Why Your Business Needs a Retention Strategy in Place ASAP

Employee retention is critical for businesses of all sizes. The cost of hiring a new employee greatly overshadows how much it costs to keep an employee, and businesses need to be proactive and revolutionize the ways in which they keep employees. If your business doesn’t have a retention strategy, it needs one as soon as possible.

Employees are looking, even if you think they’re not
The Talent Attraction Study, published by Indeed in spring 2015, showed that nearly half of people hired in the past year visited online job boards, read job listings and reviewed company careers pages. And they’re the new hires. In smaller numbers, they used job search apps, went to career fairs, worked with recruiters and more. Fifty-eight percent of study respondents search for new jobs at least monthly; some do so daily or weekly. Only 19 percent of respondents said they never look for new opportunities.

Salary doesn’t seem to be a motivator that prevents people from searching. Half of those making between $100,000 and $110,000 looked at new opportunities in the 28 days after they were hired, and the percentage jumped to 65 percent for the three months after hire.

Millennials are more likely to jump ship if given a reason
A retention strategy allows your company to stave off reasons for Millennials and other employees to jump ship. Millennials are valuable employees, make no mistake. They tend to have can-do attitudes, approach challenges with aplomb and are technologically savvy. Make sure your strategy has customized approaches for various groups of employees, and that it includes Millennials.

A retention strategy allows your company to review its philosophy and processes
Some companies see compensation and other benefits as a retention strategy in itself and leave it at that. Doing so robs your company of a chance to learn more about itself and about ways it can boost employee loyalty, happiness, and ultimately, the company bottom line. Drawing up a strategy provides insight into communication, loyalty, performance and even into your competitors. You’ll learn more about what makes your organization innovative, unique and valuable.