How to Retain Key Employees
Did you lose another top talent recently? Dive into the evolving challenge of retaining stellar employees in today's startup landscape. Losing even a single valuable employee can harm growth, productivity, and finances. Retaining talent in tech has become more challenging over the past 2 years, specifically for key roles in engineering and product management.
Identifying Reasons for Low Retention:
Business owners need to understand why employees are leaving - and why they are staying. Why do current employees stick around - is it for their compensation package? Specific perks like flexible working hours? Making an impact with their work? It’s key to understand those factors to build on them, rather than jeopardizing them.
Why are some employees considering leaving, or have already left? Often, it’s because they’re missing something: flexibility, positive work culture, managerial leadership and support, growth opportunities in their role, appreciation or feedback, a high-level vision for organization, engagement within the team, and many more.
Strategies to prevent high turnover:
Before investigating prevention measures, business owners must have a clear understanding of their current retention situation. Consider categorizing employees’ engagement using the Traffic Light System:
Green Employees: likely staying
Yellow Employees: considering leaving, passively looking, easily poachable by other companies
Red Employees: unhappy and on their way out
This exercise should extend to discovering the reasons for each employee’s engagement level, and identifying who your key performers are that you want to retain.
How do you get this understanding?
Establishing effective communication through regular one-on-one meetings provides a platform for managers and their team members to discuss progress, concerns, and growth opportunities. In addition to this, skip-level meetings offer an avenue for staff to engage directly with the CEO, promoting a sense of inclusion and allowing for valuable insights to flow both ways. Conducting 'stay interviews' with current employees multiple times annually demonstrates a commitment to understanding and addressing their needs.
To gauge overall sentiment, implementing employee satisfaction surveys with standardized questions ensures consistent measurement and facilitates meaningful comparisons. While employee Net Promoter Scores (NPS) offer an initial gauge of satisfaction, they should be supplemented with other tools to uncover the underlying reasons. Last but not least, encouraging a transparent and honest work environment further nurtures open communication, trust, and collaboration throughout the organization.
Once you have a good understanding of where your team stands today, here are a few measures that can help you address potential retention risks:
Flexible Work Options:
Excessively rigid rules can lead to employee dissatisfaction. Having flexibility in work hours, start times and vacation days can provide more of a work/life balance.
2. Employee support
Microsoft reports that 54% of employees feel overworked. Employees value empathy and caring from employers. Also, it is important to address areas of job strain to prevent burnout.
3. Career Growth opportunities
Lack of career growth can drive employees to leave. Promoting career goals and creating growth avenues such as networking, seminars, and mentoring retain employees.
4. Clear communication and vision
Poor communication can lead to dissatisfaction. It is beneficial to share your business's vision for the future.
5. Employee involvement
Authoritarian approaches to running an organization can lead to employee departures. Instead, seek employee input and strike a balance between involving employees and efficient decision-making.