Retention

You have worked hard to attract, hire, and onboard a fabulous new employee. You’ve trained and coached them through their first year of employment. But you’re not done yet! Next comes retention, a vital step to consider before you begin the recruitment process and throughout the employee life cycle. This can help mitigate the risk of high turnover and foster an inclusive and equitable workplace culture.

Here are some benefits of prioritizing employee retention:

• Competitive Advantage: Helping employees grow their skills through professional development leads to greater knowledge and increased employee engagement. An experienced employee with tenure can also support newer employees in learning and developing. This all translates into a competitive advantage and a better ability to deliver on your organization’s goals and purpose.
• Employee Engagement: When an employee feels that their employer is investing in them, they can feel a sense of belonging and loyalty.
• Team Cohesiveness: When a team has worked together for a while, it can be better able to work together effectively and collaboratively. When an employee departs your organization, it leaves a vacancy that can sometimes take a while to fill. This can impact the morale within a team. If you have high turnover, this can also have a negative effect on employee engagement and can lead to more departures.
• Cost: Prioritizing retention helps reduce turnover and associated recruitment costs. Attracting, recruiting, and onboarding a new employee takes time and money. Replacing that employee when they leave sooner rather than later can cost between one-third to double their annual salary¹.

When considering what to include within your retention plan, the priority should be inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA). Here’s why: Deloitte research shows that organizations leading the way in IDEA have stronger retention rates². Simply put, IDEA is important to job seekers and to employees.