Article: Tactics to retain employees and minimize turnover

Employee Relations

Tactics to retain employees and minimize turnover

Huge employee turnover has become a major cause of concern for many corporates today. Effective retention tactics are required more than ever before to ensure preservation of valuable talent in the company
Tactics to retain employees and minimize turnover

A good retention practice starts from the day when an employee joins a company. A workplace exhibits value in the employee by adopting policies and programmes which are beneficial for him and also reflect effective retention strategy parallely. 

There is no doubt that influx of new talent brings in fresh ideas and energy but too much of turnover can harm the organization by lowering its employee-employer engagement and decreasing company’s quality or productivity. Lack of continuity also leads to uneven workloads which is a worrisome issue. 

Agile Workforce 

Having an agile workforce is one of the most important retention tools used by the company to control massive talent seepage. “In our company we have - 5% freelancers, 5% hourly workers, 10 % homeworkers, 10 % fixed time workers, 10% contract staff and only 60 % of staff with us is regular. Now, 60% of them are on flexible shifts as we have 12 hour window period and they need to work only 8 hours , so they can  choose their time accordingly. In addition, from the 12 standard holidays- 10 are fixed and 2 are flexible. They can choose any two holidays in a year.  I feel flexibility should be provided. We try and encourage that greatly as I feel it is one of the effective retention strategies. Employees feel valued and they want to stay longer with us,” reveals Ajay Bhatia, Global Head, HR , Innodata at Delhi HR conclave 2016. 

Sensitizing Managers 

Managers play a very crucial role in an employee’s life. Sensitizing them can act as a great retention benefactor for companies who are struggling to decrease employee voluntary turnovers. “A manager is a whole world for an employee. Their relations with managers have a huge impact on their lives. It is very important for companies to sensitize their managers. We in our company try to help managers to become more humane. They need to understand employees before they can extract work from them. Trainings on effective leadership are very crucial for team leaders and managers.  They need to think before they can act, reflect before they react and deliberate before they deliver . We can have as many as fancy policies and schemes but the manager at the end of the day is key benchmen,” adds Ajay Bhatia. 

Retention Incentive Schemes 

Rajesh Kumar, Vice- President, Human Resources, Lemon Tree Hotel, spoke at HR Conclave on an incentive schemes that helps them to retain employees, “ In our company when an employee plans to leave for a very small monetary benefit , what we do is -we offer him- let’s say around 1000 rupees a month and after when he completes a period of 12 months , he earns 12000 rupees over and above his salary. This is how we retain in such situations.”

Formals to Casuals 

Amit Malik, Chief People Officer, Aviva India explains at Delhi HR Conclave 2016 ,  how  change in dress code policy can be a good retention tactics for employees, “ In our company we brought change in the dress code policy. Now our staff can wear jeans, t-shirts and sneakers, caps etc. Everyone told me that I won’t be able to get the change as dress change is a big change. We did survey amongst the staff to know what they think about it and response was greatly favorable.  We launched the policy. In first two or three days, I didn’t see enough people taking it up. I asked leadership colleagues to take it up first. It took 7 to 8 days but after that there was huge change.  Bringing a change in office environment was for me a retention tool and I think it helped us greatly.”

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Topics: Employee Relations, Employee Engagement, Leadership Development, #Retention

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