Employee Retention is the most talked about subject in today's business scenario. Take example of any organization be it IT, Manufacturing, Production houses - all are feeling the heat of employee attrition and they want to have good retention rates. Gone are the days when an employee stuck to a particular organization for his life time and never left. Things have changed and so has the mindset and work culture. Employees are the Back bone of the company. In true sense they run the company because you cannot manage a company without employees and things gets worse if they leave for one or other reason. Employee retention is very important for growth of a company.
Let us first answer the question as to why Employee retention is important. Employees need to be retained because we need good, faithful, trained and hard working employees to run our business. They have acquired good product knowledge over the long run and a trained employee can handle customers better and also solve problems of peers who are new to the organization. When an employee leaves he takes away with him all company information such as ongoing projects, etc. Goodwill of the company gets hampered due to more employee turnover rate and the competitors start poking their nose to recruit best talents from them. Efficiency of work is hampered to a large extent. Let me give you an example – If an employee leaves in the middle of an ongoing project its very difficult to fill that Vacuum and a new employee can never replace an old and talented employee so this leads to delayed completion of projects and less work satisfaction among other team members.
A lot of company's capital is invested in hiring & training an employee. Company really suffers big loss after they leave.
Now the question arises as to why an employee leaves ?
There are various reasons -
1.Poor working conditions
2.No or low growth opportunities
3.Non Cooperative seniors
4.Non cooperative peers
5.Poor management
6.Less or no Recognition / Appreciation
7.Right Person at the wrong place
8.Stress
9.Low salary
10.New and exciting job offer from competitors
When we are aware of the facts leading to attrition of an employee we can take few measures to retain them.
They are -
1.Provide good working conditions and introduce positive work culture so that an employee is at ease and not stresses while working.
2.Appreciate all the good work and mentor him where he his wrong. He will feel at ease and will be delighted that the company cares for him.
3.The management should check that there is no mis-communication between the top management and employees because a wrong message is really dangerous.
4.Flexible working hours for those who really need to fulfill other important personal obligations.
5.Work life balance is very much necessary because if an employee has personal conflict will not work and finally leave.
6.Bonus should be given occasions and pay should be raised if an employee does good work.
7.Provide medical benefits.
8.If possible provide him with an insurance policy so that he feels that company cares for him.
9.Recruit right person for the right job because a mismatch will hamper the work and cost a lot to the company.
10.Train the employees from time to time so that their skills enhances and they serve the organization better
11.Have faith in your employees and include them in in important decision making so that they feel they are part and parcel of the company.
Each and every company has to understand the needs of its employees and work accordingly. One approach cannot fit all. I feel that each and every company should devise its own methods of retaining employees apart from what is always practiced. That will really work. Try a new method and see the magic . All the best.
