I’ve hired top talent. How do I keep them?

You’re probably no stranger to the fierce competition that’s taking hold of the workforce. The rapid transition from physical office space to remote environments has enabled top talent to work for global brands, from anywhere, at any time. This has made it hard for employers to retain team members. Talented people can now simply walk down the digital street and find a company that can offer them a better compensation package and greater flexibility. 

Currently, we’re in a “workers market”. The tide is turning in favour of employees. It has been stated that 49% of Canadians are considering leaving their jobs where 4.3 million Americans have quit their jobs as of September of this year. Some are calling it ‘The Great Resignation’, and it’s accelerating. There isn’t just one reason or simple explanation for this exodus: burnout, loneliness, flexibility, and better compensation are just a few of the factors contributing to this trend. So, knowing that employers don’t have the upper hand, how do we adapt to a massive, rapid and permanent change in the labour market and retain our top-level talent? 

First, let’s look at behaviours. It is not surprising that employees who have been at a company for a short period of time (one to two years) are ten times more likely to leave their current job than someone who has been with the company for five to ten years. Additionally, job-hopping has gained traction over the last few years as individuals “prefer to stay with their employer for 12-month increments” (Entelo Blog, 2014). Popular talent management strategies that executive leaders, HR directors and people managers employ have involved gaining insights into their workforce by looking at generational information and preferences. However, Lindsay Pollak, a leading generational expert, says, “The longer I study generations in the workplace, the more similarities I find in what people want out of work. Those fundamentals—meaning, purpose, good leaders, professional growth, don’t change. What changes is how each generation expresses these needs and what expectations we have about our employers’ fulfillment of them” (Pollak, L. The Remix—How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, 2019).  

Essentially, we all want similar things from employers. Polak mentions three main criteria: purpose and meaning, good leaders and professional growth. Let’s call it the retention trifecta. A study done by the Prairie View A&M University called the “Importance of Developing Strategies for Employee Retention”, the authors noted three important elements that fall under each pillar:                                     

1. Leadership empowerment

   Employees relate more to and work harder for their boss when their leader trusts them to run a project, sit in on important meetings and goal share with upper management. Trust is key and shows the leader has faith in the team’s abilities. 

2. Strong company culture 

   1. A company must have clear and specific goals that employees can work towards as well as see themselves growing and evolving within the mission of the organization. 

   2. It is no longer acceptable to have practices that don’t adhere to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Organizations have greater success when there is diverse thought, a variety of talents and different experiences across a team. 

   3. Hire based on "culture fit" and “culture add.” Culture fit leads to employing individuals who share the same values of the organization and have similar interests as the team. While this resource can be helpful, it may also lead to the exclusion of diverse talents. As organizations look to develop their DEI practices, it is also important to consider "culture add” - the idea that a candidate can bring fresh perspectives, experiences, and ideas to the team. Having diverse thoughts and backgrounds can help an organization achieve innovation and greater collaboration.

3. Growth and development 

   The authors of the study also suggested that training should be available to all members of the organization and be career-specific. 

In my experience, the times I enjoyed myself the most at work and was truly engaged were when the trifecta was hit. I had a great leader, the company culture was energetic and people-centric, and I was continually growing and learning. That has become the standard to which I hold all companies. I felt less engaged in roles where two out of three elements of the trifecta existed. I looked for other opportunities when I had only one out of the three criteria. 

While we have spoken about the needs of employees from a high-level view, some needs and wants may be highly personal and based on the individual. My wants as a professional a few years into my career may be different from someone with a different preference or personal circumstance. The key is listening to employees to find that “quit trigger’ and deliver upon their needs before they resign. 

Stop the resignation letters before they happen with our digital workplace engagement tool - Coach! Coach sends messages and prompts to your team’s communication channel prompting collaboration, connection and engagement. While your team is interacting and learning about each other, Coach, through our machine learning technology, measures engagement and sentiment in real-time. Engage your team today and download Coach!