Replacing employees is expensive. For skilled salaried workers, the candidate search can take months, and the impact on productivity alone can be ruinous.

The best solution is, of course, high retention. If nobody leaves, then you won’t have to replace them.

One approach for medium-large organizations is investing in HR engagement strategies — essentially, working to understand employee needs and wants, then implementing activities, benefits, or initiatives that improve their experience.

The problem is that companies miss the mark. They deliver initiatives that no one wants, or benefits that most employees don’t value.

Data analytics is a game changer. It allows HR teams to dive deeper and more accurately understand their employees. It makes creating genuinely value-adding retention strategies feasible.

Let’s take a dive into what’s missing from traditional HR engagement, how to implement a data-led approach, and the feasibility of personalized work benefits.

Traditional HR engagement methods are limited

The idea of using engagement to increase retention isn’t new. In one form or another, it’s been around for decades. The big ideas are usually:

• Company-wide events like holiday parties or team-building days/retreats
• Recognition programs like “Employee of the Month”
• Wellness initiatives like gym memberships or free snacks/coffee
• Healthcare, retirement, or vacation benefits

And with the notable exception of “employee of the month” (an objectively destructive honor), these have apparently obvious appeal. So, why don’t they work at retaining employees?

The data is not fully representative

The vast majority of initiatives have been built from annual employee surveys. They asked questions like:

• How satisfied are you with your job?
• Is there a sense of team spirit within your team? Rate from 1 to 10.
• Do you receive regular feedback on your performance?
• Rate your work-life balance from 1 to 10

On the surface, these are valuable, but they lack depth or follow-up. They also don’t account for the seasonal or day-to-day fluctuations in employees’ attitudes or circumstances.

Traditional surveys also tend to skew unreasonably positive — employees don’t trust anonymity and won’t risk bad mouthing peers or bosses. Modern (anonymous) surveys combined with data analytics get far more authentic, reliable insights.

The benefits are too generic

The bigger the company, the more diverse its employees. Catch-all engagement methods do help some people, but they don’t capture needs or challenges at the department, team, or individual level, and so they aren’t actually engaging most employees.

Think about it:

• Holiday parties… are stressful if you don’t drink, have young children, or have social anxiety.
• Benefits… aren’t equally weighted. For some, financial benefits (healthcare, pension) are most important. For others, it’s time off and flexible hours.
• Wellness… is extremely personal. Many employees like to handle this outside of work and prefer to maintain the distance.

When we add in the fact that generational differences are now vast and more complex than ever before, employers simply can’t apply blanket benefits that will please everyone.

So what can companies do? Is it even possible to understand specific employee needs and cater to them? As it turns out — yes.

The game-changing role of data analytics

Assuming organizations use a powerful modern survey tool, data analytics can dramatically improve HR engagement strategies. Data creates a deeper understanding of employee needs and preferences, allowing them to take more targeted and effective approaches.

Rather than asking questions once a year, companies can send regular pulse surveys. These surveys harvest current data, letting us identify seasonal differences and track engagement progress over time.

Data gathering also extends far beyond surveys and can include:

• Performance metrics
• Social media monitoring
• Employee feedback platforms
• Employee demographics
• Talent management systems

Dissecting data and generating insights

Armed with superior data, the machines can also perform deeper analysis than us humans — and in much less time. Data processing lets organizations:

• Produce objective insights since algorithms analyze data without bias, discrimination, or emotion.
• Scale easily by processing huge volumes of data.
• Identify patterns that are invisible to humans, considering the quantity of data. It can also explain these patterns so that we understand them.
• Predict specific behavior like intent to change job or decreased job satisfaction
• Generate specific insights on individual employees or groups.

And, of course, all of this happens exponentially faster than manually issuing a survey, collecting the answers, interpreting the results, and constructing initiatives.

This allows HR teams to identify granular benefits and initiatives that massively appeal to subsets of employees. But are personalized, nontraditional benefits actually practical?

Making personalized benefits work in practice

91% of employees believe nontraditional benefits — derived from data-led engagement processes — increase their happiness and job satisfaction.

But can organizations actually implement this?

The employee handbook at Patagonia is called “Let My People Go Surfing.” The company recruits those whose values and interests align with the brand — outdoorsy, planet-loving people. Therefore, the company created nontraditional benefits (such as ad hoc work breaks for surfing) that were tailored to their exact needs.

Airbnb knows that it attracts employees with a certain wanderlust. Perhaps it’s obvious, but granting employees an annual travel budget on top of their salary and traditional perks has been well received by staff.

The eCommerce giant Etsy does something similar. Realizing many employees feel the same creative urges as its clients, the company started offering “sabbaticals” — six weeks of paid time off simply to pursue creative projects.

Taking a data-driven approach to retention

The reality is that traditional “catch-all” benefits are no longer enough to secure retention. Perhaps they never were. But by adopting a data-driven approach, companies can generate real employee insights and create powerful initiatives to increase their satisfaction, loyalty and happiness.

Some initiatives will be specific company-wide policies (such as Patagonia’s surf time), while others will be more granular — such as extended time off for new parents, or the ability to buy extra vacation days for the travel-hungry.

Unconventional ideas should be encouraged. As new generations demand more flexibility and choice, organizations will have to think further outside the box to provide it.

And if they can, everybody is going to win.

At Sogolytics, we appreciate the power of modern surveys and data analytics in improving employee engagement and retention. Our tools are designed to level-up your engagement and make your employees happier, more fulfilled, and more loyal than ever. Reach out today and see how we can help you master HR engagement.