Employee retention is a top priority for most employers. High retention rates provide many advantages:

• Elevated candidate attraction
• Increased employee engagement
• Better performance
• Greater productivity
• Stronger job satisfaction
• Higher employee morale
• Lower hiring, onboarding, and training costs
• Healthier bottom line
• Employer reputation

As a result, you should take steps to strengthen employee retention. These tips can help.

Use these methods to increase employee retention.

Maintain an Attractive Company Culture

Most employees want to work for an organization with an attractive culture. The following characteristics tend to be especially important:

• Relatable company mission, vision, and values
• Prioritization of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
• Emphasis on pay transparency
• Competitive income
• In-demand benefits
• Desirable perks
• Regular employee recognition and rewards
• Ongoing opportunities for training and development

Provide a Positive Candidate Experience

Every interaction with your organization impacts whether a candidate remains engaged in your hiring process. Positive interactions are important for all candidates, regardless of whether they become employees at this time:

• Emphasizing transparency and communication during the screening and interviewing processes demonstrates what working for your company would be like.
• A positive candidate experience, including outreach, onboarding, training, and beyond, increases the odds of long-term employment.
• Setting realistic expectations during the first 45 days of employment supports employee success within your organization.
• Maintaining a positive company image encourages employee loyalty.

Prioritize Employee Well-Being

Provide perks, programs, and support to elevate employee wellness:

• Remote or hybrid work arrangements
• Flexible schedule
• Generous paid time off (PTO)
• Health insurance benefits that include counseling services
• Employee resource groups (ERGs)
• Training on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I)
• Opportunities to connect with colleagues and coworkers

Emphasize Employee Career Progression

Many employees prefer lateral career movements rather than upward mobility. Therefore, managers should have in-depth conversations with employees about their career goals and how the organization can support them:

• Managers can point out each employee’s strengths and how they apply to various roles or teams.
• Managers can share the value each employee provides and how it impacts the organization.
• Showing how each employee’s contributions and results benefit the company supports conversations about career possibilities within the organization.
• Opportunities to take on new challenges help increase employee retention.

Create a Skills Marketplace for Project Assignments

Profile employees by their skills rather than job titles. Then, managers can use this skills marketplace to assign project roles based on an employee’s experience.

Creating a skills marketplace provides multiple benefits:

• Managers can accurately determine skills gaps.
• Managers can upskill employees to fill the gaps.
• Roles can be deconstructed into a set of skills divided out among a group of employees.
• One employee would not be expected to have all the skills for a role.

Would You Like Help to Increase Employee Attraction?

Mercer Bradley can help increase retention for your accounting and finance team in Winnipeg. Reach out to learn more today!