The growing trend of people choosing to leave their jobs to open up to other and different opportunities is forcing companies to deal with a loss of strategic know-how, especially if those resigning are the talents crucial to their operation.
Employee retention andemployee engagement are undoubtedly useful and necessary solutions for lowering turnover and retaining key resources. But what are the strategies for implementing them?
By comparing ourselves with the HR managers of the companies we work with, we can take a snapshot of the current situation shared by many medium/large-sized organizations in the manufacturing and services fabric.
If increasing listening to employee voices is the goal, what are the tools?
The most widely adopted tools are climate analysis, responsible/collaborator and outbound interviewing, and monitoring of people’s experience in their companies.
The employeeexperience can be declined as the entire journey that an employee experiences within an organization.
For the daily work routine to positively affect organizational well-being, there are many possible forms of incentives:
- Training and staff development plans to foster the acquisition of technical, soft and managerial skills
- Provision of compensation & benefits initiatives, both financial and non-financial, such as welfare and supplemental insurance, upon achievement of objectives
- Attention to the achievement of work life balance, fostered by an equitable division of workloads and the possibility of flexible work (e.g., variation of entry/exit time, smart working)
- Corporate initiatives to communicate values and engage employees in common goals.
However, we are still far from widespread implementation
Unfortunately, for most businesses such initiatives cannot yet be called customary.
In the companies where they are present, medium-sized or large or part of international groups where these questions have been addressed for some time, employee retention & engagement strategies have been implemented only in the last two years.
A willingness to implement Employee Retention & Engagement strategies in innovative ways
The phenomenon of large resignations that characterizes the post-covid labor market is helping to accelerate the process, with organizations that currently lack them expressing a willingness to implement them in the near future in more “innovative” ways such as:
- Coaching and mentoring paths to meet the needs and requirements of the individual, designed to promote an exclusive pathway
- Change management projects to support the company’s front lines, to facilitate processes of change from established modes of action
- cross-functional/intragroup rotation plans, which fulfill a need for the individual worker to experiment in new roles and new, more challenging scenarios.
The gap between intentions and concrete actions: what are we missing to overcome it?
The ability to leverage the large-scale visibility offered by social media, through posts, videos/stories about life in the company, interviews, case studies, will increasingly play into the process.
Dialogue with the younger generation will be crucial, so it will be even more important to maintain a bridge between companies and the world of Education (Scholastic Institutes, Business Schools and Universities), for example through participation in career days or dedicated events.
The fundamental role of leadership
However, human resources functions, which promote employee retention & engagement activities, need the support of management to foster valuable communication with their employees.
Communicated at all levels, primarily by managers, they are more effective because they are integrated into the company’s mission and vision.
Therefore, leaders play a key role and can become advocates for concrete actions, such as:
- relationship building, to establish a relationship based on mutual trust and collaboration, demonstrating presence, willingness to listen, and synergy to address daily challenges
- Sharing feedback to support people’s growth, motivating them to do their best
- the creation of a more inclusive culture in an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world.
What will be the impact of these choices in the near future?
Companies that are able to take advantage of such opportunities will be fertile ground for the development of their employees, who will be able to grow in skills and professionalism without restrictions and prejudices.
In addition to improved performance, and thus the development of the organization, thecorporate image will also benefit, since the hired resources will spread their positive view of the reality of which they finally feel a part.
