Employee retention- Easy ways!!!
I really like the great Quote of Alexander - “there is nothing impossible to him who will try”
Employee retention is one of the ‘Global headaches’ by many Organisation as well as Recruiters. Hiring without any expansion is showing the in effectiveness of talent acquisition. There are many internal/external factors which would adversely affect the employee retention.
During my tenure with last Company, I have seen a lot of employees were leaving the Organisation in a rapid way. Finally I came to know that, we can reduce the attrition on a handsome margin if we look in to the following very sincerely.
I. Regular Employee engagement activities
II. A transparent Performance Management System.
III. Re-evaluate Benefits, rewards and recognition policy.
IV. Employee friendly work environment.\
V. Employee satisfaction survey on a regular basis.
VI. Presence of employee helps desk/ Employee Relationship Dept.
VII. Employee career development program.
VIII. Regular Training.
IX. Education Assistance program.
X. Supporting & promote your Staff welfare schemes.
XI. Change the attitude of Autocratic Managers.
XII. Empowering employees.
XIII. Conduct an effective Exit Interview.
1-Regular Employee engagement activities.
It is very important to maintain the momentum of employee engagement throughout an employee life cycle. From starting to end, he/she should be boosted up through regular engagement activities. There are many ways to engage your employees. Some of them are cost involved and rest are cost free. Let me mention some of them.
Effective communication leads to workers who look more favorably towards their companies. Most important thing is to communicate clearly with your employee regarding latest updates, changes in policy etc on regular basis
Employee connect program would be a better option for effectively engaging the new joinee (pls refer https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engage-your-employees-without-any-cost-hanees-uk?trk=pulse_spock-articles).
Let’s celebrate on their big days and festivals. It provides breaks from monotony and stresses of everyday routine. Office celebrations offer an opportunity to employees to bond and socialize. Common interests are, thus, discovered and employees get to know each other much better. Through this, we can improve the employee morale and boost up the team spirit.
Fun at work place: Let’s have some quiz program through intranet and give some gift to the winner.
Picnics/ Organizational trip to some places on a yearly basis.
Employee performer/GEM of the month celebration (will mention in detail on Rewards & Recognition program)
2- A transparent Performance Management System.
In early 1990s Performance Management System was not very common in all Organisation. Now the scenario has been changed and Management is very keen to implement PMS to achieve business strategy. Before introducing PMS, ensure that it should be transparent and not according to the traditional way of assessing an employee. There must be clear cut goals and employee should be involved in goal setting objectives. They should be kept informed of our expectations. Goals should be specific and reliable. A regular feedback and performance reviews will always help them to grow and achieve the aligned organizational target. Through a transparent PMS, we can improve the morale and loyalty of employees.
3-Re-evaluate Benefits, rewards and recognition policy
Salary bench-marking will also play a vital role in employee existence. Potential employees are more informed than ever about the salaries paid for the same position at multiple companies. To compete for talent, you must be aware of what the market is paying for certain skills and develop fair and reasonable salary ranges in your company.
All employees will be rewarded on the basis of performance given by individuals in the financial year. Through this we can ensure the motivation, engagement, excel and retention. The Increment amount / % will vary every year on the basis of Company’s performance in financial year and all employees will be appraised once in a year in April.
Rewards can be monetary & non monetary.
Non-monetary rewards are the awards/appreciation letters recognition that the employee receives for his/her performance.
Monetary rewards are the salary increments / incentives the employee receives.
Incentives will be disbursed to some specific employees on monthly/quarterly basis depends up on their target Vs achievement.
The higher the rating the higher percentage of increment the employee receives
4-Employee friendly work environment.
Make them feel comfortable and friendly as much as possible since they have been spending 70% of their life in your Organisation. Build a stress free zone at your office by evading too many restrictions and flexibility in working hours.
I can see that many “Big Bosses” are spending much time in CCTV monitoring instead of making business strategy. In Ireland the covert monitoring of employees using CCTV is completely illegal and employers using this tactic could face some serious disciplinary action. The only time that an employer could justify the use of CCTV to monitor staff would be under exceptional circumstances “of a serious nature.”
While framing any rules and regulations ensure that everything should be employee friendly. Keep in mind that human psychology always has a tendency to defend against restrictions.
5-Employee satisfaction survey on a regular basis.
There are many advantages for getting feedback from your employee. Research shows that satisfied, motivated employees will create higher customer satisfaction and in turn positively influence organizational performance.
Regular pulse checks of employee satisfaction and engagement are critical. Take feedback from your employees to improve the operational efficiency. Your employee can be a good judge of your actions. Conduct a confidential employee survey and collect the overall feedback about employee satisfaction, organizational culture, employee engagement and salary.
6-Presence of employee helps desk/ Employee Relationship Dept.
HR is the bridge between the employer and employee and this make the role of HR department very important. There can be small little issues at our workplace; with the seniors, colleagues, juniors within Dept or dealing with customers, etc. This, if not addressed at the right time, can be grown into a big problem/ dimension. These problems can also escalate in the absence of people in a Department who might listen to their problem at workplace, when they are actually not comfortable sharing it with their Boss or Colleagues.
Frame a Employee relationship Dept or Employee help Desk which will listen, help, counsel and advise them accordingly, whenever they have any genuine problem. This will definitely help to decrease attrition.
7-Career development program.
Providing constructive career development opportunities to employees will lead to gain many benefits to the Organisation. There should be a clear Career path policy with in the Organisation which will help to build the self confidence of the employee to stay long in the Organisation. Attractive fast track promotion channel will also reduce the attrition. Let’s retain the right talent and strengthen the succession pipeline. A lot of hidden talents are always be there in any Organisation. You can utilize their skills and expertise through internal promotion /transfer or posting. Most important is that, you should communicate this all to the employee on a regular interval.
8-Regular Training.
Training and developments are very vital in any Organisation that aims at progressing. Nowadays all the Organisations have to invest more into Training and capability building. A recent survey indicates that 40 per cent of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year. Incorporating training and professional development can promote greater job satisfaction, which may lead to employee loyalty and higher productivity. Employee must be provided with regular coaching and guidance in such a manner to boost up their confidence. There should be regular motivation, leadership, product training irrespective of all the roles.
9-Education Assistance program.
Most of the new generation Banking and Financial Companies (ICICI & South Indian Bank just started) have invented in house talent cultivating system through their own Institutes. If we do not have such infrastructure, we may give education support to our employees as aid to up skill and make them future ready. It will ensure the retention for a period of about 3-4 years. We can ask those who opted for the scheme to serve the organisation at least 3 /4 years. It can be partial scholarship / reimbursement programme.
10-Supporting & promote your Staff welfare schemes.
Staff welfare is perceptibly a cost involved and increase your Companies operation cost. Let’s make them aware about the various welfare schemes we are providing. Employee flows will never be an ending process. So it’s very essential that every employee should know about the staff welfare schemes that you have provided. Organisation has spend lot in terms of staff welfare measures. So it’s HR duty to promote and educate your staff welfare schemes within your employee in a useful manner..
11-Change the attitude of Autocratic Managers.
“People Don’t Leave Companies…They Leave Leaders”. As the thought indicates, most of the employees leave the Organisation due to poor Leadership qualities of their superiors. HR should identify the gap between these two and make them comfortable in a diplomatic way. We need to enhance the capability of a team Leader and make them fit for leading a team. If necessary, change their attitude towards employee and the way of speaking and action etc with counseling. Make them understand about the importance to establish a safe place where employees can voice their opinions without fear of how their honesty will affect their position.
11-Empowering employees.
So many companies are built on top-down communication from management. Give employees structured ways to make their thoughts, feelings and observations. Micromanagement activities will always lead the emotion like irritation and stress feeling to the employee. Give them flexibility, encourage in their failures and respect their boundaries. While you want to push your employees to embrace new experiences, you don’t want to shove them so far out of their comfort zone that it becomes a negative experience.
12-Conduct an effective Exit Interview.
Regret to inform you that, my past organisation has a high attrition. Later we have observed that the exit interview has not been done in a proper way. All they have done is just for a formality. We should thoroughly try to find out the exact reason while conducting exit interviews. Through this we can retain at least 18% of employees (As per survey/studies).
All the above mentioned inclines are correlated with each other in one and another way. And also success depends upon the action. It is easy to frame a policy, but the execution level will decide the final result. So why you are waiting…let’s do this and make your Company as Best Places to Work forever!!!
Please share your valuable feedback to pnr478@gmail.com.
From India, Delhi
2I really like the great Quote of Alexander - “there is nothing impossible to him who will try”
Employee retention is one of the ‘Global headaches’ by many Organisation as well as Recruiters. Hiring without any expansion is showing the in effectiveness of talent acquisition. There are many internal/external factors which would adversely affect the employee retention.
During my tenure with last Company, I have seen a lot of employees were leaving the Organisation in a rapid way. Finally I came to know that, we can reduce the attrition on a handsome margin if we look in to the following very sincerely.
I. Regular Employee engagement activities
II. A transparent Performance Management System.
III. Re-evaluate Benefits, rewards and recognition policy.
IV. Employee friendly work environment.\
V. Employee satisfaction survey on a regular basis.
VI. Presence of employee helps desk/ Employee Relationship Dept.
VII. Employee career development program.
VIII. Regular Training.
IX. Education Assistance program.
X. Supporting & promote your Staff welfare schemes.
XI. Change the attitude of Autocratic Managers.
XII. Empowering employees.
XIII. Conduct an effective Exit Interview.
1-Regular Employee engagement activities.
It is very important to maintain the momentum of employee engagement throughout an employee life cycle. From starting to end, he/she should be boosted up through regular engagement activities. There are many ways to engage your employees. Some of them are cost involved and rest are cost free. Let me mention some of them.
Effective communication leads to workers who look more favorably towards their companies. Most important thing is to communicate clearly with your employee regarding latest updates, changes in policy etc on regular basis
Employee connect program would be a better option for effectively engaging the new joinee (pls refer https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engage-your-employees-without-any-cost-hanees-uk?trk=pulse_spock-articles).
Let’s celebrate on their big days and festivals. It provides breaks from monotony and stresses of everyday routine. Office celebrations offer an opportunity to employees to bond and socialize. Common interests are, thus, discovered and employees get to know each other much better. Through this, we can improve the employee morale and boost up the team spirit.
Fun at work place: Let’s have some quiz program through intranet and give some gift to the winner.
Picnics/ Organizational trip to some places on a yearly basis.
Employee performer/GEM of the month celebration (will mention in detail on Rewards & Recognition program)
2- A transparent Performance Management System.
In early 1990s Performance Management System was not very common in all Organisation. Now the scenario has been changed and Management is very keen to implement PMS to achieve business strategy. Before introducing PMS, ensure that it should be transparent and not according to the traditional way of assessing an employee. There must be clear cut goals and employee should be involved in goal setting objectives. They should be kept informed of our expectations. Goals should be specific and reliable. A regular feedback and performance reviews will always help them to grow and achieve the aligned organizational target. Through a transparent PMS, we can improve the morale and loyalty of employees.
3-Re-evaluate Benefits, rewards and recognition policy
Salary bench-marking will also play a vital role in employee existence. Potential employees are more informed than ever about the salaries paid for the same position at multiple companies. To compete for talent, you must be aware of what the market is paying for certain skills and develop fair and reasonable salary ranges in your company.
All employees will be rewarded on the basis of performance given by individuals in the financial year. Through this we can ensure the motivation, engagement, excel and retention. The Increment amount / % will vary every year on the basis of Company’s performance in financial year and all employees will be appraised once in a year in April.
Rewards can be monetary & non monetary.
Non-monetary rewards are the awards/appreciation letters recognition that the employee receives for his/her performance.
Monetary rewards are the salary increments / incentives the employee receives.
Incentives will be disbursed to some specific employees on monthly/quarterly basis depends up on their target Vs achievement.
The higher the rating the higher percentage of increment the employee receives
4-Employee friendly work environment.
Make them feel comfortable and friendly as much as possible since they have been spending 70% of their life in your Organisation. Build a stress free zone at your office by evading too many restrictions and flexibility in working hours.
I can see that many “Big Bosses” are spending much time in CCTV monitoring instead of making business strategy. In Ireland the covert monitoring of employees using CCTV is completely illegal and employers using this tactic could face some serious disciplinary action. The only time that an employer could justify the use of CCTV to monitor staff would be under exceptional circumstances “of a serious nature.”
While framing any rules and regulations ensure that everything should be employee friendly. Keep in mind that human psychology always has a tendency to defend against restrictions.
5-Employee satisfaction survey on a regular basis.
There are many advantages for getting feedback from your employee. Research shows that satisfied, motivated employees will create higher customer satisfaction and in turn positively influence organizational performance.
Regular pulse checks of employee satisfaction and engagement are critical. Take feedback from your employees to improve the operational efficiency. Your employee can be a good judge of your actions. Conduct a confidential employee survey and collect the overall feedback about employee satisfaction, organizational culture, employee engagement and salary.
6-Presence of employee helps desk/ Employee Relationship Dept.
HR is the bridge between the employer and employee and this make the role of HR department very important. There can be small little issues at our workplace; with the seniors, colleagues, juniors within Dept or dealing with customers, etc. This, if not addressed at the right time, can be grown into a big problem/ dimension. These problems can also escalate in the absence of people in a Department who might listen to their problem at workplace, when they are actually not comfortable sharing it with their Boss or Colleagues.
Frame a Employee relationship Dept or Employee help Desk which will listen, help, counsel and advise them accordingly, whenever they have any genuine problem. This will definitely help to decrease attrition.
7-Career development program.
Providing constructive career development opportunities to employees will lead to gain many benefits to the Organisation. There should be a clear Career path policy with in the Organisation which will help to build the self confidence of the employee to stay long in the Organisation. Attractive fast track promotion channel will also reduce the attrition. Let’s retain the right talent and strengthen the succession pipeline. A lot of hidden talents are always be there in any Organisation. You can utilize their skills and expertise through internal promotion /transfer or posting. Most important is that, you should communicate this all to the employee on a regular interval.
8-Regular Training.
Training and developments are very vital in any Organisation that aims at progressing. Nowadays all the Organisations have to invest more into Training and capability building. A recent survey indicates that 40 per cent of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year. Incorporating training and professional development can promote greater job satisfaction, which may lead to employee loyalty and higher productivity. Employee must be provided with regular coaching and guidance in such a manner to boost up their confidence. There should be regular motivation, leadership, product training irrespective of all the roles.
9-Education Assistance program.
Most of the new generation Banking and Financial Companies (ICICI & South Indian Bank just started) have invented in house talent cultivating system through their own Institutes. If we do not have such infrastructure, we may give education support to our employees as aid to up skill and make them future ready. It will ensure the retention for a period of about 3-4 years. We can ask those who opted for the scheme to serve the organisation at least 3 /4 years. It can be partial scholarship / reimbursement programme.
10-Supporting & promote your Staff welfare schemes.
Staff welfare is perceptibly a cost involved and increase your Companies operation cost. Let’s make them aware about the various welfare schemes we are providing. Employee flows will never be an ending process. So it’s very essential that every employee should know about the staff welfare schemes that you have provided. Organisation has spend lot in terms of staff welfare measures. So it’s HR duty to promote and educate your staff welfare schemes within your employee in a useful manner..
11-Change the attitude of Autocratic Managers.
“People Don’t Leave Companies…They Leave Leaders”. As the thought indicates, most of the employees leave the Organisation due to poor Leadership qualities of their superiors. HR should identify the gap between these two and make them comfortable in a diplomatic way. We need to enhance the capability of a team Leader and make them fit for leading a team. If necessary, change their attitude towards employee and the way of speaking and action etc with counseling. Make them understand about the importance to establish a safe place where employees can voice their opinions without fear of how their honesty will affect their position.
11-Empowering employees.
So many companies are built on top-down communication from management. Give employees structured ways to make their thoughts, feelings and observations. Micromanagement activities will always lead the emotion like irritation and stress feeling to the employee. Give them flexibility, encourage in their failures and respect their boundaries. While you want to push your employees to embrace new experiences, you don’t want to shove them so far out of their comfort zone that it becomes a negative experience.
12-Conduct an effective Exit Interview.
Regret to inform you that, my past organisation has a high attrition. Later we have observed that the exit interview has not been done in a proper way. All they have done is just for a formality. We should thoroughly try to find out the exact reason while conducting exit interviews. Through this we can retain at least 18% of employees (As per survey/studies).
All the above mentioned inclines are correlated with each other in one and another way. And also success depends upon the action. It is easy to frame a policy, but the execution level will decide the final result. So why you are waiting…let’s do this and make your Company as Best Places to Work forever!!!
Please share your valuable feedback to pnr478@gmail.com.
From India, Delhi
Employee retention is one of the Global headaches by many Organisation as well as Recruiters. Hiring without any expansion is showing the in effectiveness of talent acquisition. There are many internal/external factors which would adversely affect the employee retention.
During my tenure with last Company, I have seen a lot of employees were leaving the Organisation in a rapid way. Finally I came to know that, we can reduce the attrition on a handsome margin if we look in to the following very sincerely.
From India, Delhi
During my tenure with last Company, I have seen a lot of employees were leaving the Organisation in a rapid way. Finally I came to know that, we can reduce the attrition on a handsome margin if we look in to the following very sincerely.
From India, Delhi
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Effective employee retention strategies-BPO. doc