What is an Employee Retention strategy and what should it include? 

Employee Retention refers to your Organisation's ability to prevent voluntary and involuntary employee turnover; an Employee Retention strategy is a plan that Organisations develop and implement to reduce their employee turnover rates, and to ensure that employee turnover does not have a negative impact on the Organisation. The Employee Retention strategy should include Company Policies and Programmes that help the Organisation to attract and retain Team Members that are the right fit for the Organisation, and the right fit for the Organisations customers and clients. 

Albeit, some turnover is inevitable and acceptable, and rates will vary between business and industries, an Employee Retention strategy can help optimise retention and reduce expenses related to recruitment, onboarding, and training. 

Recruitment 

An employee’s journey within any Organisation will begin at the Recruitment and Onboarding stage. Through the Recruitment and Onboarding stages the employee gets their first initial impression of the Organisation. These processes should be seamless and should ensure that as much as possible the candidate is a match for the position. The Job Specification provided to the employee prior to the recruitment stage should be transparent and comprehensive clearly outlining what is expected of the employee. Similarly, the Performance Management system should be initiated on commencement clearly outlining the performance objectives of the role to ensure success, and to ensure the employee is aware that the Organisation follow appropriate Performance Management structures. 

Health & Wellbeing
Health & Wellbeing initiatives are often perceived as more valuable to employees than monetary benefits. Organisations can ensure that Team Members feel support by offering an Employee Assistance Program, offering subsidised Health Insurance. 
Organisations need to also acknowledge the milestones, whether big or small. Examples of such milestones may be Organisations celebrating where a Team Member finished a project ahead of the deadline on a major project, or where an employee reaches a ten-year work anniversary. Team Members may need to celebrate virtually, but it can be a meaningful and memorable moment for everyone. 

Employee Engagement
Involving Team Members in the Organisation can make them feel a part of it. It is important to ensure that employees are engaged especially now with many employees working remotely. The quality of communication between the employer and the employee has a direct influence on the Employees Engagement with the Organisation and whether they decide to stay. 
It is important that a “two-way” communication strategy is in place. Mechanism such as employee forums are useful in encouraging upwards communication from employees as well as downwards communication that relays management information.

Benefits
Organisations need to ensure that they are offering a competitive package in order to attract and retain Team Members. Employees have many priorities and so it is important that you can offer a comprehensive yet tailored package to meet the needs of all employees. There are proactive steps that employers can take in retaining employees, they should where possible look at introducing benefits where possible such as paid sick leave or an employee pension scheme. Alternatively, discussing and allowing for open conversation with employees regarding what they feel would benefit them as an employee. For example, employees may request more flexibility in how they work or where they work in order to achieve a better work-life balance and the Organisation considering if this would be possible to accommodate such requests. 

Training & Development 
It is important to create an Organisation that fosters a culture of learning, development, and progression in order to retain Team Members. Where this culture exists, employees have a pathway where they are given the opportunity to progress and grow within the Organisation. Not all employees will want to progress and will be happy to stay in the current role, however, it is important that should they wish to progress, the option is available to them to explore. Organisations can provide staff with access to education promoting continuous learning and development by offering to subsidise the costs or providing paid study leave. 

Conclusion
It is important for every Organisation to get to the root of why employees are leaving. Exit Interviews are an effective way of gathering and compiling this crucial information. Conducting Exit Interviews with all departing employees will provide you with a wealth of feedback on all aspects of their experience in your Organisation and will help you to identify the preventative measures you need to take in order to reduce your employee turnover.