8 Steps to Improve Employee Retention
Apart from Christmas parties, the employee satisfaction review is among the year-ender activities that take place in companies.
Recently, most organizations have come to realize the need to conduct the annual employee review more than once a year, considering how fast business trends change.
Business strategies aren’t evaluated once a year and finances aren’t checked annually either. It is, therefore, reasonable to prioritize the organization members’ satisfaction as a means to improve employee retention.
Employee satisfaction reviews are key to identifying obstacles and challenges within an organization. And, waiting until a good employee’s exit interview to find out what made him or her leave is a missed opportunity to fix internal company problems.
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Gauge Employee Satisfaction
It is important for employee satisfaction review to have a set of clear and focused questions for employees to answer.
Instead of using the typical 1 to 5 rating to extract feedback, open-ended questions will encourage employees to express themselves and provide additional comments. This will also aid the human resources department and management to zoom in on trouble spots to later help them come up with specific solutions.
Moreover, having organization members answer satisfaction reviews once a month or quarterly will have a great impact on a company’s turnover rate. They might not be incentive programs for employees and seem like a tedious chore to ask of them, but employee reviews will pave the management’s path to greater compensation and responsibility. In the long run, this will make employees feel valued and a crucial part of the company’s success as a whole.
Improve employee retention by using these 8 steps in refining your annual satisfaction review:
1. Find out the source of employee frustration
Directly ask employees to name one process that if eliminated would make them more productive. This straightforward question will easily point to a specific answer.
If several employees cite the same process, you’ve hit on a source of serious frustration.
2. Assess transparency
How transparent is the management? This will not imply that employees will be privy to every confidential data a company holds.
This item aims to assess if employees feel surprised or caught off-guard by management decisions.
3. Sweat the small stuff
Knowing the nitty-gritty such as the quality of food and the price at the cafeteria, the cleanliness of restrooms, and the speed of internet connection might seem frivolous but this actually matters.
Knowing the littlest grievances employees have is as important as knowing the bigger and more crucial matters.
4. Identify work boosters and inspirations
Asking employees what contributes to having them do their best at work is a crucial question for top employees. Having knowledge of what drives them might be helpful for mediocre employees.
5. Identify actions that make employees feel appreciated
Having employees mention the recognition or acknowledgments they’ve received determines what will make them more committed and loyal to the company.
These actions make employees feel appreciated and their hard work recognized.
6. Assess if employees see themselves growing in the company
Top reason employees leave a company is due to the absence of career advancement or better opportunities in another company. Finding a growth path for all employees will improve a company’s employee retention.
In a recent LinkedIn survey, more than 7,500 employees who’d recently left their jobs cited greater opportunities for growth as a top reason for taking on new jobs.
7. Assess if they’re confident about leadership and senior management
In the same LinkedIn survey, the second reason respondents had for choosing their new jobs is “better leadership.”
Apart from retention benefits, knowing if employees lack faith in company leadership can improve the performance of senior management.
8. Make something happen, invest in change
When employees see changes in policies and leadership, they will find reasons to stay and work in a company.
The point of employee satisfaction review, after all, is knowing which areas to improve. Investing in resources and amending processes will create changes that employees seek.
Employee retention is a critical issue that any company should pay attention to. Maintaining an organization’s competence means keeping talent and nurturing it.
Having knowledge of what turns off and inspires employees to work will greatly improve employee retention in the long run.
