Impacting employee ROI
Increase employee ROI by retaining great people through solid HR strategies, teams and the complimentary tools to support them.
We live in a world where the need for driven, highly-skilled, flexible and performing employees has never been greater. An age where advancements in technology, disruptions in markets and radical business models produce new opportunities daily, but render other businesses and jobs redundant as well.
That’s why I believe acquiring, retaining and developing your employee capital, should be a focal point for any successful business going forward.
Solving the employee retention puzzle is as challenging and complex as finding and acquiring the talent in the first place. On top of common practices such as offering proper compensation and providing opportunity for advancement, many other factors can come into play. Strategies such as employer branding, expressing & quantifying appreciation, a strong company culture, opportunity for growth (=/= advancement) as well as sustaining a harmonious work-life balance are becoming more and more vital in retaining talent within the organization.
I talk about employee capital, because finding and retaining the right workforce is just like any other investment, it can provide a return and come at a cost.
Some employees take time before they reach their fullest potential. A lot of factors could come into play for an employee to provide a significant return (some of which you probably can’t control). And when poorly managed, human resources can just as easily rack up a large cost. A 2016 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management calculated the average cost-per-hire to be at a whopping $4.219!
Other than talking about the cost of employee capital, let’s focus on the return it can yield. Industry-leading companies have already showcased that sustaining a satisfied, loyal and engaged workforce is often a driver of succes for many of these businesses.
One thing is for sure, employee happiness is a consequence of a proper HR strategy that creates the framework for workers to thrive. A good example of this, is Google’s relentless efforts to analyse and improve their employees work-life balance.
according to fortune.com
It seems clear to me that once found, retaining the right talent is of utmost importance to any successful business. Companies like Facebook, Shopify, Google, Amazon and other leaders in employee happiness have solid strategies and determined teams dedicated to solving this specific challenge — so how does your business start improving employee satisfaction and retention?
- Keep track of your talent pool
What are you paying them? Is payroll benchmarked? What performance measures are in place and are they being met? What has been their growth, both monetary and value-based? Which steps have been undertaken to measure and impact employee satisfaction?
Having an accurate and real-time overview of your workforce can provide you with the data to base your strategic decisions on. - Provide flexibility
In todays age, flexibility rules supreme, be it our expectations from delivery services to our work environment. We are slowly finding out more of the benefits of shaping your environment to your needs. Howeer you still need to find out what works best for your company and your employees. Offering child care remuneration has value to some but not all, as does a certain company car policy vs. ecological alternatives. - Establish a strong company culture
Creating and defining a company culture isn’t something that is quickly drawn up on a piece of paper. It takes systematic analysis of the organization and its people. What are the main values? How could work satisfaction be improved? Which common interests can be found amongst different employees and teams? Analyzing these characteristics and shaping your policies to fit them, will positively impact employee retention - Pay for value, accurately
Get an idea of your employees needs and analyse their corresponding costs, related to how they offer value to the business. Customizing their wage & benefits to their personal needs as well as providing the right assets for their professional requirements provides value in two directions.
A company car might be necessary for sales reps, but substituting this option with remuneration benefits for public transport or using a bicycle might be more valuable to other employees. - Measure effectiveness
Testing is important and it’s not just something to do when hiring new candidates. Periodic testing and evaluating targets will help you identify which workers are performing and which ones are not. It provides transparency as to what the company expects from the employee and if this person receives the right compensation in return. - Offer opportunities for growth
Both on an individual level as well as an organizational one, allow room for employees to further educate themselves or deepen their knowledge about related fields. Provide flexibility for employees to grow on an individual level, as well as a professional one.
Retaining the right talent, on a business as well as cultural level, is a complex challenge which needs continuous optimization and finetuning to be successful. Having access to real-time insight into your workforce, being able to establish trends as well as reduce time spent processing HR tasks, should be a top priority allowing your HR professionals to implement strategies which actively improve talent acquisition and retention.
Officient understands the value of people and will help you create the framework for an employee to thrive. Automating routine HR tasks such as days off and electronic signing, providing accurate overview of employee capital, generating crucial HR insights to form a basis for your employee strategies. Officient will help you manage your HR administration so your management and HR team can focus on acquiring, retaining and developing your employee capital!
