A moderate level of staff turnover can be good for a business – you build on talent, fresh ideas and approaches, and it can prevent complacency. However, with the current increase in vacancies within the market and the decrease in applicants, it is more important than ever to have a strategy in place to retain your high performers.
Benefits of employee retention:
• Motivated employees
• A positive culture
• Greater productivity
• Increased revenue
• Dedicated company experts.
Building upon your retention strategy is something your recruitment partner can help with. Why not take advantage of their knowledge and use it to your advantage?
In the meantime, here are 5 ideas to improve retention within your business…
1. Manage with empathy - Managers who are able to demonstrate that they genuinely care about their employees and are able to meet their evolving needs, are in a stronger position to retain their talent. The skill of listening and responding with empathy is a critical driver of overall performance. Yet according to HR and leadership figures, only 40% of frontline leaders are considered proficient in empathy. This is where leadership training is a good investment.
2. Update and review reward packages - The emphasis on rewards and benefits – even over salary, has shifted since the pandemic. We place a greater priority on mental health, wellbeing and happiness. By reviewing your offers and ensuring consistency with your employee’s job role and needs, you reduce the risk of your highest performers leaving to find opportunities elsewhere with better reward packages.
3. Revisit your 'flexible working' policies - This can improve employee work/life balance. A recent study has found that nine out of ten employees consider flexible working to be the biggest work motivator, more so than financial reward. However, flexible working involves much more than changing the location of your desk and some extra technology. It requires a significant cultural change with new behaviours and ways of managing teams and collaborating.
4. Cut out workplace toxicity and micro-management - One of the top reasons that employees leave their jobs is because of a toxic environment or a manager that micro-manages them. More often than not, toxic culture stems from one or few central sources and then spreads like wildfire. Therefore, one of the most important things an organisation can do for the happiness and motivation of their entire workforce is cut out the thing that is making everyone’s time at work a bad experience. To repair a toxic culture, intervention needs to come from the top down with policies which hold everyone accountable. Bringing in a third party consultant can sometimes be beneficial.
5. Know your figures - Measuring the level of turnover is vital when building a retention strategy. For an annual figure, a simple formula is to divide the number of employees on the last day of the year by the number of employees of the first day, then multiply that number by 100 to convert it to a percentage. Although figures vary between industries, the average turnover rate in the UK is 15%. It’s a good idea to track those who have retired, been made redundant or dismissed – to get a better idea on numbers. But perhaps what’s even more important is investigating why people leave. This is where exit interviews are extremely helpful. Using an external provider to conduct exit interviews will allow you to capture more accurate data. And to minimise turnover further, it makes good business sense to consider the experiences of your current workforce. You can do this by sharing confidential questionnaires with your teams.
Get in touch with Omega
If you have a high volume of temporary or permanent workers and need dedicated, proactive and consistent management of your workforce, the Managed Serviced Programmes with Omega is the solution.
If you’d like to see what our clients think, take a look at this short video and decide if you’d like to join them. One of our clients has been with us for 18 years!
An Overview of Omega:
Founded in 1998, Omega is an award-winning recruitment company that is part of the Staffline group.
Omega focus on delivering high-value, bespoke recruitment solutions using our in-depth knowledge of the automotive, aerospace, engineering, manufacturing, power energy renewables, logistics and professional services markets. With a large network of recruitment experts, we have the ability to deliver specialised services on any scale.
We build progressive long-term client partnerships through dedicated management of permanent, contract and temporary recruitment. Whether Executive Search, permanent, contract, temporary or Managed Service programmes, Omega has the experience to meet and exceed your expectations, providing real, proven services.
Find out more at: www.omegaresource.co.uk