If the backbone of your company is the employees, it means your company cannot thrive if your employees slip off. As a matter of fact, any company with high employee turnover experiences major setbacks in terms of morale and productivity.

In a situation like this, the HR team has a major role to play in calming the storm. How? By fostering a work environment that motivates workers to stick around for the long haul. That is, we are exploring the significant roles of the HR department in employee retention.

What is Employee Retention?

Employee retention refers to the different tricks, guidelines and procedures that companies use to encourage staff members to stay for a longer period of time.

Businesses around the world invest time and resources into molding their employees to become competent, relevant and highly productive. The essence of this is often for the business to remain competitive at the forefront of the market.

Companies value top talents and often don't want to let them go. If an employee who has been fully trained decide to leave rhe company for one reason or the other, then the company is at a loss. For  this reason, employee retention is a vital skill for every company, especially startups.

Importance of Employee Retention

It increases loyalty - when an employee pends a significant length of time in an organization, they become familiar with the company's rules. Accustomed to policies, and customers, emotionally attached to it, become loyal, and work extremely hard to improve the organization's reputation and success.

It saves company’s resources - it takes a lot of company’s resources to  train new employees, onboard them, make them corporate-ready, and bring them up to speed  with the existing staff.

So eventual resignation leaves the company completely at a loss. For this reason, employee retention is important to avoid loss of money as well as a waste of time and resources.

The hiring process is a tedious one - another major reason companies should retain their employees is because hiring is a difficult process. Imagine! An HR specialist will typically sort through a sizable pool of possible employees.

Do preliminary screenings, and then communicate important information to the managers of the relevant departments. The candidates subsequently undergo more thorough interviews by these managers to determine their appropriateness for the company.

Finding the ideal candidate takes a while due to the difficulty of the search. The stress involved is enough to motivate companies to create a comfortable working environment for their employees to thrive.

To reduce employee poaching - anytime an employee leaves a company, they will likely be joining the competition. Sometimes employees who are competent could be approached by the competition an differed a thirsty deal.

This act is referred to as employee poaching. If the said employee is unhappy at their current organization, chances are that they would accept the offer and jump ship. This is why organizations must do all it can to keep their top talents happy.

‍To preserve the long-term success of the company - One of the pillars of a successful startup is the team members (employees). Any reputable business should hang onto its top performers who exhibit exceptional potential.

These are likely going to be th etop executives of the company in a few years time. If a company keeps losing its top talents, then the future of such company is threatened as it might have to rely on outsiders (executives who are hired) to run the company,

These outsiders are likely not going to continue with the company’s culture and that will generate even more friction between the employees who are used to doing things a certain way and the new executives who have their own way of doing things.

The Role of HR in Employee Retention

Hiring the right people for the right position/the right pay

The HR representative must make sure that the candidate he/she is hiring genuinely fits the position. A good employee doing a bad job would never find their work exciting and would undoubtedly search for a new position. Make sure that each person has been given tasks that match their areas of expertise and passion.

Again, every worker works for pay, and the HR department is required to provide justifiable compensation that the other party can accept. No one should be forced to join at a lower salary. He might join at that point, but he'd probably leave after a while.

Eventually, the raise should be based on the individual's current income and should take market trends and his or her performance into account.

Intervention/inquiry

As human resources managers, the HR department can foster employee retention in a company by always stepping in when a worker makes a resignation move. The prompt action is to inquire about the circumstances that led to the decision. As we know nobody ever quits their job without having a good cause.

Hence, the human resource team must look into it because there must be one. Although there are countless reasons why a worker can decide to leave his current position, the main ones are disagreements with superiors, lower pay, a lack of advancement, a bad environment, and so forth.

After an inquiry by the HR team, they can be able to call on the attention of the CEO or founder to act in favor of the employee.

Having a face-to-face conversation with the employee

This is the next step to fostering employee retention by the HR team. As a department directly responsible to the employee in the company, HR should sit down and have a face-to-face (heart-to-heart) conversation with the employee about the many difficulties.

They should recognize his issues and pay attention to what he has to say. Keep in mind that HR should place more emphasis on employee retention than on conducting exit interviews.

Keep employees motivated

The workplace doesn't have to be boring. Employees need to be inspired and motivated if they are to remain productive. This is the work of the human resources department. Create a variety of internal and external training that allows employees to gain additional knowledge beyond their regular job description.

Make sure they participate in activities outside of their job description that are crucial to their overall development. Encourage them to engage in conversation to boost their self-confidence.

initiating incentive schemes into the company

This is one way of retaining top-performing employees. The HR team is responsible for introducing a variety of incentive programs to inspire them. This makes the workers feel valued by the company and motivates them to work even harder. Employees who exhibit competence should be recognized and rewarded.

Conducting performance reviews

Performance reviews are a must in this case. The HR along with the respective team leaders are saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the performance of the employees. These will help them identify those who are underperforming and why. The HR can then put in measures to help the employee improve his/her performance.

HR strategies that could Improve employee retention in a startup

Here are some strategies used by the HR department to improve employee retention in a company.

• Be well equipped with comprehensive hiring procedures

Before now, I mentioned that employee retention often begins by simply hiring the right people. And, the best way to hire the right people is to have a recruitment process that ensures you’re hiring the right people.

This includes having an experienced HR team, heaving a profile of who the right candidate will be, having the tools that will speed up the hiring and onboarding process.

• Create a supportive and favorable work environment

One of the keys to keeping employees is providing them with an environment where they feel supported. Hence, the HR team of your company should make an effort to foster an environment where workers can thrive and give their best work.

• Let them know they're contributing to customers' satisfaction

This works like magic. Making sure workers are aware of the impact their work has on consumers is a terrific method to assist them in realizing the importance of their work.

This could take the form of emphasizing client success tales or case studies where staff members can actually see the results of their labors and how a client has succeeded as a result of the work they've done.

• Encourage teamwork

Nobody is an island and employees cannot operate in silos. Therefore, you should always encourage teamwork among employees so that everyone feels like they are contributing to the company's needs as a whole. Encourage staff to get to know one another, participate in group activities, and work together as necessary.

• Offering compensation or salary raise

The perception that they are underpaid for their work is a big factor in why employees leave their jobs. As proof, the 2020 Global Talent Trends Report from LinkedIn indicated that turnover rates were 56% lower at businesses that received good marks for offering fair compensation.

So making sure you're fairly compensating employees, starting with base pay, is a best practice for boosting employee retention. You might also think about giving raises, getting promoted, or accepting new obligations.

• Encourage an inclusive work environment

By inclusive work environment, I mean a workplace where everyone is respected, treated equally, and accepted for who they are.

If your work environment is inclusive, it means employees will feel valued, seen, and cared for by your company. It is crucial to promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging at work.

• Team leaders and supervisors should play their roles well

Team leaders can contribute in the following ways:

- Avoid favoritism among team members

- Be accessible, accommodating, attentive, and never domineering or bossy.

- Always maintain transparency in both communication and action.

- Recognize and appreciate those who perform well.

To wrap it up, employee retention strategies must be a compulsory component of your company for it to succeed. And the human resources (HR) department plays a central role in helping to make it happen by ensuring that employees are engaged, inspired, and dedicated to the organization's objectives.

The company may also ensure employee retention by prioritizing employees' education, compensation,  and encouraging an inclusive work environment among others. These strategies when effectively executed draw in and keeps top talent in any company.

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