The lifeblood of a business is those within it, which reflects the importance of staff recruitment, training and management. With job turnover rates of over 20%, employers must strongly consider how to keep their strong, productive talent, all in a market where there is limited ability to incentivize through renumeration.
Pay Them More and They Will Stay? Not So Simple.
Although renumeration is a factor contributing to retention of talent, in times of economic struggle, businesses must lean on other strategies.
A 2023 BCG Survey of 11,000 employees from eight ‘Western’ countries (USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Japan) measured 20 needs of employees and drew some interesting data.
- Functional Needs, such as pay, hours and benefits were a top predictor of someone taking a new job.
- Emotional needs, such as feeling valued, supported and doing work you enjoy rocketed to top importance when considering their intentions to stay at a job. Functional needs, including renumeration were much less important.
Strong Management is a Major Key
““Great managers are also associated with a 3.2x increase in employee motivation, a 13.9x increase in job satisfaction, and a significant increase in feelings of inclusion.”
– 2023 Study
How Are Employees Emotional Needs Met?
Investing in professional development –understand the link between employees skills, aspirations and work requirements. The employee feels supported and the employer has a worker with a greater skillset.
Idea: Do paid programs need to be directly related to work? What about awarding a grant to learn anything. Say $300 per year for employees to attend any self-growth event/seminars.
Communicating transparently & providing continuous feedback builds trust. Employees feel greater understanding of the business’s decisions and therefore their contributions.
Acknowledge hard work and milestones. Employees want to be seen and recognized for their contributions to the organization. Callout good work when you see it.
Know when to let employees go. A company tolerating poor performance or violations of the company culture may push employees to leave in frustration. Organisations should have plans in place to help employees improve when they’re not meeting expectations.