Cognizant India reported a 21% attrition rate during January to March 2021, whereas TCS reported the lowest at 7.2 per cent. Certain organizations experience higher employee attrition rate, while others experience a periodic cycle of employees quitting. Companies always profess that they are putting in a lot of effort towards employee retention. But are they doing enough? To retain their employees, Cognizant has set up a $30million retention fund to match the offers, which employees may receive from competitors. Are only monetary factors responsible for a higher employee turnover?
Surveys have indicated multi-fold non-monetary reasons why employees quit. Few of them are employee dissatisfaction, better alternatives, planned change, career advancement, negative experience, quality of employee-manager relationship, upskilling, etc.
In a report published by SHRM and Globoforce in 2018, employee retention and turnover was cited as the top workforce management challenge by 47% of HR professionals. Here are a few ways in which companies can convert their employee retention from farce to reality.
Find Out Why
Get to the root cause as to why an employee wants to quit, take it up as a study, look out for trends amongst the employees who resigned and then arrive at a plan on how to retain them.
Exit interviews should be converted from being a to a crucial data source on employee turnover. Along with the reasons which the outgoing employees cite, their demographic composition should also be considered – If there are more women who are quitting; the ratio of Gen-Z vs millennials vs Gen-X vs baby boomers switching jobs.
Look Out For Signs; Take Prompt Action
HR teams and managers should work together to look out for any possible indicators of an employee’s intention to resign. Employees approaching HR seeking information on mobility policy, internal job rotation policy, etc. and Managers changes in team’s behaviour like sudden disinterest in work, procrastination, delay in meeting deadlines, decrease in focus and productivity or reduction in motivation to work, etc. are signs which the managers should be vigilant about.
Managers should have one-on-one discussions with such employees to understand their thought process and expectations from the organization.
Demonstrate Genuine Interest
43% Indians leave their job because of limited career growth. Gen-Z is more likely to work for organizations that demonstrate promising career growth and diversification opportunities.
Organizations today have started sponsoring upskilling to encourage employees to develop new skills and acquire knowledge pertaining to areas aligned with their career goals. For the immediate manager, it is pertinent to reinforce value and meaning in the employee’s job.
Companies should provide on-the-job learning opportunities and job rotations that cater to the employee’s needs and challenges. This creates a trust amongst the employees that the organization is genuinely concerned about the employee’s career development.
Companies must decide whether they want to retain the talent within the team or within the organization, and accordingly take actions on mobility requests. Internal mobility boosts employee retention.
Make The Workplace More Inclusive
Tackling micro-aggressions at work against diverse groups of employees prevents negative employee experiences. The workplace culture should be more inclusive and sensitivity training must be provided to the entire workforce.
Policies such as retaining the previous year’s ratings of an employee who may have been on leave for a significant part of the year due to pregnancy, childbirth, sabbatical, or other unavoidable reasons; hiring women who want to resume work after a break; special perks for new parents, etc., send a positive message to employees that the work environment is conducive and caring.
Work Life Balance And Employee Engagement
36% Indians blame poor work-life balance for resigning from their existing job.Especially during pandemic, increased number of employees are facing burnout and mental health concerns. Companies should promote work life balance and encourage healthy socialization to build a cohesive team.
Highly engaged employees are five times less likely to quit than those who were not engaged. Instead of a ‘suggestion’ box, companies should keep a ‘Vent & Suggest’ box and managers should listen to the concerns and requirements of the employees and conduct employee pulse surveys.
Caution should be taken when a star employee quits so that other employees are not affected to follow suit. Exit interviews should be coupled with ‘stay interviews’ to learn what has retained the employees within the organization.
Employee retention should be part of the organization’s strategy to retain key talent, reduce turnover and its related costs. Any employee retention program developed by the company should be continuously evaluated to determine its effectiveness and to identify opportunities for improving it.
