Ensuring your best people don’t quit is imperative for business. When an employee suddenly departs, it can be expensive, disruptive, and leave you scrambling to find someone new. A certain amount of churn is to be expected, of course. But if you want to try and stop an employee resignation flood, try these 10 strategies.
The importance of employee experience has long been clear. But, the Great Resignation of 2021 shook up many businesses. The voluntary departure of more than 47 million people from their jobs has prompted a renewed focus on employee retention. So consider putting into practice these top 10 ways your organization can work to stop employee resignations.
1. Appreciate your people
No one wants to work in an environment where they are criticized or disrespected. Feeling under appreciated is a big reason behind why employees resign. Demonstrate that you value your people and their contributions by:
- Spreading positive encouragement
- Being mindful of your language
- Reinforcing good habits
- Meeting with employees one-on-one
- Actively listening to what they have to say
2. Set and communicate clear objectives
Establish precise goals and let people know what you expect from them. Strong internal communication can help you to avoid the confusing, frustrating, or stressful situations that see employees jumping ship. To avoid demotivating your people, be consistent in setting expectations and providing feedback.
This does not mean micromanagement! By setting and communicating clear objectives, you’ll be empowering your people to work independently. Let them know that they can still ask questions and get help, but give them the freedom to grow. When they meet the challenge, they’ll be happier about their role working with you.
3. Encourage diversity and inclusion
Having a diverse and inclusive workspace is good for employees, work culture, and the bottom line. Working to ensure everyone feels like they truly belong will encourage greater company loyalty.
In an inclusive work environment, people are also more willing to share their ideas and opinions. This helps teams communicate and collaborate more effectively. This also helps people feel connected at work, which can play a big role in stemming resignations.
Take different approaches within your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives to cover all groups and tackle their particular issues in the workplace.
4. Prioritize people’s mental health
Paying attention to employee mental wellbeing can help lower turnover rates. If your people feel you take a positive view of work-life balance and don’t stigmatize mental health needs, they are more likely to stay. At the same time, you can reduce absenteeism and reduce physical health issues (since the mind-body connection plays a role).
5. Show them a future with you
Another reason people resign? They don’t see any future with your organization if they stay. Turn this around by demonstrating to employees that you value their career progress. You can do this by:
- Learning their professional goals
- Helping them to define professional success within your environment
- Offering professional development and training opportunities
- Mapping out the next steps to progress and identifying the skills and talents needed for those forward moves
6. Provide mentoring or coaching
Giving employees access to an individual who is focused on their professional development helps them feel connected to your company. Mentoring and coaching are not the same, but both will involve helping your people improve their communication skills, grow awareness of their strengths, and envision next steps as well as how they can contribute more to your workplace.
7. Incorporate play at work
Play at work can encourage creativity while increasing effectiveness and productivity. When people feel productive, effective, and creative at work, they’re less likely to resign. Play also typically lowers stress levels, so it if fits in with the mental and physical health focus that keeps your people happy at work too!
8. Improve your onboarding process
You may start at a deficit with your new employees if you don’t have an effective onboarding program. A successful onboarding experience will:
- Introduce the new employee to the work environment smoothly
- Encourage team harmony
- Inspire adherence to the company’s culture
- Equip new hires with the tools they need to succeed
- Provide incoming employees with a support system
- Establish what your business values and set expectations of the individual employee
9. Avoid wasting people’s time
Who wants to sit in a meeting that wastes hours of their workday? Especially if it isn’t even relevant to their job? Time wasting also comes from long-winded emails and unnecessary cc’ing of everyone on communications. Even requiring employees to participate in team building exercises can backfire if the programming doesn’t have obvious value.
Keep your communications concise. Set agendas. Cull your list of who is required to attend to what. Make sure your employee engagement efforts are resonating with the people you are trying to appeal to.
10. Solicit feedback
Getting feedback from employees is as important as gauging customer satisfaction. You need to know what matters most to your people to keep them from resigning. Understanding employee goals and challenges can help you build deeper relationships and foster greater connections between your business and its people.
Don’t know how to get employee feedback? We’re here to help.
