Bonus season is fast approaching, and with that, it often means saying goodbye to (more than a few) talented employees.
Retaining talented employees is often a challenge for many companies. You know these employees - they are the ones who can perform under pressure, deliver results and have the potential to be stretched and bring the organisation further. However, such employees also require constant attention and new challenges, and it can be difficult to sustain this. Oftentimes, such employees choose to leave the organisation when they feel they have stopped growing.
This, along with employee engagement, was surfaced as a key problem faced by HR directors, according to Cascade.
This problem is amplified with the millennial population. According to Aon Hewitt, millennials make up 22 percent of the resident population. However, 44 percent of millennials said they expect to leave their current employers in the next two years, and that figure increases to 66 percent when the timeframe is extended to 2020. This is according to the latest annual Millennial survey by Deloitte.
See also: Answering Common Complaints About Millennials
This presents added problems for organisations. It can be difficult to replace such employees. Competition for employees is fierce these days and employee turnover can be very costly. It can be tedious to hire and recruit, not to mention train the employee and teach them the ways of your organisation. There is also the added fear that the employee hired is not the right fit for your team and organisation, leading to teething issues in the handover period.
It is therefore important to understand how to retain your talented employees, to prevent having this problem in the first place. Here are three ways you can prevent this.
1) Sustain employees' passion about their work
This is especially important for millennials, for whom the main concern may not be money. Millennials typically pursue job satisfaction instead. If they have made the decision to join your company, however, it is likely that they see the value of your organisation and were able to see themselves being meaningfully engaged here. It is your job then to keep them meaningfully engaged.
2) Ensure they are meaningfully engaged
When employees first enter an organisation, they are likely to be fresh-faced and see a rosy vision of the path ahead. Many, however, lose steam and stop seeing the value in their work once the daily grind kicks in. At this point, it is important to help them align their personal purpose with the organisational purpose. It could be necessary to reflect as a team on this. Find out what energises your employees, and try to be creative in finding opportunities to leverage their strengths. Not only will they be happier at work when their strengths are utilised, but it will also be easier for you when employees are working to their full potential. To help you, we've written a blog post on how to answer the common questions millennials have about their performance and future in the workplace.
3) Create a nurturing workspace
Ensure your organisation is a space that helps your employees keep growing. This can be done in two ways - coaching and developing competencies in people. When people quit an organisation, they often quit their leaders, and not the work. It is therefore important as a leader to continue to reflect and create the best possible environment to nurture your employees.
To do so, help shape your employees’ mindsets and allow them to see themselves thriving in the company’s future. This is especially so with millennials - millennials are smart and often know a problem when they see one. They rarely require you to point out a problem to them, but rather want you to lead and show them hope in this situation. This gives them hope in the situation and builds trust, making them want to move forward with you.
Stay tuned for more tips to engage your employees in our #1minuteOD posts on Facebook and LinkedIn this Friday. See you!