Tips To Create Employee Retention Strategies For Every Department
Successful employee retention strategies are all about balance. You need to reduce turnover across the board. As such, incentive schemes and online training resources need to resonate with everyone. Then again, they should also be custom-tailored for specific job roles and motivational factors. The question is, how do you find a happy medium? Below are 7 top tips to develop a winning employee retention plan across different departments, so that you can hold on to your top performers and build a stronger organizational culture.
7 Winning Employee Retention Strategies
1. Look For Patterns And Pain Points
You can usually find a common thread among your staffers when it comes to job satisfaction and workplace performance. Evaluate LMS metrics, business reports, and employee surveys to look for patterns and pain points. For instance, 45% of your staffers report that they feel like they’ve hit the ceiling. There’s nowhere for them to go because your company doesn’t have enough advancement opportunities. Or maybe the issue is online training personalization. There are too many generic courses and they need resources that fill relevant gaps.
2. Figure Out What Drives Your Top Talent
Everyone has their own reason for staying with your organization. The same goes for online training participation. So, find out what drives your top performers in every department. Conduct focus groups and interviews to evaluate their key motivators and challenges. Of course, salary and benefits are usually near the top of the list. Beyond that, what are they looking for, and is your company giving them what they need? What are their career goals? Would they change anything about your current incentives schemes or L&D program? You can use this data to develop an employee retention plan for every department because it represents a good cross-section.
3. Create Role-Specific Resources
Develop online training resources based on specific duties, tasks, or roles to retain top talent. Personalized L&D gives every employee the chance to maximize their potential and prepare for the next stage of their journey. They can even train for different departments if they want to embark on a new career path within your organization as the role-specific resources focus on relevant skills, processes, and policies. Another approach is to create certification courses within each department. For example, the customer service team has ten different paths to choose from, and another five for the management track.
4. Ask For Manager Input Early On
A solid organizational culture and employee retention plan starts with feedback. Set up a meeting with team leaders to see what they think of your current strategy. Then ask for their suggestions based on their department’s performance. If employees are unhappy about any aspect of their job, managers are usually the first to hear about it, after coworkers, of course. As such, supervisors can give you the inside scoop about staffer satisfaction and company shortcomings. Managers also have a high-level overview of their team and its emerging trends. For instance, none of their employees have officially given a two-week notice, but there is a drop in productivity. Plus, fewer staffers are using the learning management system to upskill and broaden their know-how. These are tell-tale signs that your employee retention plan needs work.
5. Reevaluate Your Company Culture
You should also take a closer look at your company culture and brand values. Are you a tight-knit community that supports one another? Or is it every person for themselves? Ultimately, your core beliefs and principles set the tone for your employee retention strategy. For instance, you treat employees more like machines than human beings. They’re merely an asset instead of a valued member of the team. Thus, they probably won’t stick around if there are other job opportunities available.
6. Analyze Exit Surveys
There are a variety of reasons why employees leave your company. Maybe they’re relocating or need a bigger salary, or it might boil down to misaligned values. Evaluate exit surveys to see why they left and then focus on things you can change. For instance, you really can’t do anything about salary if you’ve already reached your payroll limit. Then again, you can make up for it in other ways, such as offering exclusive online training opportunities and incentives. In terms of relocating, you might give them the chance to telecommute so that they stay with your organization. Exit surveys are usually more honest and insightful than current employee polls because they have nothing to lose. They’re already leaving. So, now is the time to open up about the experience, both good and bad.
7. Hire A TNA And Employee Retention Strategies Specialist
If you choose to outsource, you should consider content providers that specialize in Training Needs Analysis and employee retention, as they can help you identify issues with your plan, assess employee satisfaction, then devise new ideas. Hiring them early on in the process is the best way to overhaul your program and shake things up. For example, they can evaluate LMS metrics, exit surveys, and manager reports to look for areas for improvement. Then they move on to incentives schemes that target all your pain points.
Conclusion
Finding the best employee retention strategies for your team often involves trial and error. You have to determine what works best for your budget and taps into the employees' internal drive. For instance, one incentive scheme might appeal to a certain department but falls flat with other team members. This is yet another reason to hire an eLearning content provider, as outsourcing partners have tried and tested employee retention programs examples to help you improve your strategy.
How do you hold on to your top talent? Download our eBook Employee Retention Strategies: How To Retain Talent And Bring Business Success for secrets to retain staffers and create a strong brand culture.
