Today people are changing their jobs often. Gone are the days that most workers stayed with one company for their working lifetime. In fact employee retention and longevity are challenges that currently affect most business organizations. Statistics indicate that a large number of employees now change jobs on average every two years. And, younger people can have as many as 8 jobs in the first 10 years of their professional life. What can you do to keep your key employees?
A survey carried out by the consulting firm Towers Perrin looked at 90,000 workers in 19 countries and indicated that almost 50% of these employees say they have no plans to leave their present company. This suggests that people want to be loyal to one company. What can you do retain your staff? The key to keeping employees is engagement.
The fact is that most business professionals will give sincere thought to changing company at some points in their career. The reasons can be varied. It may be to try something new or find new challenges. It may be to gain additional work experience. Whatever the reason there are certain steps that organizations can take to keep employees engaged and to evoke long term loyalty.
There should be a dedicated focus on providing staff with opportunities to grow in their current positions, and gain experience in various different fields of work. Sincere appreciation, rewarding accomplishments and encouraging ideas, enables employees to feel engaged in their company's initiatives. This connection to the organization provides employees with a level of commitment making it more likely that they will stay.
Steps to engage employees and developing high potential talent:
- Help employees to build strong skill sets
New talent is often brought on board to support a particular project or strategic initiative. When the employee perceives that the project is losing visibility or their own learning curve is slowing, they may look for new work. Employees can be helped to build both technical abilities and transferable skills (communication, confidence, leadership, and people skills). This means that the organization is seen as taking an active interest in the development of their employees. A more holistic approach to employee development is a key first step in employee engagement.
- Prepare and support employees during times of transition
Today, due to the dynamic nature of business, it is common for employees to face transition at some point in their career. This transition can involve both their personal and professional life. For example, starting a new job, taking on a new role, or moving to a new location can all add to employee stress levels. Your role is to help them to prepare for transitions by supporting them throughout the transition period, and then acknowledging their successes after the change. In this way you can create a true connection with your employees. This connection will help strengthen their engagement with the team and encourage them to help others facing a similar situation.
- Empower employees to take ownership
Ownership of tasks or projects is critical. The challenge lies in getting your employees to take ownership. It is difficult to build a sense of ownership when the plans, activities, and details are dictated by a manager. Therefore you need to find ways to empower employees to contribute their own ideas to the project. The more employees share in the rewards of success and are supported in turning failures into learning and growth opportunities, the more they can build a sense of ownership for their projects and become fully engaged in providing consistent successful outcomes.
- Communicate the connection between current efforts and future opportunities
When employees view their efforts as a disconnected series of tasks instead of a part of the whole project they may begin to look for other more meaningful roles. The key is to keep employees in the communication loop and show how their tasks are critical to the success of the project. Providing employees with a clear understanding of how their work impacts the larger initiatives of the organization is a proven method of engaging employees and retaining key personnel.
Trained employees are a valuable commodity. You have to invest resources in acquiring, training and educating them. Therefore you should make sure your company does all it can to retain them. People are changing jobs at an increasing rate today so it makes sense to follow the steps to engage employees and maximize the opportunity to protect your investment.
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