With dropping retention rates, shortening life cycles of in-demand, continuous up-skilling and re-skilling to catch up is becoming the norm. In such a competitive and changing world, demands are getting higher with less reward.
Personal focus is shifting to other, more tangible aspects of life and OECD estimates 1.1 billion jobs are liable to radical transformation by advancements in tech and AI in just the next decade.
And now, not only is it harder to retain valuable employees, but it’s also taking longer to fill empty roles.
What Can I Do to Increase Retention Rates?
The crux of it is that in 2024, we sit in a unique position. We are dealing with novel threats that require new solutions to retention rates. We are all aware of the fundamental basics in creating a safe, valuable company culture. So, what else can we do to deter employee dissatisfaction and job-hopping?
The ‘we’ve heard it all before‘ list;
- Lack of growth opportunity
- Hostile work environments
- Limited awareness of roles and opportunity within the company
- Shoddy work-life balance
- The feeling of being undervalued
- Lack of empowerment
Again, we are all aware of how the pandemic affected our internal-lives. Employees began to impose their own preferences onto employers and the power dynamic began to change. This changing dynamic in business created a more complex and flattened hierarchy, where miscommunications between who had the authority was the new norm. But for companies who were right and not getting the human aspect of their communications wrong, why were people still falling away?
What else can affect Retention Rates?
According to some opinion, strong efforts to retain specific employees may eventually have the opposite effect. By increasing the responsibilities and (occasionally) rank of some talented members of staff distracts from what they are actually great at, thus, meaning may be lost from their work and they may feel like everything moved too fast. A drastic-case scenario, although it paints a picture that some may recognise in their own companies.
Instead, shift career focus from promotion to progression. Promotion can be an entirely different subject. It’s good to experiment, but the work environment needs to support the practise of these ‘career-experiments’ for it to work. Let people ask questions and be curious about their role in the company, try to hold off some pre-judgments surrounding their ideas.
The answer isn’t always a higher paying position or work-life balance, more often than not it was specific aspects of the companies internal environment. This included a sense of belonging and most importantly, trust between peers.
The Bigger Problem: A Lack of Purpose
During lockdown, some of us were finally surrounded by family who we’d otherwise only get short weekends with. We began recognising our own loneliness. The need for purpose and meaning became desperately clear. More companies are offering remote working opportunities which means that all the other factors that would’ve usually dissuade people from job hopping have essentially vanished.
This means that now is the time to truly listen to your employees and understand their deeper motivators. One-size working policies don’t fit everyone
Through The Looking Glass: People Management
Be personally curious about your employees and teams, see how they work and interact with them on a human level. In that, learn what personal aspect drives them to come to work and do a good job at your company.
- What are they looking to gain from their job role?
- Where do they see themselves in the next five to ten years?
- What do they do in their spare time?
- What is the most important thing to them in their current reality?
- Can you answer any of the questions above about your any of your peers or employees?
Cross-Pollinating
Finally, integrating development into the weekly schedule of employees doesn’t have to be difficult and has many benefits to the function of your company. You can facilitate this by creating peer mentoring sessions with individuals from different sides of the company who may regularly work together but not fully understand the others job role.
More than strengthening connection, this is a priceless learning solution to deepen an individuals understanding of internal processes and effects on other departments.
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