Retaining talent in your organization is not easy. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not doable. Here are ten great tips to retain your top talent:
Promote flexibility
In the traditional workplace, it’s the norm that employees abide by the strict 9-5 working hours schedule. However, flexibility is the key when retaining top talent. Strict working schedule and location is outdated.
Workplace flexibility means giving full freedom for your top talent to choose the time, location, and manner they work so that they can align organizational goals with individual goals.
Here are the main benefits of having a flexible workplace:
- Increase productivity
- Improvement in employee’s well-being
- Lower absenteeism
- Increase creativity
- Boost employee’s morale
- Greater control of one’s life
As the demand for a flexible work environment is growing, it’s time for the HR team to update its policy, reflecting what top talent is looking for in the marketplace.
Offer good perks
To entice your top talent to stay, you need to offer perks and benefits. Salary and compensation alone are not enough to retain your company’s top talent. For example, Google is famous for its generous benefits and perks for its employees. Google offers on-site medical staff, free lunch, medical insurance coverage, free cooking classes, and many more.
Here are a few perks and benefits that you can offer your employees:
- Insurance coverage on medical and dental fees
- Employee appreciation program
- Provide free food
- Wellness program
- Company trip
- Paid time off
- Performance bonuses
- Flexible schedule
- Commuter assistance
- Office facilities
Perks are the reason why top talents choose to work and stay in your organization.
Build a good company culture
A toxic workplace cost your business a fortune, and it isn’t good for your employee’s mental health and well-being. Company culture refers to the environment that defines how people work, behave, and interact. Is your working environment hostile? Or, is it a fun-loving environment that makes you pump-up to work with great enthusiasm?
You need to detect any signs of workplace toxicity as early as possible. Here are common signs of a toxic workplace that you need to watch out for:
- Are your employees continually feeling stress-out?
- Are they overworked?
- Are they being bullied by other colleagues?
- Is catcalling and speaking vulgarity a norm?
Once you have identified red flags of a toxic environment in the workplace, you need to collect evidence, confront the perpetrators, and take the right action to solve the problem.
Invest in their career growth
Time is a valuable asset for your top talent. As learning is a life-long journey, it’s essential that your top talent contribute, learn, and evolve with your company. If there’s no career progression, your top talent will most likely quit, as they do not want to waste their time.
Here are the advantages of investing in your top talent career development:
- Improve employee performance in terms of problem solving, leadership, and motivation
- Improved communication between managers and employees
- Create a productive, engaging work environment
- Lesser turnover rate as employee morale is high
- Develops confident employees that can run the organization
Hence, HR professionals should ensure that every employee in the company has a fair career progression opportunity based on their performance.
Provide a positive onboarding experience
A smooth and efficient onboarding process tells a lot about a company. When your top talent accepts the job offer, it doesn’t mean your work is finished. Your next challenge begins during your top talent’s first day at work.
You need to provide an engaging and pleasant onboarding experience. A positive onboarding experience involves:
- Completion of the new hire forms, paperwork, and storing their data in the software
- The new hire gets to meet his team, understand his role better, gain knowledge of the company’s processes, and do his job well.
- The new hire will adapt to the organization’s culture and work environment.
Ultimately, you want to ensure that the new hire feels welcome and comfortable to be part of the company’s community.
Regular team bonding activities
Whether you’re working in NGO or corporate firm, being a team player is vital since everyone works towards a common goal.
Team bonding activity can help to foster the bond between co-workers, especially from different teams.
It helps your top talent mingle and interact with other teams, promoting higher work engagement and work morale. When your employees are socially engaged, they will be happier and more productive at work!
Performance review
Performance reviews are essential to track if your talents are working towards the direction of the goals.
Whether your talent is holding a position as a junior role or senior role, performance review allows you to know where they stand and how they can improve. Here is the checklist you can look into when reviewing your employee’s performance:
- What’s their achievement?
- What’s their work result in the past three months, six months or a year
- What about their attitude? Are they a team player? Or, do they work independently?
- Did they make any mistakes? If yes, what’s the frequency?
- Are they fast learners? Are they proactive and easy to work with?
- Are they able to show you the result that you expect from them?
Use the best possible tools
Without staying up-to-date with the latest technology and automation tools available, it can hinder your talent’s work productivity and cause frustration. Hence, you can invest in good technology such as latest monitor with better resolutions and screen, automation tools, software, and artificial intelligence. Investing in good technology gives your business a better competitive edge compare to other non-tech savvy company.
Improve your employee engagement strategy
The employee engagement strategy contains the steps you need to take to help your top talent establish a positive emotional connection with your organization. Here are the initiatives you can take to level-up your employee engagement strategy.
- Have a buddy and mentor system for newcomers
- Share the company’s vision and mission
- Encourage openness
- Give and receive feedback
- Celebrate achievements and improvements
- Empower your top talent to be a better version of themselves
- Build a culture of trust and empathy
High employee engagement reduces turnover rate, improves employee morale, and boosts overall business performance.
Show appreciation
Praising your top talent for their hard work is necessary. Although you might think the monetary bonuses are good enough, job recognition such as praise and appreciation is equally essential.
Here are a few ways to reward your top talent:
- Give a hand-written thank you note
- Treat them for lunch or dinner
- Give them award
- Offer time off
- Give them a small gift
Small little thing goes a long way in retaining your talent. Top talent that feels undervalued and under-appreciated will look for opportunities elsewhere. Also, when giving praise, be sincere and don’t over-do it.