Having spent her entire career working in the HR department of a global insurance company, Prisha Krishnamoorthy was recently promoted to vice-president, at a time when the climate at HR is at it’s most challenging. Employees are departing en masse and she’s noting record numbers of vacancies in the data science and service areas of the company. Now, just as she begins to settle into her new role, Prisha is facing a massive challenge—how can I boost engagement and keep turnover to a minimum, at a time when employees all over the world are resigning in droves.
Prisha is not alone in facing these challenges. Across the US, employees are leaving jobs in record numbers as salaries stagnate and employee satisfaction remains low. Employers need to better understand what employees want from their work environments. Previously, employee retention could be measured by a simple, single statistic. Now, many experts measure retention as the efforts an employer makes in an attempt to retain employees in their workforce. Prisha decides to tackle the problem holistically with the intention of improving employee retention and engagement company-wide.
Understanding why employees move on
Poor employee retention should be examined with the same tools that guide other important decision-making processes. Employee retention must be acknowledged as a real problem in order to be fully addressed.
Prisha knew better than to rely on assumptions as to why people were leaving. Instead, she and her team poured over the data from the most recent employee satisfaction survey and every exit interview from the last two years. Certain themes began to emerge. Employees and former employees believed salaries to be lagging behind what competitors offered. They also criticized the lack of ability to advance within the company.
Another major theme she noticed was a general feeling that the company didn’t care about employees as people. Prisha understood that modernizing the company’s attitude towards employee retention and engagement was essential. She knew that in order for her plan to be successful, she needed buy-in from other VPs. Armed with data, an abundance of open positions, and the partnership of the VP of diversity, equality, and inclusion, Prisha now had the backing at the executive level to start addressing employee retention in a meaningful way.
Don’t let money be the issue
One of the first and most obvious considerations for employers should be the fair and equitable compensation of employees, both within the company and across the industry. For many companies, hiring an outside firm to perform salary equity studies can provide valuable data about your company’s salary bands while trying to address inequities. The reports are also useful to begin remediation and salary adjustments.