Retain Your Precious Talent
It’s no secret that low employee engagement and weak employee retention are costly to the organization. But did you know how high the price of disengaged employees and high turnover is? For every employee that leaves, you need to plan on twice the loss of their salary plus what it costs in productivity loss as you recruit, hire, and train replacements. And this doesn’t even account for high turnover’s effect on revenue, profits, employee morale, or customers. What’s needed are some leadership tips to retain talent.
From a broader perspective, recent studies show just how negatively organizations can be impacted by low levels of engagement and retention: 12% lower profits, 19% lower operating income, and 28% lower earnings per share.
From however you look at it, to succeed in business, leaders need to hold on to precious, hard-to-replace talent and ensure high levels of employee engagement across the workforce.
Leadership Tips to Retain Talent
Here are four ways organizations can improve employee engagement and, therefore, improve your leadership succession pipeline and retention of top talent:
- Connect Individual Job Roles to the Company’s Purpose
Employees are more engaged in their work when they clearly understand how their job contributes to the organization’s overall success, company mission, and corporate vision. If employees clearly see direct links between what they do in their daily routine and what the company delivers to its customers, employees feel valued.
And when employees have a sense of accountability and ownership because their leaders give them a measure of autonomy and flexibility as they perform their job, there is an added level of commitment to working at their best. Do your employees:
– understand the company’s plans for future success?
– believe the organization will be successful in the future?
– understand how their job helps the organization achieve success?
– know how they fit into the organization’s future plans? - Invest in Frontline Management Skills
Unfortunately too many frontline managers are ill-equipped to lead. 85% of new managers report receiving no training prior to switching into their new role, and unsurprisingly 60% underperform during their first two years. When people leaders have not been trained in critical management skills, their direct reports suffer and feel undervalued, undermotivated, and dissatisfied.
You owe it to your managers and to their team members to assess leadership competencies and created targeted development plans to close the gaps.
Do your frontline managers have the confidence and competence to lead, manage, and coach their teams? - Build Team Alignment
Have you ever been on a team at work that was characterized by a lack of trust, fear of sharing thoughts and opinions, lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities and confusion over team goals? If so, you know how discouraging that can be. High performing work teams are guided by clear and agreed-upon team norms and know they can rely on others to do what they say they are going to do.
Are your workplace teams:
– clear on their team goals and accountabilities?
– relatively free of workplace politics?
– highly collaborative with each other and other functions? - Provide Relevant Opportunities for Career Growth
Sure, compensation and benefits matter. But as long as employees feel that their total compensation is fair, they are less important to employees in terms of engagement and retention than opportunities to learn and grow in their careers. Data from our organizational culture assessments tells us that over half of workers are likely to leave their jobs unless they see a clear path of development.
No matter the level in an organization, workers are more engaged when they see a positive future. Do your leaders ensure that employees have an easy opportunity to learn and grow?
The Bottom Line
Retaining top talent can make the difference between success and failure. Are you ready to assess current levels of engagement and take meaningful employee engagement actions to address any weaknesses that could create unwanted turnover?
To learn more leadership tips to retain talent, download The Only 16-Step Employee Retention Strategy You Need
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