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While companies place an understandable focus on acquiring new employees during the Great Resignation, it is crucial that you remember those employees who have remained with your company during these challenging times. Many of your existing employees have worked tirelessly. Some have taken on additional roles and increased workloads. Now more than ever, employee retention strategies are essential for keeping turnover rates low. In this article, we will explore strategies to reduce employee turnover.
Unbalanced Recruitment Incentives
Employees are often looking to work for companies that offer them better compensation.[1] Recruitment incentives are becoming more popular, but they can also create discord in your organization. If your company doesn’t provide incentives to new employees—or if the incentives being offered are drastically better than what older employees were offered, you might find that your loyal employees can get frustrated very quickly. When this happens, you run the risk of your employees leaving to work for companies offering those same large incentives to newcomers.
Reduce Equity Vesting Periods for All Employees[2]
Vesting periods are a touchy subject for a lot of employees. Most employees agree that it should take less time to be fully vested, like two to three years. If your company is willing to lower the vesting period for new employees, existing employees should also be offered this benefit. Keeping a flat vesting period for all employees is an excellent way to keep things fair.
Skip Level Promotions
A skip-level promotion occurs when someone is able to skip one or more levels that would generally be present during a set professional path.[2] These promotions can incentivize top performers, providing employees with a pathway to reach their potential. However, it can also be frustrating when new employees are allowed to skip levels that everyone else in your organization had to traverse the traditional way. Consider how to balance this issue. Consider reevaluating your job grades and look for opportunities to identify existing employees who may benefit from skip-level promotions as well.
The Importance of “Stay Interviews”
Very few people decide to leave behind a company they love working for, which means that the employees leaving have something to share with you. Unfortunately, exit interviews are not as effective as some might think because when your employee has resigned, it’s too late for you to get meaningful feedback from them. Why? Because they may fear that being candid may hurt them if they need a reference from the company in the future.
Instead, we strongly suggest you adopt the practice of Stay Interviews, which are a great way to retain talent and get ahead of employee resignations.[3] It’s an interview you conduct with existing employees to ask them a series of simple questions on why they chose to stay with your company. For example, you could ask an employee the following, “What is the one thing that gets you excited to come to work?” If the employee hesitates or struggles to provide an answer, you know you have a problem. This is an opportunity for you to have meaningful dialogue with your employees. However, if you have not established trust or created a psychologically safe environment for employees to share openly with you as their leader, you have a problem.
Stay Interviews Can Reveal:
A lack of competitive wages
Unfulfilled promises
Poor company culture
Minimal potential for promotions or movement
Poor scheduling
Stay Interviews Can Help You[3]:
Build trust and employee loyalty
Address problems in the early stages
Assess the health of your company culture
Promote teamwork and collaboration
Retain top talent and leaders
Consider a Listening Tour
Not everyone wants to conduct a stay interview, but listening tours can be a good alternative. These tours can be embraced in various ways and focus on learning more from your current employees. Before you start, conduct an informal survey and invite all employees to participate. This will give you a deeper understanding of the issues within your organization. You can use the tour to generate ideas on addressing those issues. Listen and don’t make any decisions. Meet with as many people as possible, and don’t forget to ask, “Who else do you suggest I meet with?” This is not a time for you to tell employees how great your company is and how thankful they should be working there. Instead, open a path to dialogue, stop talking and just listen!
Final Thoughts
The Great Resignation is causing many organizations to pivot and adapt. Still, if you don’t have a strategy and are making decisions in a frenzied state, you are at a greater risk of creating a much larger staffing crisis in your organization. We can help you with that!
Human Resource Management is a complex process that requires careful planning and strategy execution. Leader Essentials Group can help you navigate the complexities of the “Great Resignation.” Click here to learn more about our services or email us at info@leaderessentialsgroup.com to schedule a brief 15-minute conversation with us.
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Dr. Cristina Rosario DiPietropolo is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Leader Essentials Group, with extensive experience across multiple industries and highly skilled in the areas of strategic planning, organizational behavior, human resource management, change management, leadership, and digital marketing. Over ten years of teaching experience as a university professor of management, with a special focus on leadership in entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and international management.
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[1] Liu, J. (2021). The real key to ending the Great Resignation is focusing on 'enthusiastic stayers'. CNBC. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/why-enthusiastic-stayers-are-key-to-ending-the-great-resignation.html
[2] Tapia, A., Parsons, A., & Freedman, E. (2022). The Great Resignation: It's Killing Companies'. Korn Ferry. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leadership/the-great-resignation-its-killing-companies?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_term=&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=organic
[3] Prossack, A. (2022). How To Use Stay Interviews To Boost Employee Engagement. Forbes. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2020/07/27/stay-interviews-boost-employee-engagement/?sh=4712050f6063