Every business is faced with employee retention issues at some point. While many businesses find a solution to improve retention, others continue to struggle and solicit help eventually. As a management consultant at Primetivity Solutions, I help business owners and leaders solve employee retention issues by leveraging people analytics (some call it HR analytics). People analytics collects HR and organizational data to identify trends and patterns that can drive actionable changes to business processes, including hiring. 

In our discovery phases, the three most common themes causing retention issues are –

1. Not hiring the right people
2. No growth plan
3. Not challenging employees

1.    Not Hiring the Right People - > Improve Talent Acquisition

Not hiring the right person for a job is the number one cause of employee retention issues. This might sound surprising, but many businesses do not understand the value of job descriptions. The job description allows the hiring manager to “think” about the skills needed to perform the job in question. Some hire based on relational equity and not talent. Some employees do not stay because they are not qualified for the role and get in over their heads with responsibilities.

Solution  - Before hiring your next employee, list all skills required and desired. Create a skills matrix and rate every applicant on a three-point scale (beginner, intermediate, expert) based on capability. Then interview the top 3-5 applicants for cultural fit. This will prevent you from hiring applicants lacking core skills and help recruiters save time by filtering out those who are not qualified.

2.    No Growth Plan -> Enhance Employee Experience

After a new employee is hired, another retention issue is a lack of organization and direction. Employees start working without a plan. They are unsure if they are meeting expectations or delivering because no one told them what was expected. This is frustrating for new employees. Not only are they looking to perform well, but they are also looking for what the future means for them at the company. They have nothing to aspire to.

Solution  – Before hiring your next employee, create a 30,60,90 day action plan to help employees understand the objectives and deliverables. Schedule weekly 1:1 meetings with employees to understand how they are adjusting to the environment and ask if anything else is needed to help with deliverables. This will allow you as the manager to accomplish the goals outlined and show the employee how their work fits into the bigger picture. This helps employees understand their purpose. 

3.    Not Challenged -> Measuring Productivity and Stretching

Once you hire the right employee and create an action plan, the next common issue for retaining employees is keeping them challenged. How do you separate rockstars from low performers? This is specifically for your top talent and high producers. When top-performing employees get bored, they send signals. Their productivity declines and they ask for additional projects to stimulate their minds. If your business environment doesn’t value quality performance, these employees tend to look for more challenging assignments elsewhere.

Solution  – During your weekly check-ins, understand their workload and ask them about their productivity and interests. Create an employee productivity scorecard to monitor performance (quantity and quality). Based on their performance and interest, share upcoming projects with them and have them take the lead. This will keep them challenged, busy and engaged. Also, having a scorecard will help keep conversations objective and allow you to coach employees to better performance.

Conclusion

I wish I could provide you with a magical wand to help retain employees. But the reality is people are complex and many factors influence their decisions to stay with a company, some that we could never control.

As outlined, when businesses implement the proper procedures and systems, employee retention can be improved. It all starts with building the right culture, hiring the right people for the tasks, and monitoring performance. If you need help with retaining employees, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at info@primetiviy.com or  click here to setup a call.

In what other ways are you retaining talent?

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