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Main Takeaways

• Retention is everyone's responsibility

• Find solutions that are meaningful for your industry and workforce

• Implement strong, equitably-enforced policies

 

In the jargon of the Human Resources world, there's a good reason that "recruitment" and "retention" go hand-in-hand: While it's important to attract and retain qualified candidates, it's just as important to keep them once they join the team.

 

Retention refers to the everyday practices that keep staff employed at an organization. These practices are multi-dimensional, and they happen at all levels of the org chart. For this reason, retention isn't solely the responsibility of the Human Resources department or the management team—it's everyone's job to maintain a workplace that makes people want to stay there. After all, everyone bears the cost of low retention:

• Inconsistent staffing or understaffing

• Loss of institutional knowledge

• Lost investment of onboarding and training

• Lower morale

• Less sense of community and familiarity

How can your organization increase its retention? First, look at the ways in which you recruit. Are your job postings being widely circulated in diverse channels? If not, you may be limiting the pool of applicants you attract. By expanding the manner and the places in which you advertise open positions, you open the door for more diversity in your applicant pool. But onboarding more diverse applicants is only a first step: Retaining them means ensuring the workplace is welcoming, accommodating, and protective of their needs. This might mean

• making structural or infrastructural upgrades to the worksite to ensure that a staff member's wheelchair can move through the space

• revising the holiday calendar to add flexibility for a wider variety of religious or cultural observances

• encouraging mentorship between new employees and more tenured employees to improve the collective sense of belonging and shared knowledge and goals.

 

Retention also means ensuring that when things go wrong, there is a protocol in place to provide fair resolution of problems or conflicts. For example, 40% of employee respondents who voluntarily left a job cited bullying, harassment, or stereotyping as a reason they quit.¹ Having strong policies on conduct, discipline, and conflict resolution can help address such issues when they arise, or even avoid them altogether.

 

Some industries and professions tend to have high turnover rates, such as those that are physically demanding, require nonstandard working hours, or are high-stress. In such cases, retention efforts need to address these challenges by considering the holistic needs of employees. For example, employees who work evening shifts may find it difficult to balance childcare and working hours. By providing on-site childcare or a childcare stipend, employers can help reduce the scheduling strain that contributes to higher turnover.

 

There is no obvious formula that all employers could follow to improve their retention rates. Rather, each organization should adopt practices that are firm, predictable, meaningful, and creative.

 

Marohu can help improve your retention rates through the following services:

• Organizational policy review

• Staff surveys and focus groups

• Training for staff and/or managers

• Other customized solutions

Learn more here.

 

 

¹Porath, C.L., Pearson, C.M.. "The Price of Incivility." Harvard Business Review, Jan/F (2013)