Whenever an excellent employee or leader leaves, it’s a blow to your organization.
The departure of staff is an inevitable part of business, but in a fiercely competitive recruitment landscape like Japan, employee retention is a priority.
Not only does retaining staff reduce recruitment and re-skilling costs, it also allows you to stay ahead of competitors by keeping your staff’s specialized knowledge in-house.
Simply put, employee retention can become the cornerstone of your competitive advantage.
So how do you keep your staff for longer? Especially when other companies are trying to win them over.
Understand why people leave
It is hard to prevent something from happening, if you don’t understand why it’s happening in the first place. The top three reasons that employees leave is because they don’t see opportunities for growth, don’t like their boss, or are offered an appealing job.
Exit interviews can be a good way to investigate the cause of employee turnover, but it’s important to ask the right exit interview questions. Broad questions like “why are you leaving?” can be hard to answer and often fail to get below the surface. More direct questions can generate more direct answers and pull out details that the person may have been hesitant to provide otherwise. Here are some examples:
- Is there anything about our workplace culture that you would change?
- How do you perceive your supervisor’s management style?
- What led to you searching for a new job?
But don’t just do exit interviews to tick a box – have a plan in place for what you will do with this information. Use this as an opportunity to gather feedback to correct course for the future. How will it inform your retention strategy?
Hire the right people in the first place
Retention starts with recruiting. An important part of the executive search process is identifying talent that will stay the course. Seeking candidates that not only have the correct technical skills and industry experience, but also align with the values and mission of the company fosters commitment and belonging from the beginning.
A potential employee who is a good cultural fit is usually a better indicator of success than anything else. If they work well with the existing team they are more likely to stay for the long haul.
Communicate a clear career path
Your current employees need to feel that their career is in safe hands. Promote from within as often as possible and clearly communicate long term plans. Offer paths for training and professional development so that your employees feel valued.
Take the time to understand how your staff see their career progressing. Work with them to identify career goals and then give them opportunities to work towards this.
This will require regular and intentional communication. Provide performance feedback and hold meetings where people can share ideas. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage a culture of openness and transparency so that your employees feel part of the organization and valued.
It’s important to remember that while these strategies are helpful, turnover is normal and companies must be prepared to lose excellent talent from time to time. In some cases, it may even be healthy as you don’t want employees sticking around who don’t want to be there.
Have a plan in place so that when the inevitable resignation does happen, you will be able to act quickly and fill the position with another rockstar talent.
At Morunda, we don’t just find you an employee, we find you the right employee. Talent that is such a great fit for your organization, they will stay and succeed. Book a discovery session now.
