6 Effective Employee Retention Strategies

Creating a positive working environment within your organisation plays a fundamental role in effective employee retention. Follow these seven employee retention strategies to keep excellent work ethic, retain quality staff, and maintain team consistency.

1. Create a culture of appreciation

Employee recognition goes a long way toward making work meaningful. How do you communicate with employees to let them know their work is appreciated? If recognition only happens in an annual performance review, you are missing out on a major employee retention tool.

2. Give good behaviour special recognition

Identify praiseworthy behaviour you would like to see in your organisation, acknowledge it and encourage it.  Include participation at company events and meetings, and incentivise these as part of your employee rewards program.

3. Focus on professional development

Candidates must be aware of the opportunities provided in the field of learning new things and developing skills. Provide opportunities for employees to develop their potential and show what they can offer in long-term beyond their current responsibilities.

4. Improve your recruitment process

Introducing assessments in the process of recruitment could ensure that an employee’s beliefs and behaviours are in alignment with their employer’s core values and company culture. Ensure employees know and understand your company’s culture.

5. Make employee autonomy a reality

Give employees space for initiative and creative thinking. Schedule recurring internal events that enable employees to think creatively. Some companies organise hackathons where staff brainstorms to come up with new ideas. Don’t overlook employee autonomy and flexibility as wasted time. Fresh thinking encourages productivity and excellence.

6. Develop loyal leaders internally

Lifelong employee development does not happen overnight. Start with polling employees and managers internally to gauge their interest in leadership development or learning reimbursement. Pursuing these types of initiatives can instil loyalty and develop retainable talent among your existing employees.

Professional Sourcing is a top-tier South African-based recruitment agency operating internationally, IPM accredited, LEVEL 2 BEE RATED and 51% Black Owned.

Our agency specialises in professional placements (senior and specialist talent) and exclusive skills recruitment to a wide range of industries, including JSE’s top 100 companies, SMEs and the Public Sector.