5 Ways to Trim Your Employee Turnover

The more tightly the identification is tied to the company’s mission, the better the retention, according to a 2015 survey by the SHRM. HR professionals reported that employee-recognition programs had a positive impact on employee engagement (90 percent values-based vs. 67% nonvalues-based), increased employee happiness (86% vs. 70%) and improved employee relationships (84% vs. 66%), among other findings.

Anderson points out that employee recognition programs can actually be as simple as one-on-one recognition from a leader—or the CEO. “When you’re the CEO, everything you say is enormously magnified, good and bad,” she says. So when he or she takes the time to point out what a team has done well, it registers. “The CEO is the one person who can make everyone at the company feel valued.”

4. HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE
As many experts will agree, hires that weren’t good fits for the company culture or for the role account for a good share of retention problems. Bryan Kennedy, CEO of Epsilon/Conversant, reports that being more intentional about college recruiting has led to a 75% retention rate after five years for employees hired out of college. “That’s a very good rate in a hot market, and those are all Millennials,” he says. “Once you find young, talented people with some degree of depth in technology or critical thinking, you can build and grow talent from there.”

Mike Wachholz, president of workforce solutions provider Pontoon, adds that the importance of hiring the right people and successful onboarding applies to contract and temp workers, as well. “From a legal perspective, they’re not employees, but they’re a critical part of your environment.”

5. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH
Before investing in any new systems or technology aimed at better retention, CEOs should first determine the ultimate goals, says Linda Brenner, co-founder and managing partner of Designs on Talent. It may sound harsh, she notes, but not every role is on the same level, as far as contributing to the company’s value. Having a retention strategy that’s too broad or general and that groups people together by, say, title rather than by role, can jeopardize your efforts to hold onto your best people.

“We have to link performance management with how value is created in the business, and value is created in most businesses today through intellectual capital,” says Brenner. That means that, for a pharmaceutical company, while the sales reps and training managers are very important to the business, they’re not on the same level as the people in R&D— even if both are at the vice president level. A greater pool of resources should be channeled toward keeping those employees who are creating the company’s intellectual capital, rather than a random “top 20 percent of the company,” she says.

Preston notes that the investment in Deloitte’s new system has been significant on a relative scale, particularly given the results. He adds that it isn’t just about performance management. “It’s way more than that. It’s a way to be innovative, to drive a culture change around development and engagement and to use predictive data analytics to your advantage. Calling it ‘performance management’ really almost sells it short.”

WHAT EMPLOYEES REALLY WANT

PERKS LIKE on-campus dry-cleaning and subsidized gym memberships are nice; but, if the fundamental drivers of performance are missing, they won’t keep people in their positions. For example, if you don’t pay people enough, it’s over from the start, says Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. “Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.” Once you do that, address these three key motivators for enduring performance:

PURPOSE: Employees need to know why they’re doing something, says Pink. “People who know why they’re doing something will do it better.” He offers an example: “People working at a call center to raise money for a scholarship fund will work harder if they meet a recipient, because they remember why they’re doing it.”

MASTERY: The single best motivator for people is making progress at meaningful work. “The days people make progress, they’re motivated; the days they don’t, they’re not,” says Pink. Progress depends on information and feedback so that individuals can course-correct and make headway.

Erika Anderson says that companies have to create environments where people are encouraged to learn completely new skills and roles, rather than being standing experts in a specific job where no more growth is required. “The core of a good retention strategy is giving people the tools and the permission to be novices over and over. That’s both about risk-taking behavior and about letting people try things they’re not good at. That’s what makes people happy. But if you say to someone, ‘This is your job, just do it and shut up,’ they’ll leave.”

AUTONOMY: “If you want people to be compliant, manage them. But if you want people to be engaged, that doesn’t work,” says Pink. Giving people the ability to come up with ideas on their own, to figure out the best and most efficient way to work on a project and to present that back to the company as the author of that strategy—that’s motivating. “The technology of engagement is self-direction,” says Pink.