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How to Successfully Execute Retention Strategies
Once you have strategies in place to encourage retention, ensure that you are properly executing them to make real changes in the organization. We’ve narrowed down five ways you can ensure success:
5 keys to successful employee retention:
Take a bottom-up approach
For too long, investing in employees was confined to managers and “high potential” candidates, which was a highly subjective category and full of bias. The intention was that their development would trickle down to other levels. However, tht generally fails to happen.
Instead, invest in employees at all levels. By ensuring that even those at the bottom get the support they need, you can benefit from a highly skilled workforce that feels invested in and supported.
Provide self-directed and confidential targeted resources
While organizations hope that employees would approach their direct manager or HR representative when faced with challenges or confusion over directions, there are multiple layers that might prevent a worker from doing so. Employees need to be able to seek confidential support on their own to voice concerns, find help and get perspective. From training to mental health resources to anonymous feedback, giving employees a place to get support is critical.
This is especially why a confidential resource, like a Bravely Coach, can help bridge the gaps in needs for safe spaces.
“Advocate for external resources. Not everything can or should fall to the company itself.”
— Sara Aharon, Bravely Coach
Take identities and backgrounds into consideration
Creating psychological safety and a sense of belonging is crucial for fighting burnout and encouraging retention. Support should provide employees with this sense of security and belonging to be truly effective.
Companies now recognize the advantages of hiring diverse talent but fail to consider what to do next. Consider identity, preference, and background to encourage an inclusive environment. At Bravely, we believe in helping employees match with the right coaches. Our platform allows for identity-based pairings.
For example, a Black female worker may prefer having a coach or mentor who is also Black and female because they better understand the challenges and biases they face with that background.
Create opportunity for data capture with new KPIs
While creating a retention plan sounds great in theory, it’s impossible to know if efforts are doing any good if no feedback or data shows results. New KPIs that capture your retention plan will help provide a valuable resource to see if changes make a difference in company culture and retention.
Creating and managing meaningful connections at work is more challenging than ever. The ability to forge relationships and belonging is challenging between hybrid work, the stress of world events, and an increasing reliance on technology for collaboration. However, connection and belonging are critical to retention, and organizations suffer without them.
“The new mandate on leaders is to be facilitators of connection. That’s just part of the job now.”
— Sarah Sheehan, President and Co-Founder, Bravely
Companies that want to retain their top talent and maintain their virtual culture will need to quantify, track and improve belonging and connection by consciously treating it as a KPI.
Conduct stay interviews
While the concept of exit interviews is expected in the corporate world, stay interviews are a critical way to avoid them by encouraging retention.
A stay interview is about figuring out why employees choose to stay long before they even consider leaving. By increasing communication and transparency, organizations build trust, and psychological safety. This all keeps your workers feeling engaged and as though they can bring their whole selves to work. And there are a number of questions you can ask to get the conversation going during a stay interview.
5 questions to ask in a stay interview
