Seven Ultimate Tips To Retain Top Talent Of Your Organization
“People work for money, but recognition and praise come along with it.”
It goes without saying that when one of your best-performing employees resigns when least expected, it can create a vacuum in your organization that can be very difficult to fill, at least in a short amount of time.
As the Chief Marketing Officer at ProofHub, I have no hesitation in admitting that a top talent resigning out of the blue is every manager’s nightmare. You’ve got a whole new situation to tackle all of a sudden when you already have so many daily responsibilities to fulfill.
Finding an ideal replacement for your best performers is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. It takes plenty of time to hire a candidate in whom you see the potential to succeed your ex-employee. All of a sudden, your team balance and workflow takes a hit.
When one of your best employees leaves the organization, people notice. This departure can substantially impact the rest of your workforce, and for managers, this can be a tricky situation to deal with.
One exit can make other employees wonder if they should also start looking for a new job too. As a skilled manager, if you wait until an exit interview is to find out why a top performer has decided to leave, then it’s time you place employee retention and job satisfaction high on your organization’s priority list.
Challenges of dealing with an employees’ exit apart, it’s essential to find out what makes the best people within an organization leave. Based on personal experience, I have listed a few primary reasons behind the resignation of the best employees.
- Employees feel underappreciated
OGO’s survey found that 82% of American professionals feel they aren’t adequately recognized for their contribution. Now, employees leaving, for this reason, do not want an organization to shower them with perks and heaps of praises every time they finish their work on time. They simply need to be appreciated from time to time for the earnest efforts they put in. You ignore them for too long, and they’ll seek the missing appreciation elsewhere.
- Inadequate compensation
Perhaps one of the main reasons for employees’ resignation is the lack of compensation. The company should address this point even if it feels it is being fair. Proper balance is one factor why most employees choose to stay with their employers. Improper compensation not only demotivates and demoralizes employees, but also spoils your relationship with them. Compensation includes wages, salaries, incentives, perks, bonuses, etc.
- Unrealistic goals
Setting goals and deadlines is important to give employees’ work a purpose and direction. This also helps in maintaining production levels and achieving maximum results. However, pushing employees to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion by setting unrealistic goals and deadlines forces them to consider a job change. Overburdening employees with excessive work that is beyond their capabilities will usually wind up in a breakdown in morale and desire.
- Unchallenged by the work itself
There may come a time in your job when you no longer enjoy it and monotony takes over. There’s no learning and no new challenges to overcome. When working professionals get bored with their jobs, their work quality, and productivity both take a backseat. So, to upgrade their skills and learning, they begin to look for a new job that can offer them more challenges. You have to help your employees keep themselves motivated and passionate about their jobs.
- Relationships with coworkers
When an employee stops feeling happy at the workplace, he/she may have a few reasons. Coworkers are critical components of an employee’s work environment. We sit with them, work with them, and interact with them regularly throughout the day. We become great friends with some of our colleagues, but poor relationships with coworkers is also one of the causes for employees resigning from the job. Feelings of mistrust, misunderstanding, suspicion, and frustration among colleagues are common issues that can make a person consider looking for a better work environment with a new job.
- Develop and grow their skills
Employees want to learn and develop new skills. If they cannot maximize their skills and abilities in their current job, they will likely find one where they can. Often, employees can become frustrated when they can’t see a clear direction to their growth within their current organization. This is another common and valid ground for resignation. Management should ensure they can provide their employees with a clear roadmap of the direction they are heading towards.
Of course, there are other reasons for employees resigning from their jobs and moving on to greener pastures. Yes, it is a fact that no matter how hard you try to satisfy your employees, you cannot retain every one of them. It is also true that some employees are welcome to leave, but that is not what we are focusing on in this article.
The crux of the matter is that retaining your best employees matters, especially when the workplace is evolving rapidly and job-hopping has become common for millennials.
Job prospects for talented professionals are expanding at a fast rate, and you will need to use the most effective practices to retain your best talent. This article features seven powerful tips that will help you to keep valuable employees that can be hard (or impossible) to replace.
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At ProofHub, some of these tips have worked wonders in helping us lower employee turnover and fostering employee-employer relationships. There’s no reason why you should not implement these tips to make sure both your employees and your organization benefit from it.
- Hire The Right People
Dan Pickett, CEO of Nfrastructure, says, “ Employee retention begins from the very first day; from employees’ application to screening and choosing who to interview. It starts with identifying what aspects of culture and strategy you want to emphasize, and then seeking those out in your candidates.”
Choosing the right candidate for the right person is crucial. Job candidates have to be assessed thoroughly by those doing the hiring. Candidates must have the skills and personality to meet job requirements and fit within the company culture efficiently. If you’re hiring for senior positions then it’s crucial to hire experienced and well-trained professionals. It will help to reduce employee turnover.
2. Choose Candidates Who Are Likely To Stay
How do you select candidates who are more likely to work for your organization for a long period of time? You can have a fair idea from their resumes. Their experience and longevity in previous organizations is a clear indicator. Look beyond resumes and ask them if they have worked at a company for a long time through ups downs. It speaks for their loyalty, commitment, and engagement.
You should prefer hiring those candidates who are proficient not only in their jobs but also in participating in team activities outside of work. It tells you that they are a team player in a real sense and believe in active participation in all organizational activities. It is a fact that job hoppers can be something of a gamble. If a candidate has worked for five companies in as many years, it can be challenging to retain them.
3. Provide Clear Path To Success
Employees who don’t see a future within the company are likely to look for better opportunities elsewhere. If you provide ample opportunities for your employees to learn and develop new skills to further improve their professional prospects, they are more likely to stay loyal to your organization.
A survey by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) shows that high-skills training (80 percent) and professional development programs to hone soft skills (74 percent) are considered among the top benefits for retaining employees’ services over the next five years. Career development and mentorship programs are perceived by employees as an investment in their worth and makes them feel like a valued member of the organization.
4. Offer The Right Benefits
80% of workers would keep a job with benefits rather than take one that offered more pay and no benefits (American Institute of CPA). Benefits and perks play a massive role in keeping employees happy, engaged, and healthy. Undoubtedly, companies that offer the most benefits to their workforce are likely to have a low employee turnover rate. Benefits can go well beyond a good salary and paid sick leaves.
With the costs of healthcare rising, wellness programs and retirement funds have become essential to attract the industry’s top talent. You should consider offering stock options or other financial awards to employees who perform well or stay with you for a certain period. Other benefits that can make employees more loyal to the organization include flexible work schedules, paid parental leaves, and the opportunity to work remotely.
5. Establish Two-Way Feedback
Many companies don’t encourage open communication where employees can also communicate their ideas, suggestions, or concerns to senior management. Generally, companies practice top-bottom communication, where bosses and managers pass communication to lower levels. This approach can hurt employees’ behavior. When you listen sincerely to your team, it does wonders for their morale.
Implementing open communication between employees and management can foster mutual trust between both sides. Today, employees want clear feedback to know how they’re performing on the job. Regular meetings and open-door policies encourage employees to speak their minds to managers and bosses. They feel valued and confident that their ideas or concerns will be heard.
6. Leverage Latest Technology And Tools
Employees who feel overburdened and stressed due to heavy workloads also leave their company. When they think that their managers are not doing anything significant to alleviate their workload by using the latest technology and tools, they lose motivation and become demoralized. Automation of most tasks can help bring efficiency to their work and get more done in less time.
Using a top-rated, feature-rich team collaboration and project management software like ProofHub can help teams to have ultimate control over projects and tasks from a centralized location. All your employees who are a part of the project can collaborate better and stay updated on all project developments. You can create, assign, and monitor tasks, as well as track time spent on every task to make sure your employees stay productive and the project is progressing at the right speed.
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7. Say NO To Micromanagement
Give your employees a clear direction along with a set of instructions to do the job, and then let them do their tasks with plenty of freedom. Do not micromanage and peek over their shoulders too frequently that they begin to feel uneasy and restricted in your presence. It’s quite likely that their approach to work is entirely different from yours. As long as they are getting the job done right, this should be of little consequence to you.
Watching employees makes them feel that they are not trusted and are more likely to leave. Organizations that practice petty rules and regulations only frustrate employees to an extent that they consider switching to competitors with relaxed working environments with flexible rules and regulations. Employees are often most productive when they are relaxed and given the freedom to get on and get the work done.
Epilogue
Keeping your best employees takes some serious effort. You can’t take them for granted even if you think you are being fair to them. You need to make your organization a place where top talents yearn to work. Not only do you have to build a congenial working atmosphere but also use the latest technology so your best performers can achieve desired results without getting exhausted.
Using a feature-rich team collaboration and project management software can give your employees much-needed assistance when coordinating with each other and organizing and managing their tasks in a single location.
Give your top employees the best environment to work, best policies, and the latest technology to work. They are likely to stay for a long time and contribute towards achieving your organizational goals.
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About Author:
Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others, and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click. Follow her on Linkedin.
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