How to Retain Employees and Build a Stronger Workforce

Employee retention refers to the ability of an organization to retain its employees. Employees are an integral part of an organization’s culture. You want to keep them around as long as possible. Workplaces don’t want to be broken up with. But the reality is that all employees eventually want to step up the ladder and move on in their career journey. According to Quora, “Employees are more focused on their quality of life and work rather than working for the sake of money.” Organizations create a company culture to allow employees to blend into the organization in a positive manner. There are plenty of elements that factor into retaining employees, including company culture. Let’s dive in!

Company Culture

Company culture is an integral part of an organization. Without a strong and productive corporate culture, the organization won’t continue to support and build its workforce. Company culture is better defined as the shared emotions of an organization and the employees in it. It encompasses the company’s mission and values and defines what matters for employees and external stakeholders alike. Building a sense of community through these common values and standards for work will make your employees feel connected to the organization, supporting their productivity and relationship to the company.

Positive Work Environment 

Employees work better with a more engaging and encouraging work environment. According to Forbes, “an inclusive workplace is one that values individual differences in the workforce and makes them feel welcome and accepted.” Employees want to feel excited about coming to work every day. They want to feel reassured that the time given to the organization for the day was worth it. This all comes down to a positive work environment. 

A positive work environment entails practices promoting productivity and balance, supporting one another during crunch times, and, most importantly, treating one another with respect. All these qualities combined will make the organization a wonderful place to work. Putting qualities like these into practice starts from the organizational level, and then filters down to the team and individual level. Making sure your company values align with this support for a positive work environment will help your employees see that your organization really cares. 

Reward and Recognize Achievements

Many employees leave the organization if they are not appreciated for the work they contribute. As a manager, recognizing an employee’s hard work and effort will continue to build a solid relationship with them. This will also motivate the employee to continue to thrive and achieve excellence rather than compel them to doubt themselves over their level of progress at work. 

Value Work-Life Balance 

We all agree that there is more to life beyond the workplace. Employees desire time for their personal lives. This is one of the biggest struggles for first-year employees to understand. When you join your first job, you want to believe that you will give it your all, which to some means sacrificing your personal time. There is that little voice going off in your head, “Weekdays are not meant for fun. They’re meant for work.” You start believing that weekends are the only time for you to enjoy your personal life. However, it is up to you to decide when you want to take personal time for yourself. For the past year, working from home has been the most productive for employees in terms of office work so that they can spend more time with their families. 

Maintain a Good Relationship with Superiors

A solid relationship with the upper-level management is the goal of employee satisfaction. This will not only lead to a positive work environment but also a reduction in turnover. An employee-manager relationship can be boosted by the following tips – asking questions, requesting feedback, weekly catchups, or having conversations that are not always about work. At the end of the day, an employee would want a good recommendation from their employer should they want to change jobs in the future.

Focus on the Feedback Given from the Onboarding and Exit Surveys

Employee turnover is inevitable. However, organizations can help prevent such situations by taking constructive feedback from employee exit surveys. Exit surveys can be conversational. That is what makes them convenient and easy to answer. And it’s even more convenient to the exiting employee when the exit survey is online. This way, employees do not have to worry about answering uncomfortable questions in-person with their reporting manager or other HR staff. These surveys could be made anonymous, to encourage honest and frank feedback. But in that case, the organization loses the ability to address any issues that still exist in the exiting employee’s specific team and work environment. Learning a reason that an employee is leaving could have been addressed earlier can lead to improved work conditions for the rest of the employees if those issues are addressed.

Gauging PxidaEX with Employee Experience

Want to see the employee engagement magic come to life? Do you want to know how you can reduce employee turnover? PxidaEX is the perfect tool for you and your organization. This incredible survey tool can help your employees truly express how they feel without any worry or hesitation. Sign up now!