Staffing Issues? What You Need To Know About Retaining Loyal Employees Post Covid

They are calling it the “Turnover Tsunami” in the professional world. Human resource experts estimate that more than half of employees surveyed in North America plan to at least look for a new job in 2021! Included in that report was evidence that a quarter of people surveyed plan to quit their current job once recruitment gears back up post-pandemic. These numbers and the anecdotes we are hearing from companies across the state show that there are currently major staffing issues with no solution in sight. 

As the post-coronavirus recovery continues, quit rates have climbed faster than job openings, and the overall Labor Force Participation Rate (61.4%) descended to a 43-year low. Taking industry-to-industry variance into account, employers may be drawing from a tighter labor pool than they were before the virus struck. (Source: Aerotek) 

If your organization is lucky enough to have exceptional employees, what are you doing to keep them happy, engaged, and retain them within your company? 

If you struggle to come up with a few tangible ways to retain your best employees, this is the blog for you. Here are a few straightforward steps you may want to take to protect your business from what could be a Turnover Tsunami in the coming months. 

Prioritize Retention Initiatives 

As managers, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the day-to-day operations of a company, but to keep your organization running and keep costs down for hiring (remember it costs more for the hiring process than it does for the retention process), prioritizing retention initiatives just makes good business sense. 

Retaining good employees goes beyond having pizza parties on Fridays or springing for coffee every once-in-a-while. Rather it encompasses things like recognizing hard work, creating long-term incentive plans, instituting employee loyalty bonuses, and (when possible) increasing base pay to keep up with the market. 

Recognition 

A study published in Forbes Magazine and conducted by Bersin and Associates, “found that companies that scored in the top 20 percent for building a ‘recognition-rich culture’ actually had 31 percent lower voluntary turnover rates.”

Recognition can be in the form of verbal announcements at staff meetings or conferences, a salary boost, or a promotion. Having these things to look forward to can help retain some of your most motivated and valued employees. 

Stave Off Burnout 

These past two years have been tough on everyone from the top leadership to the newly hired office worker. Ward off burn out by your employees by checking in on them. Find out how they are doing and what can be done better by leadership to make their job more engaging or easier. 

This could also mean being more flexible with hours for employees to have a better work-life balance, allow for flex hours, remote working when needed, and adjustments to the workday to reduce employee burnout. 

Instill Confidence in Leadership 

Every employee, unless you are the owner, has someone in charge of them in some way. Help employees feel more autonomous by showing you trust them. Hand over a project without micromanaging, allowing employees to put their mark on a project, and do it inspired by a sense of purpose rather than a manager breathing down their neck. This shift may be seismic in some organizations but one that is worth considering if you hope to retain your best employees in a time when you can’t afford to lose them. 

Categorised in: Blog, employee benefits, employee issues, Employee retention, Human Resources