1.3 million Australians (9.5% of all working people) changed their jobs in the year to February 2022. According to Deloitte Access Economics’ Weekly Economics Briefing, this is the highest yearly job mobility rate since 2012. Also, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that Australians are switching employment at the quickest rate in a decade, which is referred to as the Great Resignation.
In this scenario, knowing how to retain staff is frequently among the most crucial responsibilities for managers and human resource experts, as the expense of acquiring new personnel can be expensive.
Although staff retention percentages differ by industry, every company should strive to keep its rock stars. If your business is experiencing trouble retaining personnel, have a look at our suggestions below!
1.) Create opportunities for professional development
LinkedIn’s annual Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of employees would continue to work at a company longer if it invested in their professional growth. It is quite reasonable since businesses that do not give these internal training opportunities are passing up a great opportunity to alleviate the global skills deficit.
Employers who want to attract and retain employees must invest more in upskilling, with a new survey finding that 70% of Australian workers prioritise training possibilities over compensation when seeking employment. As a result, many businesses are providing internal training opportunities to upskill their current employees.
For example, Wesfarmers, an Australian diversified company, whose businesses have the main responsibility for team member training and development. Its full-time, part-time, and casual team members will all get job-specific and career development training.
2.) Improve organisational culture
Although corporate culture may appear to be subjective, its effects on employee retention are undeniable. According to Glassdoor, 77% of workers examine a company’s culture before applying, while the Associated Press claims that nearly half of staff would quit their present job for a lower-paying one at a better-cultured corporation.
While the aspects of a strong culture differ slightly from one company to others, great corporate cultures have important characteristics such as establishing and implementing clearly expressed principles, appreciating and seeking out employees’ voices, demonstrating strong commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, showing supportive leadership, and so on.
According to Josh Bersin, founder and principal at Bersin by Deloitte, companies that work intentionally to encourage inclusion, diversity, development planning, and leadership development in their culture are 3.8 times more inclined to coach people for enhanced quality, 3.6 times more inclined to cope with staff performance problems, and 2.9 times more inclined to recognise and build leaders.
3.) Flexible work schedules
Employees desired flexible work schedules even before Covid-19 pandemic, and remote work was a top-of-mind concern for a lot of firms. And the pandemic highlighted the feasibility of long-term remote work.
Flexibility can be a key motivator in how to motivate staff and even, keep them to stay. Not having that option may lead to staff resigning. According to a recent Robert Half survey, half of the professionals working remotely would hunt for a new job if forced to return to the office from 9-to-5 five days a week.
Deloitte has also abandoned the typical 9am to 5pm working day and encourages people to arrange their day to satisfy both their business and personal demands, according to Adam Powick, CEO of Deloitte Australia.
Indeed, it is one of the excellent employee retention strategies. You may realise that adopting flexible working arrangements may help ease stress for your team while also increasing employee retention.
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4.) Promote a healthy work-life balance
According to a LinkedIn research, 94% of employees would stay with their business longer if it provided a more thorough development program. Despite that, 49% of workers claimed they simply have no time to engage in their personal development, which is an issue that should be front of mind for Australian businesses, according to Insurance Business Australia.
So, allow staff to take their breath between tasks by incorporating team-building activities or mini-break intervals throughout the day. Also, establishing regular work hours, policies for working on weekends, or work-from-home options can provide your team members the flexibility to give their all every day.
To illustrate, following the border restrictions and lockdowns of the previous two years, many employees with interstate or even international families have been eager to see their relatives. Knowing that, Deloitte devised a tax framework for their employees so they could visit their relatives’ homelands and work there for two to three months before coming back to Australia, as stated by Adam Powick, CEO of Deloitte Australia.
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5.) Offer competitive remuneration
How to retain staff? Needless to say, offering competitive salaries and benefits is the most obvious method to keep your best employees. In a competitive job market, it is critical to provide suitable benefits and salaries to your employees whenever possible. This might bind employees and motivate them to stay for compensation and benefits.
Source: Staffing Proxy
A well-compensated and engaging culture can increase employee engagement. This also implies you will encounter less disruption as a result of new hires learning new tasks. In addition, you will save time and money searching for and interviewing new employees. As the recruitment process might be costly, minimising it as much as feasible can be beneficial.
Fortunately, according to a HiBob’s survey of 500 full-time Australian employees, 55% of workers working in mid-sized organisations are awarded salary increases of 10% or more.
If you can’t afford wage increases, consider other alternatives. Some wellness initiatives like a free self-care webinar can also help increase employee work satisfaction and motivate them to remain with your business.
6.) Have good communication
Many employees’ dissatisfaction stems from a lack of communication. The rise of hybrid and remote work has highlighted the significance of effective workplace communication. Your direct reports, whether they work on-site or remotely, should be able to come to you at any time with questions, ideas, or concerns.
Top-down communication can easily become muddled and perplexing. Rather, wherever possible, focus on direct, one-on-one talks. And provide digital areas, such as employee communities, for employees to get together and solve problems without management standing in the way. Don’t let managers discover suitable coaching and communication tactics; instead, train them.
To achieve the best from this employee retention strategy, you must ensure that your company has channels for honest, precise feedback from and to its employees, as well as means to express praise and constructive comments in real time. Besides, make an effort to communicate with each team member on a regular basis to gauge their workload and job satisfaction.
7.) Optimise the onboarding process
Another employee retention suggestion is to improve the onboarding process. A comprehensive onboarding procedure will make sure that every new employee has the greatest possible start in the company. It will introduce them to their coworkers, set company rules, and sow the seeds of a long-lasting friendship.
To improve your onboarding process, speak with current workers and inquire about their experiences with the current process. Then, encourage them to be entirely honest, and you will be able to create an excellent onboarding experience for new employees, which will help you keep more employees for longer.
Remember that this isn’t just a supervised paperwork session. In reality, paperwork only accounts for 40% of onboarding procedures. Some activities can be included in the onboarding process, such as examining rules or listening to a company overview.
8.) Offer mentoring programs
Partnering a new employee with a mentor is an excellent addition to your prolonged onboarding process, particularly if you work from home. Mentors can welcome new employees, provide assistance, and serve as sounding boards. In fact, it is a win-win situation: new team members learn the basics from experienced personnel, and their mentors benefit from their fresh perspective.
Mentoring is very beneficial for learning because it is far more hands-on than attending a course for a certain number of hours over a couple of weeks. In addition, as mentorships are provided at a job, employees become significantly more engaged and feel appropriately compensated.
The ITS Australia Mentorship Program, which is offered to early career members, matches mentees looking for a chance to grow personally and professionally with more experienced mentors who are prepared to invest time and effort to the support and professional growth of another.
However, don’t restrict mentorship opportunities to new hires. Mentor-mentee connections can greatly help your existing personnel, as well as your overall staff retention outlook and team’s job satisfaction.
9.) Promote collaboration
Nobody enjoys working in a vacuum. Harvard Business Review discovered that teams perform well when CEOs invest in social ties, model collaborative behavior, and foster what they describe as a “gift culture”—one in which employees believe that contacts with leaders and colleagues are worthwhile and generously supplied.
You should promote all of your employees to submit ideas and solutions, not just the stars. Besides, encourage teamwork by providing opportunities for discussion, supporting different work styles, and allowing everyone the freedom to make decisions and course corrections as needed.
Employees may feel more comfortable and pleased at work when they can work together in harmony. Furthermore, collaboration among team members can push your company’s boundaries. It can stimulate new ways of thinking, resulting in more chances and directions to pursue in the future.
10.) Recognise and reward your staff's hard work
According to a survey of 1000 Australians, one in every five people quit their jobs during the pandemic as they felt “underappreciated” by their employers. Obviously, everyone enjoys being recognised and praised for their efforts. Thus, recognising your staff for a job well done is a vital staff retention strategy to ensure long-term employee engagement.
Source: Appointment
So, praise your subordinates who go above and beyond and explain how their efforts benefit the company. Several businesses set up formal award systems to encourage exceptional ideas and creativity, but if you have a low budget or a small team, you may implement some incentive programs.
11.) More positive feedback
The last suggestion in our list of the best staff retention strategies is to offer more positive feedback. We are all aware that employees require feedback – both positive and constructive in order to improve and do their best work. According to a Harvard Business Review research, the best ratio between positive and negative comments is 5.6 (positive) to 1 (corrective).
Positive feedback should be offered frequently to stimulate staff and provide them with the motivation they need to achieve their best work. However, constructive and corrective input is also essential, especially when an urgent issue has to be addressed.
To make sure of this employee retention strategy, move forward and be more conscious of how many unfavorable comments you make to your staff in comparison to favorable ones. Then, increase the ratio of positive comments to negative comments to six.
And that is all the tips on how to retain staff that you should take into consideration. However, no matter which retention strategy you implement, always go with hiring the right candidates first. If you need help, our Recruitment Service will provide you with great support.
Conclusion
One of the most important aspects of developing an effective people management plan is employee retention. The 11 staff retention strategies discussed above are only a few ideas for increasing job satisfaction among your team members. In fact, some team members will undoubtedly depart your company sooner than you would want. However, by following these suggestions, you may make their decision a little more difficult and simultaneously protect your employer brand by guaranteeing that those who leave the business have only positive things to say.