According to HR experts, a weakened economy has left many employees sheltering in place. And according to data, employers are mistaking low attrition rates for great company culture.
In reality, many employees are simply biding their time until a better opportunity comes around. As hiring rates stabilize and new regulations make it easier for them to leave, what’s to keep them from making the leap?
To attract and retain your best people, it’s time to boost employee engagement. Here are five tactics to help you keep attrition down as workers shop around.
Employee engagement then vs. now
It’s been a weird few years in the world of hiring. Driven by poor management, unpredictable schedules, and less tolerance for toxic working cultures following the pandemic, millions of workers quit their jobs in the spring of 2021.
Experts dubbed this the Great Reshuffle, a time when dissatisfied workers didn’t simply resign – they totally reconfigured their careers. Employees around the world sought out roles that offered better flexibility, stability, and alignment between personal and company values.
As a result, many industries were left scrambling for talent. But as the economy improves and employees start to gain back their bargaining power, employers may find that HR history often repeats itself.
According to our annual Hiring Challenges Survey, competition from other companies is one of the top three recruiting challenges for employers, right after finding candidates who stay. To keep your company a step ahead of the next talent trend, it’s time to revisit your employee engagement strategy.
5 market-proof strategies to engage and retain top talent
Don’t get lost in the next great reshuffle. By proactively addressing feedback and re-engaging employees, you can give team members an opportunity to speak and a reason to stay.
Here are five employee engagement initiatives to get you started.
1. Listen to employee concerns
Anyone with the resources can put together an attractive benefits package. But not everyone will make the day-to-day changes that show you truly care.
Today’s employees don’t want more talk – they want action. According to Gallup, less than a quarter of workers trust company leadership. And if labor strikes against giant employer brands like Amazon and Walgreens have taught us anything, it’s that workers want to be listened to and heard.
“Simply hearing employees and feigning empathy without truly understanding them won’t suffice. Leaders need to make a concerted effort to understand their employees’ feelings and perspectives,” explains leadership speaker and author Chris Dyer in an article for Fast Company. “Don’t just listen, show interest. Engage with the speaker by asking questions that require more than a yes or no answer.”
Review your performance management cycle and make sure you have a clear framework for setting goals, discussing performance progress, and creating a plan for solving blockers and burnout risks along the way.
Here are some tips to help you reignite the right conversations:
- Send out employee pulse surveys. Create anonymous employee surveys to gather candid feedback on employee satisfaction and workplace issues.
- Present findings to C-suite. Compile and present the survey results to leadership, emphasizing key areas of concern. Share data on how these issues are impacting costs, sales and revenue.
- Create an action plan. Work with employees to develop a plan to address the identified issues. Be clear about what can and can’t be changed and follow through with a timeline and assigned responsibilities for managers and employees.
2. Help employees grow
Employees crave progress. Whether that means better pay, new learning opportunities, or evolving responsibilities – no one wants to feel stagnant.
After doing the same job for more than a year or two, formerly engaged employees can start getting antsy. And hiring high performers will only take you so far if you’re not prepared to support their professional growth. So how can you keep growing your employees within your organization?
“Take the time to help [employees] identify their unique skills and what drives their passion,”
CEO of Lucid Software Dave Grow explains. “Have regular check-ins with your teams to uncover a deeper understanding of them, their goals, and professional development within the company.”
If you don’t provide the opportunity to grow, your employees will find it somewhere else. According to data, 72% of Gen Z workers say they’d leave a job that doesn't offer career development opportunities.
Start creating (or recreating) your employee development strategy with the following tips:
- Collect employee feedback. Gather input from your one-on-one check-ins and employee engagement surveys. What are their career goals and development needs? What tasks make them feel most energized? What’s draining their time or energy? What specific new skills do they need to learn in order to reach the next level?
- Develop a tailored plan. Create a growth plan that outlines opportunities for advancement and learning within the organization. How can you combine work and learning? Which specific milestones does the employee need to reach to move forward? What will the internal interview process involve? Lay it all out in black and white to avoid any misconceptions or hard feelings.
- Monitor and support. Don’t wait until the stay interview to let employees know you care. Use your employee performance reviews to check in and offer support, adjusting the plan as employees grow and goals evolve.
3. Pay fairly
Money matters. Maybe not as much as a remote work environment or flexible work-life balance, but it’s still a key deciding factor. And that’s especially true for the 70% of young workers who rate salary as important or very important in their decision to remain in their current role.
Meanwhile, 82% of employees believe their organizations should raise pay to match inflation. If you’re paying employees less than market value, you could be risking a lot more than you’re saving. With the average cost of hiring a new employee sitting around $4,700, employee retention is one of the most expensive problems you can have.
“The simple answer is to match the industry standards and to consciously choose to pay people what they deserve,” CEO of WPBeginner Syed Balkhi notes. “Set a standard, document it, and then follow through. If you’re focusing on skills and deliverability, it becomes clear and easy to keep things equal for all your employees.”
Balance your pay scale with these tips:
- Conduct regular pay equity audits. Regularly assess and compare salaries within your organization to identify and correct disparities. This ensures that all employees are compensated fairly, regardless of gender or ethnicity.
- Keep it transparent. Salary transparency is key to fairness. Make salary ranges public within the organization so employees know how compensation is determined and can discuss it openly.
- Offer competitive salaries. Regularly benchmark your pay scales against industry standards and competitive employer brands to ensure salaries remain attractive.
4. Track employee engagement metrics
People decisions are the hardest to make. That’s why it’s important to back up your decision-making and reinforce your company’s mission with the right set of data.
To find the real costs and profitability gains from a change in employee engagement, consider tracking the following key metrics:
- Employee turnover rate. This formula calculates the percentage of employees who leave a company and need to be replaced over a period of time. To find your turnover rate, divide the number of employees who left over the total number of employees for the same period and multiply by 100.
- Absenteeism. Absenteeism, or chronic absence, can be a sign of underlying issues like low job satisfaction and even poor mental health. To figure out where you stand with absenteeism, divide the number of absent days by the number of available work days.
- Employee retention rate. This formula calculates the number of employees who stayed with your company over a specific period of time. First, subtract the number of employees who left from your total employee count. Then, divide that number by your total number of employees and multiply by 100 to find your retention rate.
5. Foster strong workplace relationships
Strong working relationships are the bedrock of any engaged workforce and according to Gallup, people with best friends at work are also less likely to look for a new job. Not only that, 65% of Gen Z workers say they would quit their job if they didn’t get along with their coworkers. So what can you do to foster that closeness?
“Other employees who were thrown into the world of remote or hybrid work found that their best friend at work helped keep them informed, accountable and connected to their team,” explains the research team at Gallup. “And when workloads are heavy, your best friend at work is someone you feel accountable to, someone you don't want to let down. As a result, you naturally want to go the extra mile for them on a project.”
Here are a few ways to make employees feel like part of the team:
- Highlight shared goals. Emphasize why the work matters and explain how each person’s individual contributions factor into the broader goal.
- Don’t forget remote employees. When planning team-building activities, don’t forget to include any members of the team who don’t have the opportunity to come into the office. Something as simple as a virtual happy hour or a small stipend for a virtual team lunch can be a great way to make them feel included.
- Make team meetings fun again. Who said team meetings have to be boring? Incorporate fun trivia questions, add a little gamification to the mix, and try refreshing your old icebreakers.
Don’t get lost in the great reshuffle
As the next Great Reshuffle looms nearer, keeping your top talent engaged is more important than ever. Stay ahead of the competition and give your top performers a reason to stick around by taking time to level up the employee experience.
Set, share, and celebrate goals with Breezy Perform. With everything you need to engage your employees in a single place, you can drop the admin and modernize your performance cycle. Get started in minutes. Try Breezy Perform today.
