Can you afford to lose your talented employees?

Nine out of ten companies find that their recruitment situation has become more difficult in the last couple of years. One of the consequences is a shift of power from the company to the employees. Retention has therefore made it to the top of the agenda in many companies, and the traditional ways of incorporating it no longer work: Your employees want more than just financial and material incentives to stay in the job. So … how do you retain your talented employees? We offer a few suggestions here.

The last several years’ prosperity in Denmark has resulted in a nearly impossible candidate market, and you can almost get a new job at a canter. We are experiencing a red-hot job market with record low unemployment and a turnover of more than 30 per cent. And this has actually never been seen before.

There are many ways to go when choosing a retention strategy, but we will have to consult our employees and go for the elements that are most important to them. Studies show that one of the most important things you can focus your efforts on is to create a meaningful working life for your employees with continuous development, psychological security, flexibility, recognition, affiliation and autonomy. Well, that was quite a mouthful, so let us take it in small steps.

Because the vast majority of employees know that their current skills are probably not sufficient to be attractive on the labour market in ten years. Therefore, they would like to be developed and learn something new and thus increase their market value.

It is also in the company’s interest to support the employees’ development. Firstly, it creates value that the professional level is raised and kept up-to-date in the company. Secondly, a high employee turnover is expensive. And it may result in employees resigning if they miss challenges and meaningful tasks or lack opportunities to develop.

Therefore, there is good reason to make development opportunities visible in the dialogue you as a manager have with your employees – and ask about their career wishes and ambitions. In this way, you can also assess how eager they are to acquire new skills and ‘fine tune’ their current ones. One of the most important tasks for the management is therefore to ensure that there is always a development perspective and a career plan for the employees.

The covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly influenced our demands for the possibility of hybrid work. There is a clear tendency for employees to believe that they do not have to sit at their desk to work, but that they can easily work from home.

Studies show that workplaces offering a possibility to work from home are more productive than those who always work overtime. Therefore, it is essential to talk to your employees about their expectations for flexibility.

For most of us, working life is becoming increasingly complex and, when changes accelerate, inner motivation and the need for flexibility are decisive to keep job satisfaction alive. A company may therefore to a large extent motivate an employee to stay, but it takes effort.

The possibility to get autonomy over where and when to do your job is also very important to your employees’ job satisfaction and retention. Therefore, it is a good idea to align expectations and consider the value of having limitations.

Autonomy is about your employees having influence on what they do when they go to work; how they can approach professional challenges in the way they think is right.

Your employees’ opportunity for autonomy over where they can work actually reduces stress, gives a better work-life balance, increases employee job satisfaction and improves employee work performance.

Studies emphasise that you tend to be more successful in retaining your employees if they feel safe and develop a strong sense of belonging to the company. You can e.g. create the sense of belonging by making personal life a natural part of your conversations, so that you do not just talk professionally during the working day. In other words, it is important that you as a manager establish a culture based on dialogue with a peaceful and cosy atmosphere where you can talk about everyday problems.

Many researchers point out the importance of the basic psychological and physical needs – such as autonomy, development and flexibility – being equally met for your employees to be happy. Therefore, it is important that you as a manager acknowledge your employees’ perspectives, provide meaningful feedback and encourage self-determination in their performance of tasks.

Create a workplace where the individual employee feels safe, is recognised and feels connected to the company and has meaning as an individual.

Then, you are a good step on the way to retaining your valuable employees.

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Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/heidilynnekurter/2022/01/30/4-ways-to-win-over-and-retain-top-talent-during-the-great-resignation/?sh=46b7a3375684

https://www.talenthub.io/blog/how-to-recruit-and-retain-a-flexible-workforce

Harvard Business Review, 2021 – The new rules of managing talent