All retention tactics focus on keeping your best people happy, satisfied, and engaged. The Quantum Workplace 2021 “Employee Turnover Trends” survey discovered that “highly engaged employees” are 4.4 times less likely to search for other opportunities outside your company. When queried if they would remain at their jobs a year from now, 88% said yes they would. Nevertheless, how do we engage them to retain them during the current year?

Before we get into that let us look at how do we identify the best performers at our organizations. There is an array of skills you need to look out for, at the bare minimum.

–  Great people skills

–  Calm under pressure

–  Consistent results

–  Exceed expectations

–  Collaborative

–  Self-driven and motivated

–  Little guidance required

–  Tackles problems head-on

Once individuals with these skills are identified, you can focus on nurturing, engaging, and retaining talent at your company. 

1. Offer superior benefits

A typical benefits package such as the ones that provide the usual comprehensive health insurance package, PTO or annual paid leaves will not suffice anymore. You need to add more value to the benefits provided to the people on your payroll such as unlimited time off or extra paid days off, dental insurance, paid maternal and paternal leaves and on-site daycare.

2. Increase Pay Rates

Think of and face the hard truths and questions. Is the base salary you pay your employees the best you can offer? Is it better than or competitive according to the industry standards? If they are less than the competitive pay grades, increase them and bring them to par in the marketplace. This is will be the easiest tactic to help you retain your best talents. Furthermore, when somebody is being promoted, ensure an appropriate pay raise to match the increased responsibilities. 

3. Provide Retention Bonuses

Offer retention bonuses and other annual bonuses to the employee for staying at the job for a minimum agreed-upon time. This will be at a predetermined rate paid on top of the regular salary. Another bonus pay that can be offered is when one of your top performers completes a professional development course. This can motivate them to stay instead of taking those valuable skills elsewhere. 

4. Provide Flexible Working Options 

A long daily commute is a massive waste of time when you think about it, and huge health and safety risk nowadays. That is sure to discourage most of your current and potential employees. Offer remote work opportunities or hybrid workplaces to your employees to mitigate this problem. Recent studies have shown that employees who are offered flexible work facilities are 4 times less likely to become a retention risk. Offering flexible or remote work options can also help attract and retain talents that are not even from your immediate locality.

5. Provide Regular Feedback

A rec room and sleeping pods are excellent perks of working at your office, yes. However, there are better and cheaper ways to show that you care about your employees. Regular one-on-one meetings are key to keeping employees happy, when the meetings are focused on asking them about their concerns and reviewing their performance. Furthermore, these feedback loops should not be too far in between. They should happen every quarter and such meetings will help them keep engaged in your company.