5 Innovative Employee Retention Strategies

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When you have good employees, you want to keep them motivated to continue working hard and going above and beyond your expectations. Still, you also want to make sure that they stay with your company instead of seeking a different position. If you’re looking for ways to ensure your employees view you as an attractive employer, Whitman Associates, Inc. recommends focusing on innovative employee retention strategies. Explore our top methodologies to improve retention and employee satisfaction.

1. Support Your Employees in All Areas of Their Lives

Work-life balance is becoming much more than just a meaningless buzzword that’s meant to make employees think that you care. In today’s work environment, it’s an innovative employee retention strategy to deliver on the promise of respecting an employee’s home life, mental health and responsibilities outside of work. Part of providing the balance your employees desire is supporting them in all areas of their lives.

Because many employers have transitioned to a remote office environment, the boundaries between work and home are muddier than ever. Make sure your employees feel like you understand their needs outside of the job, including childcare, mental health days, boundaries outside of work hours and financial support to improve wifi connections and home office requirements. Employees that feel that employers take their work-life balance into consideration are more loyal, perform better and stay longer than employees that feel unsupported.

2. Provide Attractive Career Paths

You want to improve retention, and employees want to grow their careers. Instead of letting them stagnate in a particular role, make sure you have measurable and variegated career paths that help all your employees grow. This is one of a few innovative employee retention strategies that may require a shift in the structure of your promotion process. Develop a realistic framework that helps employees in every situation thrive. Whether they’re working from home, transitioning to part-time work because of other life responsibilities or looking to fast-track their career, you need to create opportunities for everyone to grow at their own pace.

3. Adopting Flexibility

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Workplace flexibility is quickly being adopted into the mainstream due to Covid. More people are working from home than ever! But, it might also be time to adopt schedule flexibility. Variable shifts and optional weekend work to cover days off during the week can help employees be more focused when they’re on the job because they’re not worried about conflicting schedules and responsibilities in their personal lives. Even more important are remote employees in different states and countries than your home office.

Split shifts and flexible scheduling are innovative employee retention strategies that could be the difference between being able to work part-time, full time or not at all! Some parents may appreciate being able to work around their kids’ schedules, and employees in a different time zone will probably be happier not having to work through the night just so their schedules align with local employees. Giving your employees more options is what really improves retention and ensures employee happiness.

4. Offer Meaningful Growth Opportunities

When asked why they left a particular position, the most common answer from employees is that they weren’t offered a clear path for career progression. From on-the-job training for higher positions and mentorships to leadership development seminars, your employees should be able to find everything they need to succeed within the company. 

And, once an employee has grown beyond their position, reward them with a promotion and a raise. Going outside the company to fill leadership positions reduces morale and makes employees feel like they’ll never get anywhere within your company. Instead, promote from within and watch as this innovative employee retention strategy increases morale and confidence in your current employees.

5. Respect Your Employees’ Viewpoints

Creating an inclusive workplace culture where your employees feel heard is an important and innovative employee retention strategy. Regardless of your own personal beliefs, create space for employees to feel safe expressing themselves in ways that are healthy, respectful and mindful of coworkers. You should also keep this in mind if you’re in charge of monitoring your company’s social media presence. Stay neutral around targeted or controversial issues, and keep your personal opinions separate from the workplace dialogue so you don’t inadvertently ostracize or offend any of your employees. 

What’s Your Strategy?

Do any of these innovative employee retention strategies sound like they would help you with your retention goals? If you’re not sure what would work best for your employees, you can also conduct a survey to ask what they want. Learn more about how to keep your employees happy, focused and working hard when you talk to them about their needs and deliver on their requests.

WAI Staff

Whitman Associates is a professional staffing agency serving businesses and job seekers in the Washington, D.C. area. Since 1972, we’ve been dedicated to matching highly qualified candidates with a wide variety of temporary, temp-to-hire and permanent positions. We prioritize the needs of both our clients and candidates to ensure successful, lasting relationships.