The Best Features of a High-Performance Engagement and Retention Strategy

Source: cakehr.co

For much of the past decade, HR departments everywhere in the world have been dealing with an unprecedented challenge. That challenge is keeping their talent pipelines full despite historically low unemployment rates. In such a hiring environment, businesses no longer have the upper hand, and job-hopping has become the new normal.

At the same time, businesses of all kinds have started to struggle with employee engagement. It’s an issue that has compounded the difficulty already created by a tight labor market. Some businesses have turned inward to try and figure out where the problem is coming from. The reality, however, is that poor employee engagement is a common problem in every industry, despite the many attempts made to improve it.

In truth, these two factors are inextricably linked. Employees are likely to leave for another job if they’re not engaged in their current position – and the tight labor market makes it easier than ever for them to do so. Fixing the problem requires a systemic approach that changes the whole equation for employees, providing incentives to stay when the labor environment gives them every reason to leave.

Making this happen requires HR departments to create and effect a comprehensive employee engagement and retention plan. It must result in nothing short of a complete cultural shift throughout the organization to achieve the desired results. Here’s a top-to-bottom look at the best features of a high-performance employee engagement and retention strategy that every business should consider putting into action right away.

Begin With the Right Metrics

One of the greatest mistakes the majority of employee engagement and retention initiatives make is a failure to create the right data collection infrastructure before making changes to existing procedures and policies. Without the right metrics to guide them, HR departments tend to make changes that conform to industry expectations rather than to the reality of their own organizations.

Although the specifics of what’s needed will vary from company to company, the essential metrics to track are:

• Employee development
• Job satisfaction
• Employer perception
• Co-worker relationships
• Employee health
• Communication effectiveness

Offer a Complete Employee Development Program

As it turns out, there’s a reason that employee development was the first metric listed above. It’s because employee development is one of the biggest keys to employee engagement and retention. It’s so important that a recent survey found that an astounding 94% of employees would remain with their current company if it invested in their career. That number alone should be enough for any business to justify whatever spending is necessary to create a comprehensive employee development program.

The best way to do this is to adopt a blended approach that offers learning opportunities in a variety of formats. To start with, a tuition reimbursement program gives employees the option of learning on their own time and through the medium of their choice. It’s flexible, generous, and a great retention tool. A good program won’t stop there, though. It should also create at-work opportunities for growth.

That means creating time within the work schedule to allow for training activities and online coursework. The first step is to get buy-in from managers throughout the organization who will be at the front lines of the policy. It should be made clear that employee development is a business goal that everyone should work toward. If possible, managers should have a say in which types of skill development would be most valuable to their group.

When there’s a clear picture of what kind of development is required, a good next step is to partner with an online learning platform that offers the needed coursework. Today, there are online courses available to suit every need, including a variety of human resources courses so those crafting and managing the program won’t be left out. It’s even possible for businesses with sufficient resources to craft their own custom coursework using one of the many business-oriented online learning platforms.

The bottom line is that there’s no longer an excuse for any company to not make employee development a core part of their engagement and retention plans. And with the statistics proving how valuable such an effort is, it’s tantamount to business malpractice not to.

Take Steps to Improve Communication

Judging by the vast majority of studies on employee engagement, there are few things that sap morale faster than poor communications. More often than not, employees feel disengaged due to their perception of their on-the-job reality, rather than on what’s actually going on around them. The key to fixing that problem is to provide the tools necessary for effective, transparent communication at all levels.

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