs do so mainly because of a lack of recognition and appreciation for their efforts. One of Sir Richard Branson’s most famous quotes says, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.”
Learning Opportunity: Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report for 2017 on careers and learning says – real time, all the time. The opportunities to constantly invest in the development and growth has become one of the key drivers in employee retention. So much so that the organization needs to take it on themselves to ensure that the employees aspirations of learning and growth are looked after.
By- Snehasish Bhattacharyya, Vice President- Human Resources at Jubilant MotorWorks Pvt. Ltd
