How To Increase Employee Retention An essential guide Employee retention is high on the agenda of most companies How To today, not only to reduce the associated costs of replacing an employee through recruitment, but because of the benefits

that come with retaining well-trained employees who Increase understand all the intricacies of your business and can execute their job role with little support or training. It’s no surprise that Employee nearly 78% of business leaders rank employee retention as important or urgent, and if you are looking to overcome poor Retention retention rates or simply improve upon your current one then this eBook will help you get you to where you want to be.

Whether you’re a start-up with a handful of employees, or a

large corporate with multiple offices, poor retention can have a

big impact on your bottom line. This eBook will outline the

steps you can take to improve yours today.

78% Of Business Leaders Rank Employee Retention As Important Or Urgent TLNT.com 78% If you are more prone to people leaving in the early stages of their career with your organisation than your longer serving employees then you are not alone.

Look At How In a lot of the instances the reason for leaving is: • The role is not what they expected You Hire • They don’t enjoy working at your organisation • They haven’t bedded into the role properly

In A Study Of Over 1000 Workers, 31% 31%Reported Having Quit A Job Within The First Six Months BambooHR

Now without a crystal ball it is difficult to know exactly how a new employee is going to settle into a role at your organisation, but there are steps you can take at the point of hiring to eliminate the “candidate personas” that are less likely to stay. Look At How You Hire:

Descriptive Job Adverts Promote Your Authentic Employer Brand

So many companies focus on the candidate profile when As suggested with the job advert, you must ensure you promote

creating a job advert, listing skills and experience required an authentic representation of your employer brand online. Use

but often forgetting to include the relevant information platforms such as your careers site and social media pages to

about the role, the environment and the culture of your share news and employee stories, showcase office life and give

organisation. The job may seem perfect on paper, but it’s a glimpse into team events and celebrations. Not every

those “little things” about a role that really determine candidate wants the same type of role, some people are more

whether it’s the right job for the candidate or not. Use your suited to a relaxed environment where they can work

job adverts as a platform to show what the role is really like, autonomously with a pair of headphones on, others prefer a

give specific details about the responsibilities, the team fast-paced sales floor where they can make jokes with their

structure, the perks and the challenges of the role. This colleagues as they work! If you can showcase your unique

might filter out some candidates from applying, but the ones employer brand online it will help candidates see the type of

that do are more likely to stay after being hired because company you are before they join, again filtering out the people

you’ve been transparent about the role from the beginning. with the wrong fit for your company culture. Look At How You Hire:

Be Thorough In The Interview Be Clear About The Job Offer

As tempting as it is to tell a candidate your company is the When delivering a job offer it’s vital that you disclose everything

greatest place to work you shouldn’t skew the truth too for the candidate. Instead of just giving a confirmation of the

much. Be candid about the role, and even stress the salary and job title, you should describe a full overview of the

negative parts along with the positives. For example, if you benefits package, holiday entitlement, terms of the contract and

are recruiting for a “Sales Role” that has high KPI’s and probation period etc. Something that may seem small like “how

targets that might lead to working late nights, you must be much the company contributes to the employee’s pension

up front and manage the candidate’s expectations. scheme” can be a real deal breaker for a candidate, and it’s

Otherwise they may join and decide to leave shortly after better to know now than 6 weeks after the candidate has

when these aspects of the role come to light. If the interview started.

goes well why not show them where they will be working so

they can get a real glimpse into the environment and the

team they will be joining too? Improve Your Working Environment

The physical working environment you cramped and cold office space with no provide for your employees can have a windows or atmosphere! You also need to huge impact on job satisfaction, so if consider what the working environment is yours isn’t up to scratch it could lead to for each job role too. Not every job retention issues down the line. Obviously, function happens in an office, some things like safety conditions and employees work in a warehouse, outside cleanliness are vital for any workplace, but or driving a vehicle for example, which you should also be considering the actual can make the working environment design of your work environment. For difficult to control but not impossible to example, an office with plenty of natural improve. If you want to keep your

light, spacious and functional workspace, employees happy then you should be communal break-out areas, temperature looking at the environment across all job control and a Spotify playlist is probably functions and not just in your HQ office. going to be nicer to work in than a Develop A Winning Culture Every company has a unique culture, it’s pre-existing and makes up a big part of an employee’s experience in their job. There is no right or wrong way to build and shape your culture, but if you develop this from day one then you are more likely to attract candidates who resonate with that culture and are therefore more likely to stay.

Your culture is who you are, your employees mould to it and if yours is strong enough it can increase engagement, job satisfaction and most importantly stop your employees from leaving.

94% Of Executives And 88% Of Employees Believe A Distinct Workplace Culture94% Is Important To Business Success Deloitte Examples Of What A “Company Culture” Might Look Like: Company Culture3 • Corporate

• International travel for employees Company Culture • On-site gym 1 • Fast-paced environment • Lots of social events

• Fun working environment

• Friday beers on the company

• Office ping pong table

Company Culture2 • Flexible and remote working options

• Office yoga

• Bring your dog to work

• Free fruit Mondays LinkedIn produce industry reports annually, and one Understand of the areas they report is on “what candidates want in a job”. Here is a snapshot from the December What’s Important 2017 report of the Information Technology and Services Industry for example: To Employees In Your Industry

What employees deem as being important in their role is likely to change over time, so you need to stay on top of recruitment trends to ensure your offering remains competitive and to reduce the risk of employees leaving for another role. What’s even more important is Understanding what is driving candidates within that you look at trends in your specific industry, your sector will help you identify areas that can help because what motivates someone in one sector you retain current employees. may be totally different to another. Employee Surveys - A large-scale employee engagement survey is a great Understand way to keep on top of exactly how your employees feel about working for your organisation. You should ask questions around your EVP’s (employee value propositions), benefits package, working environment, management What’s and the job role itself, to understand how satisfied employees are right now Important and to discover what you could potentially improve upon in the future. Feedback platforms - The only drawback of an employee survey is that they To Your are usually done only once or twice a year, meaning you may not learn about an employee concern until it’s too late to fix it. If you can, implement a feedback system that allows employees to share their thoughts Employees (anonymously or not) 365 days a year as it will help you stay ahead of curve.

Large scale reports and studies will give you an Online reviews - Your employees may already be sharing feedback through indication of what is happening in the market to online platforms such as Glassdoor so make sure you check yours regularly, help you remain competitive, but the best way to so you have the chance to react to any concerns your employees raise. You understand how you can retain employees at your can claim your Glassdoor profile through a business email address to get organisation is to conduct your own research. notifications of any new reviews shared.

78% Of Companies Have A Documented Employee Engagement Strategy And Nearly 50% Measure 50%Success Maritz Motivation Measure – If you make changes in your company in response to feedback you need to ensure they are 5 Listen To Feedback having an impact. Use your next employee survey to measure the change in satisfaction for relevant parts of Getting employee feedback will help you identify areas you could improve the business. If you see a change make sure you feed it upon, but the important thing here is that you actually listen to them. This back to Directors as it will help you continue to get buy isn’t to say you will yield to every employee demand made, but there may in for any future changes too. be internal changes you can make to counteract negative feedback, improve employee satisfaction and ultimately increase retention.

Respond to employees – In some instances you may be able to implement changes that 4 Get buy in from the top – Any internal take immediate effect for your employees, changes in your organisation will need sign 1 How To React but certain changes will take longer to be put off from the top, so to ensure you react To Feedback in place so it’s important that you let quickly to anything you uncover you’ll need to employees know that you are listening and secure buy in from Directors and Managers. finding ways to improve.

Make a strategy – Make sure you have a plan in place so Assess what can be changed – Use your catch ups with you know exactly who is responsible for collecting feedback 2 key stakeholders to map out ideas for change in response 3 and measuring the results. If possible arrange a monthly to employee feedback. For example, you may discover a catch up with key stakeholders to discuss your findings so strong trend for employees suggesting there is a lack of that everyone is aware of what is happening across the work-life balance in the company, to which you may look to company and not just in their individual departments. introduce more flexible or remote working options. Provide A Career Road Map

Employees who join your organisation, in no matter what capacity,

are unlikely to want to stay in that same position forever.

Employees want to feel challenged and engaged in their role, and

most importantly a lot of them want progression. Companies that

can provide a career roadmap for employees, even if it is just a

guideline, are better placed to retain employees because these

individuals are less likely to look outside of the organisation for the

“next career step” if they know exactly how and when it can

happen in their current company. More Than 70% Of High-Retention-Risk Aim to have at least two formal catch ups with your employees Employees Say They'll each year and use this as an opportunity to discover their Have To Leave Their aspirations for the next 12 months – 5 years. This forward-thinking Organization To approach will allow you to plan ahead and find a way to align your Advance Their Career employee’s career goals with opportunities in your company. Willis Towers Watson Work-life balance is important to the majority of workers, in fact 75% of Be Flexible UK employees claim to favour flexible working options (Source: realbusiness.co.uk), so if you are failing to provide a flexible option for your employees then you could be at risk of losing your best people to a company that does. Here are four flexible options to consider in your organisation:

Job Sharing - Sometimes employees want to change from a full-time to a part-time contract, but for many organisations this is not feasible. One way to overcome this is to provide an option for employees to job share, where two employees literally divide a single job and share the responsibilities across two part-time roles.

Compressed Hours - One way to give employees a better work-life balance without sacrificing on man hours is to look at the four-day working week instead of the traditional five. For example, if employees normally work 35 hours on a 9am-5pm Monday-Friday (with a daily one-hour lunch break) you could change this to four days of 8am-6pm (with a one-hour lunch break). Employees will clock the exact same hours but get an extra day off each week. Change the start time - For some employees it’s not the number of

hours and days they work that is the issue, it is the start and finish time Be Flexible that hinders them from doing what they want to in their home lives. It could be that they want to attend a gym class that starts at 5pm, or they need to drop their kids off for school at 9am, but fixed start and finish times can often get in the way of life commitments. They can also mean that employees must commute at peak times which can add unnecessary hours to their working day. If flexing the start and finish time does not affect your business, why not offer this as an option for your employees?

Work from home - For some the ultimate flexible working option involves no or very little time in the office, because the ability to work remotely can help employees balance things like childcare and family commitments. Depending on the job function it may not be feasible to offer remote working, but if you can, why not consider making it an option even if it is just an occasional thing?

Companies That Support Remote Work Have 25% Lower Employee Turnover25% Than Companies That Don't www.owllabs.com It’s incredible how many organisations fail to show their employees how much they appreciate them, especially in such a competitive market where people are less likely to stay in a job long-term than they were in previous years. If someone Show Your makes a mistake you can guarantee their manager will pull them up on it, but how often do you stop to say thank you to Appreciation your employees or recognise those mini-wins in work? Showing your appreciation can be anything from telling your employees “good job” right up to physical rewards and bonuses for performance. Either way, a little bit of gratitude can go a long way to show an employee how much you appreciate their efforts, and employees who feel valued are less likely to leave.

Global Studies Reveal That 79% Of 79%People Who Quit Their Jobs Cite ‘Lack Of Appreciation’ As Their

Reason For Leaving www.octanner.com If an employee does decide to hand in their notice, you’ll need to act

quickly if you are going to rescue the situation and convince them to

stay. Ideally you will have taken the previous steps to avoid this

happening, but sometimes an employee’s concerns may go

unnoticed until the time comes for them to hand their resignation

letter in. Usually an employee will have another job offer on the table,

in which case you can sit down with them and try to understand

exactly what it is that is motivating them to leave and assess if it is Counter something that you could change. If for example they are moving role purely for a salary increase you may be able to match the offer for

them. When you consider the associated costs of recruiting to replace Offer that person (time, recruitment fees, training etc.) then the salary increase may be much more affordable.

It Can Cost The Current Employer As Much As 213% Of Annual Salary To Replace A Senior Executive www.telegraph.co.uk 213% Exit Interview

When the counter-offer fails you or you simply have to say goodbye

to an employee it is important that you carry out an exit interview.

There are two main reasons for this:

To understand what made them want to leave

This is invaluable data for your company. An employee who is leaving has “nothing to lose” and is likely to be honest about their reasons for According To The Peak-End leaving. This may help you uncover some key information to help you Rule Of Psychology, Our impact change to avoid people leaving under the same circumstances Memory Of Past Experience in the future. (Pleasant Or Unpleasant) Does Not Correspond To An

To encourage advocacy Average Level Of Positive Or

If an employee leaves on a sour note they are likely to give negative Negative Feelings But To The

feedback about your organisation to their friends, and potentially Most Extreme Point And The End Of The Episode even on review sites such as Glassdoor. If you conduct a thorough Study: Kahneman & Tversky, 1999 exit interview however you can ensure that their experience ends on

a high, encouraging positive advocacy. Improve your working environment Summary The physical working environment you provide for your employees can have a huge impact on job satisfaction. It can cost the current employer as much as 213% of annual Obviously, things like safety conditions and cleanliness are salary to replace a senior executive (Source: vital for any workplace, but you should also be considering the www.telegraph.co.uk), so adopting a strategy to increase actual design of your work environment. Consider the working employee retention should be a priority for every company, environment for each job function too, as not all employees regardless of their size. Here’s a summary of what you need to work in an office. consider to help improve employee retention at your organisation: Develop a winning culture 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct Look at how you hire workplace culture is important to business success (Source: In a study of over 1000 workers, 31% reported having quit a Deloitte), and if you can build a strong one that is authentic to job within the first six months (Source: BambooHR), and in a your organisation then you can increase your chances of lot of instances this can be avoided by taking extra measures retaining key people. in the hiring process. You need to be ultra-transparent and give employees an insight into your company culture to attract Track industry trends – but listen to your employees first more candidates who are likely to stay for longer at your To remain competitive, you should track industry trends for organisation. what employees and candidates think is important in a role, but always survey your employees too as general statistics may not be representative of how your employees feel. Be flexible Summary Flexible working is one of the most sought-after working options, so why not consider introducing compressed hours to More To Consider: allow employees more days off, job-sharing options for those wanting to go part-time, flexible start and finish times or even Listen to feedback the option to work from home? If you uncover employee pain points through surveys or other feedback platforms you need to put a plan in place to assess Show your appreciation the comments, and where feasible make changes to rectify 79% of people who quit their jobs cite ‘lack of appreciation’ as issues. Changes don’t need to happen overnight, but if you their reason for leaving (Source: www.octanner.com), so it’s time can show employees you are listening and taking steps to to show your gratitude for your employees’ hard work. This improve it will restore confidence in you as an employer. could be through physical rewards and bonuses, or simply just stopping to thank your employees for their efforts. Provide a career roadmap

More than 70% of high-retention-risk employees say they'll The counter offer or the exit interview have to leave their organization to advance their career In some instances, you can rescue the situation of an employee (Source: Willis Towers Watson), so if you can show employees handing in their notice with an attractive counter offer, but to do exactly how and when they can advance their career with your so you need to understand what is motivating them to leave and company you will increase the chances of retaining them. assess if it something that you can rectify. For the employees that you do have to say goodbye to ensure you carry out a thorough exit interview, so you can learn from their reasons for leaving for the future but also to end their experience on a high to encourage positive advocacy of your brand. Our Mission To give companies the power to attract, engage and retain top talent.

The JobHoller Story

At JobHoller, we all come to work every day because we want to help companies solve one of their biggest headaches - candidate attraction.

Our solutions take things further than simply hiring. We are experts at helping you attract the very best talent, keep them engaged and with you for longer.

We started life as a recruitment marketing solution for clients of award winning IT recruitment company, Searchability. Clients loved what we were doing so much that we decided to take it beyond IT and make our solution available to everyone. The JobHoller Story… Continued

Working with you to help develop and harness your employer brand and communicating it through highly effective marketing campaigns helps attract more of the right people. But that's not all. We also promote valuable employee engagement initiatives through various advocacy programmes and engage potential employees to help you build a strong talent pool.

We believe that by recruiting the people who fit with your vision and values and involving employees in engagement initiatives, you will start to see the positive impact on your retention levels. We take that one stage further with various intuitive employee survey methods and structured improvement plans.

Our passion is second to none - we really do love what we do!

We are super proud of the results we have achieved for our clients and the fantastic awards we've received. We Want To Talk To You

If you would like to talk to us about your employer branding, don't know where to start with social media, need more engaged teams or want to know how to retain the very best - get in touch!

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