Investing in employee engagement and retention is one of the best things companies can do to improve productivity and work quality.
Employers tend to introduce employee engagement and employee retention strategies in their business to secure a reliable foundation that leads to overall success. If employee engagement and retention are not something you are focusing on for your business, then you should.
Employee engagement is a process for your organization that results in emotional commitment from your employees. Once that is achieved, the employee will be more productive. And employee retention, on the other hand, refers to the company’s ability to retain its employee. As the cost of replacing and training new employees is very high, companies now focus on maintaining their existing employees.
Now the question is, how employee engagement and employee retention are connected? A strong strategy in these two aspects determines the access of the organization. We will discuss more about the connection between employee engagement and employee retention in this article.
What is the importance of employee engagement?
When employees are devoted to the company’s objectives, values, and goals, the company grows. Employees committed to contributing to the company’s success do so to enhance their own well-being as well. Apart from that, there are many benefits to having engaged employees as well. One of that is the fact that it boosts the productivity of individual workers.
An engaged worker will work more efficiently than a disinterested worker. Positive engagement also helps in promoting your company’s culture. Ideally, the positively engaged employees of your company will add value to your company’s overall work ethic. If you want to induce a culture of engagement in your company, you can definitely consider introducing an event that engages and promotes them around the company.
Tips to improve employee engagement
Appreciation
The first and the easiest way to improve employee engagement is by recognizing the value they add to the organization. A simple ‘well done’ will go a long way. Employees want to know that they are contributing to the company’s overall goal and doing a good job.
Feedback
Open communication is extremely crucial when it comes to engaging an employee. Giving and receiving solid feedback about their jobs can be extremely engaging. By sharing your employee’s feedback, you can ensure them where they stand in the company. When you ask for their feedback, it promotes your company’s ‘give and take’ work environment. This will ensure that your employees are not afraid to talk with the company manager.
Positive work environment and culture
A friendly and comfortable work environment heavily impacts your employee’s prolificacy. An employee spends eight hours a day in the office on average. It will become very hard for them to turn up every day to work in an environment where your workers do not feel safe or comfortable. To ensure they feel the knack to come to your office every day, make sure you create an employee-friendly environment.
What is the importance of employee retention?
Turnovers and training costs are expensive. Retaining an already existing employee reduces the cost of recruiting and training newcomers. It also saves the time and efforts it takes to do so. If you have a high turnover rate, the amount starts to add up. What is more concerning is the potential loss of productivity for your company.
There are several reasons why an employee will leave your company. Some reasons are out of your control. However, a lot of employees leave tier jobs because they are not fully satisfied with the current work situation. In that case, you can find areas of improvement for your company.
Tips to improve employee retention
Recruiting
The process of employee retention starts from the recruiting time only. Interviewing and hiring candidates that you feel are the best fit for your company’s objective is essential in the process of employee retention.
Competitive Packages
Retaining the right employee is much more than just recruiting the right employee. While a potential candidate might not consider pay and other benefit packages that important, it is still extremely beneficial to employee retention. Providing competitive packages makes it harder for your employees to leave for better offers somewhere else.
Training and development
Providing training for your employees can be crucial in retaining them. You can also incorporate personal skill development programs as well. Employees will likely leave a company where they feel there is no possible progression within the organization.
How does employee engagement affect employee retention?
Poor employee engagement leads to poor retention of good employees. Needless to say, employee engagement and employee retention go hand in hand. These initiatives aim to engage and retain the best talents for your company who will stay with the organization for the long term.
Conclusion
Everything basically boils down to having the best employee engagement and retention, you should have open and healthy communication with your employees. The management team should keep in touch with the individual employees on a daily basis. You should foster an environment where employees are consistently engaged and encouraged for day one.
