It’s no secret that an effective employee retention strategy is crucial for any organization’s success. As leaders, it’s our top priority to create a work environment that our people want to be part of and couldn’t imagine leaving. The main problem is that it can be difficult to figure out how to accomplish that. Different team members have different needs, and not everyone in your organization may be benefiting from your culture. A study by Deloitte [1] has shown that 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. This is why it’s incredibly important to be intentional with your employee retention strategy. Everyone wants to be part of a conscious and positive culture. In this blog, we’ll explore how you can leverage your company culture to improve your employee retention strategy and maximize performance.

The Core of Retention: Building a Positive Culture

Your culture is the heart of your organization. Everything your organization touches should be representative of your culture. The way your people communicate with their teams, the way they treat your customers, and the way they resolve conflicts and problems are all reflective of the culture you’ve built. Your culture has a trickle-down effect on your processes, products, and people, which is why it’s the most important thing to get right. According to a report by Gallup [2], engaged and happy employees are less likely to leave their jobs. With the most financially deadly cost on the line, you simply can’t risk turning over a large percentage of your workforce. Building a conscious culture with a focus on employee retention will pay dividends for years to come.

Strategies to Embed Culture in Your Employee Retention Plan

1. Promote Work-Life Balance: Employees value organizations that respect their time inside and outside work. Encouraging a healthy work-life balance can lead to higher job satisfaction and loyalty. No one wants to feel like a number. Make sure your leaders and managers are leading with empathy so that your teams don’t burnout.
2. Foster Open Communication: A culture of transparency and open dialogue makes employees feel heard and respected, which is essential for long-term retention. Consider utilizing an anonymous open-feedback survey to make sure all your employees get a voice. Your people experience your culture every day, they have the potential to give you the most valuable feedback. Take advantage of their voices for growth.
3. Invest in Professional Development: Offering training and development opportunities shows employees that the company is invested in their growth. Developing a mentorship program will show your teams that you want to see them grow in your organization.
4. Recognize and Reward: Regular recognition and rewards for achievements can significantly boost morale and commitment. Developing two forms of recognition is a great way to transform your organization into a celebratory one! The first form of recognition should be a peer-to-peer format. Any team member can send a kudos to anyone! The second form of recognition should be more valuable and come from your managers and leaders. Consider allotting a recognition budget to each manager and have them allocate special awards recognizing team members who go above and beyond. Read more on our blog about how to build an effective recognition program here!

Measuring the Impact of Culture on Retention

Tracking the effectiveness of your employee retention strategy is essential. You can assess this by utilizing a Culture Health Scoring tool like MindGoal. MindGoal combines the data from your culture feedback surveys, recognition use, Slack/Webex/Microsoft Teams engagement, team-building event attendance, and training completion to track the cultural health of individual team members. Our Culture Health Data tool helps you measure the culture alignment of your teams based on the strategies you have in place so that you can target culture pain points and predict and prevent turnover. On average, our solutions have helped our customers reduce turnover by 20%, increase employee well-being by 55%, and increase revenue growth by 27%. We love what we do, but we love that we save our clients a ton of money even more.

The Future of Employee Retention Strategy: A Culture-First Approach

Looking ahead, the trend is clear: a culture-first approach will be a cornerstone of successful employee retention strategies. A study by SHRM [3] indicates that respectful treatment of all employees at all levels is the most important factor in job satisfaction. This is further proof that culture accountability is a metric that you need to be tracking. Your people are the most important part of your organization. Take the initiative to start prioritizing your employee’s experience today by contacting MindGoal.

Contact us today to begin your journey toward a more engaged, productive, and committed workforce.

Sources:

1. Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends,” https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends.html.
2. Gallup, “State of the American Workplace,” https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx.
3. SHRM, “Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report,” https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/pages/job-satisfaction-and-engagement-report-optimizing-organizational-culture-for-success.aspx.