The New Worker

Spider-Man has spidey senses, Professor X has telepathy, and great managers have… employee performance metrics. These little beauties, when used effectively, make for the perfect performance management power tool, capable of measuring how well someone is doing their job and how they can boost employee productivity — ultimately nudging both individuals and organizations closer to their goals.

But as with most things, striking a balance is the key to success. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you pick and implement a healthy mix of quantitative employee performance metrics and qualitative insights for a well-rounded rundown of your employees’ performance.

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What are employee performance metrics?

Employee performance metrics are quantifiable measurements that give you an overview of a person’s productivity, effectiveness, and overall contribution to the organization. These can be anything from time management to collaboration skills to goal achievement.

Tallied up, these metrics serve as valuable indicators of individual performance. This is important information, as it can help pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of a team member, allowing you to make informed decisions about when to intervene and what kinds of training programs and development strategies to apply.

But measuring employee performance as part of your performance management strategy isn’t just quantitative. Qualitative insights, such as individual career objectives, issues, and motivations, should also be gathered. This will give you a complete picture of what your employees need to succeed.

What’s more, when employees feel you’ve tailored their metrics to suit them, they’re more likely to feel empowered and motivated, leading to improved and sustained performance and better engagement and retention.

The benefits of tracking employee performance metrics

To maximize the benefits of having employee performance metrics in place, you’ll absolutely need to track them. That's because keeping up with how your team members are performing according to the employee metrics you’ve set will give you a good idea of where they’re winning and where they’re falling short — helping you decide how best to help them improve.

But aside from helping employees get better at their jobs, performance metrics have a number of added benefits, including:

• Enhanced performance: Employee performance metrics shine a spotlight on high-performing individuals. This not only inspires other employees to strive for excellence, but it can also help identify best practices to share across the organization.
• Crystal clear expectations: Employee performance metrics that provide specific, quantifiable objectives with time frames and quality standards (like setting monthly sales targets and customer satisfaction ratings for your sales team) let employees know exactly what to work towards.
• Better motivation and retention: Regularly measuring employee performance shows you’re committed to their growth and development. When employees see that their contributions are valued and meaningful, their satisfaction, engagement, and motivation improve, making them more likely to stay with the company.
• Fairer assessments: Performance metrics are typically based on quantifiable data and specific criteria, making them more objective than subjective evaluations of the past. This is important because having a set of standardized employee performance metrics that can be applied across the board removes the risk of bias and favoritism, helping foster a culture of healthy meritocracy.
• Data-driven decision-making: Employee performance metrics provide valuable data for performance reviews and decision-making processes. Whether it's resource allocation, promotions, or restructuring, quantifiable insights can help you make informed choices that benefit the entire organization.

9 Employee performance metrics to track

The metrics you choose to measure employee performance will most likely depend on your industry, the employee’s role, and organizational priorities. That said, there are a few universally applicable metrics that should be tracked to bring employee performance to the next level. These include:

1. Goal achievement rates

Measuring how effectively individual employees meet their goals and targets within given timeframes ensures that they stay aligned with set team and organizational objectives and timeframes. To do this, you can set concrete and achievable goals and track whether employees have reached them by monitoring objectives and key results (OKRs) or key performance indicators (KPIs) on a regular basis, like at the end of every quarter.

2. Quality of work

Evaluating the accuracy, thoroughness, quality, and consistency of an employee's work ensures they consistently deliver at a high caliber, which elevates and maintains an organization’s standards. Quality metrics can include things like error rates, quality audits, or peer feedback — which can be evaluated according to rating scales or checklists that measure accuracy, attention to detail, and adherence to company quality standards.

3. Attendance and punctuality

Consistent attendance and punctuality are indicators of dedication and professionalism. To track whether and when an individual has clocked in, consider introducing electronic swipe cards or biometric systems like fingerprint scanners. If a lot of work is done remotely, you could consider using timesheets, daily logs, or punch-in/out software.

4. Customer satisfaction

Happy customers are crucial to a business’s success. To gauge the ability of a team member to meet customer needs and deliver exceptional service, you can conduct customer surveys, introduce feedback forms, or encourage online reviews.

5. Team collaboration

Team players are a must in today's interconnected workplaces, so cooperation, active participation, and good communication are highly prized employee attributes. To assess an employee's ability to work effectively in teams, you could introduce peer evaluations or consider reaching out to colleagues, teammates, or other managers for 360-degree feedback.

6. Employee morale

According to research by Oxford University's Saïd Business School, employees with high morale saw a 13% increase in productivity. Happy employees are also more likely to stay with their organizations — in fact, they can actually be the best recruiters for new talent. To take the pulse of your employees’ satisfaction levels, you can conduct routine surveys, schedule regular one-on-one check-ins, conduct team discussions, and monitor turnover rates.

🤗 Looking to boost the mood in your office? Check out our easy-to-implement tips on how to up your team’s morale.

7. Time management

Around 31% of employees waste about 30 minutes a day. From social media and disorganization to unnecessary meetings and micromanagement, getting off track can be easy. Introducing time-tracking tools or software lets you see how your individual employees are allocating their time to tasks and projects, helping you identify potential bottlenecks, time-wasting activities, and opportunities for optimization.

8. Adaptability

Adaptable employees make for resilient, innovative organizations. You can evaluate a team member’s agility in adapting to new processes, technologies, or changing business needs by setting up regular one-on-ones with them or by gathering insights through anonymous feedback mechanisms. To do this, you can ask questions about an individual’s resilience, including adaptability, problem-solving skills, or the ability to remain cool and collected in sticky situations.

9. Learning and development progress

Lastly, tracking an employee's learning and development progress is essential for managers to ensure continuous growth, identify skill gaps, and assess the effectiveness of training initiatives. Learning Management Systems (LMS) can help track and document employees' participation in training programs, courses, and workshops. For a more personalized approach, individual development plans (IDPs) let you collaborate with employees to create personalized improvement strategies and skills assessments.

Practical tips for implementing performance metrics for your employees

Tracking employee performance metrics can trigger a host of benefits, including improving organizational and individual performance and fostering a culture of accountability, growth, and excellence. Of course, laying the groundwork for their successful implementation is key. It requires careful planning, clear communication, and consistent execution. Below are some tips to get you started:

Communicate the value of performance metrics

Some employees may mistake performance metrics as monitoring every little thing they do — making them feel self-conscious or micromanaged. Educating them on what exactly is being assessed and how it can benefit both them and the organization will ensure everyone is on board.

Set measurable employee performance goals

When setting goals, specific, measurable goals, and clear boundaries are essential for providing employees with a firm understanding of what’s expected of them, by when, the desired outcomes, and the criteria they’ll need for success. They also promote clarity and focus, making employees more productive overall.

🥅 Want to set some goals and boundaries but not sure where to start? Check out our curated list of employee performance goal examples.

Align metrics with organizational goals

Finding the right employee performance metrics to track is not an easy task — if they don’t align with your organization’s overall objectives, you might not get the most out of them. Start by clearly outlining your company’s goals and values and try to implement metrics that work to support them. This will foster a sense of purpose and alignment across the organization and will help drive individual and team performance.

Officevibe's goals and OKR feature lets you define and align individual, team, and organizational objectives.

Turn feedback into conversations

Regularly providing feedback to employees based on their performance metrics fosters a culture of continuous improvement and reinforces positive behaviors. At the same time, you can ask employees to give feedback on their own performance metrics and goals. This collaborative approach enhances engagement and accountability and encourages more open and honest conversations with your team.

Master your feedback skills with our guide for managers and teams on how to give honest and respectful feedback.

Offer support and resources

Sometimes employees are underperforming because they’re simply undertrained. As a manager, try to spot the gaps in your team’s knowledge and provide them with the tools, resources, and training they need to shine.

And we can help you do just that! Our learning management system provides an outstanding training experience and facilitates knowledge sharing throughout the organization.

Ensure fairness and avoid bias

Making sure that employees are evaluated against the same criteria (as long as it remains relevant to their roles) helps maintain a sense of fairness and promotes a positive work environment. To support this, and to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations, it's a good idea to clarify to managers and co-evaluators what the organization's employee performance metrics are and which evaluation standards and guidelines are consistently used.

To truly bias-proof your performance reviews, look into getting feedback from team members, colleagues, and other managers.

Evaluate the measurement process itself regularly

Biases, like weeds, can grow just about anywhere. And once they're there, they tend to take root and multiply. Regularly evaluating the performance measurement process to identify any biases or inconsistencies that may undermine fairness and accountability will help ensure you maintain fair, objective, and transparent metrics.

Monitoring and evaluating performance through ongoing conversations

While performance metrics provide valuable data, they should never replace ongoing conversations between managers and employees. Instead, aim to combine both quantitative metrics with qualitative insights through regular check-ins and performance discussions, which will help you gain a more holistic understanding of your employee's performance.

One-on-one conversations like these make for the perfect opportunity to give feedback, voice concerns, provide guidance, and recognize achievements — and they go a long way toward fostering a supportive, growth-oriented environment.

Not sure where you’ll find the time or energy to host frequent, constructive meetings? Officevibe's one-on-one meeting software lets you set and structure your meetings with ease, so you can easily monitor progress and pick up where you left off.

Below are a few tips to help amp up your communication game:

• Establish a culture of open communication: Open, honest, meaningful dialogue is most likely to happen when employees feel at ease. Foster a sense of trust by making yourself available to chat. Being approachable and remaining non-judgemental will help create a supportive atmosphere in which employees can feel safe to share their thoughts without fear of retribution.
• Schedule regular check-ins: Whether weekly, biweekly, or monthly, setting up frequent check-ins will ensure the ongoing monitoring of an employee's performance and provide an opportunity to address issues promptly.
• Use active listening: Active listening not only demonstrates respect, but it can also help you gather valuable insights into your employees’ performance. It involves closing your laptop, putting your phone away, and being present. Pay close attention to what your team members are saying, ask clarifying questions, and try to understand their perspective — even if it differs from your own.
• Provide constructive feedback: Feedback framed in a constructive way is specific, timely, and actionable, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement. Such feedback focuses on development and growth rather than criticism and can end up boosting employees' confidence and inspiring them to aim higher.

🤓 Fun fact: Companies in which employees receive frequent feedback and constant communications with their managers have 14.9% lower turnover rates.

Measure employee performance to bring your organization to new heights

Clearly, employee performance metrics aren’t just benchmarks for performance reviews and promotion considerations. They’re a powerful performance management tool and the key to driving business alignment, growth, and success.

That’s because, by tracking and analyzing some key indicators, managers can gain insight into employee contributions, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions — all of which work to reduce bias, enhance performance, empower employees, and ensure goal alignment.

Yet, while metrics are essential, they should always be balanced with ongoing conversations that enable a deeper understanding of individual performance. That's because it’s only through leveraging employee performance metrics and fostering a culture of communication, support, and continuous improvement that organizations can unlock the full potential of their workforce.

After all, successful employees are what make successful companies.

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What's in this article

• Before Anything, Understand Your Employee Needs
• Personalized Learning Paths For All
• Champion And Encourage Continuous Learning
• Offer Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities
• The Power of Learning with LMS: Building a Resilient and Engaged Workforce

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At the heart of every thriving organization lies a united and motivated team. As managers, you hold the key to unlocking your team's full potential, and one of the most potent catalysts for growth is a robust learning and development (L&D) program. By investing in your employees' growth and professional fulfillment, you can ignite a spark of inspiration that leads to unparalleled employee retention and engagement.

Here, we explore innovative strategies and real-world examples that harness the magic of learning to keep your team inspired, connected, and committed.

Before Anything, Understand Your Employee Needs

The foundation of any successful learning program lies in a deep understanding of your employees' needs and aspirations. To gain valuable insights into the specific skills and knowledge your team members are seeking, you can conduct:

• Anonymous surveys
• One-on-one meetings
• Performance evaluations 
• Skills Gap Analysis

Understanding your employees' specific needs and applying them into their L&D journey fuels enhanced relevance, engagement, empowered career growth, and heightened retention and loyalty within your organization. Officevibe has some great resources to understand the holistic cycle of the employee experience. 

Personalized Learning Paths For All

Not all employees have the same learning preferences and career goals. The knowledge you gain from understanding employee needs can empower you to tailor personalized learning paths that resonate with your team, leading to higher engagement and commitment.

Empower your managers to create personalized learning journeys using a robust learning management system like Workleap LMS.

Get The Best of Everything By Blending Learning Formats

Enhance the training experience by offering a variety of learning formats that cater to diverse learning styles and scheduling preferences. Learning formats are endless. Here are a few to inspire you:

• Instructor-Led Workshops
• Self-Paced Online Courses
• Webinars
• Interactive Quizzes and Assessments
• Group Projects and Collaborative Learning
• Microlearning Modules
• Podcasts and Audio-Based Learning

Some employees may thrive in instructor-led workshops, while others prefer self-paced online courses. Embrace both synchronous and asynchronous courses simultaneously to ensure maximum engagement.

Champion And Encourage Continuous Learning

Employee retention flourishes in an environment that supports and encourages growth. Promotions are great for motivating employees, but there are many other ways to incentivize learning and development:

• Learning and Development (L&D) Budget: Allocate a dedicated budget for employee training and development initiatives.
• Learning Hours Tracking: Implement a system to track and recognize the time employees dedicate to learning activities.
• Internal Learning Community: Establish a forum or platform where employees can share their learnings, insights, and resources with colleagues.
• Learning Challenges and Competitions: Organize learning challenges or competitions to spark healthy competition and foster a culture of improvement.
• Knowledge-Sharing Sessions: Host regular knowledge-sharing sessions where employees can present on topics they have mastered.
• Learning Awards and Recognition: Celebrate outstanding learners and contributors through company-wide awards or recognition programs.
• Professional Development Plans: Work with employees to create personalized development plans aligned with their career aspirations.
• Internal Promotions: Prioritize internal promotions and career growth opportunities for employees who actively engage in learning and development.
• Cross-Departmental Learning Opportunities: Encourage employees to participate in cross-departmental projects or temporary job rotations (like shadowing) to gain new skills and perspectives.

Offer Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities

Facilitating mentorship programs that connect experienced team members with junior colleagues is a powerful way to foster a collaborative and supportive learning environment. 

Mentoring goes beyond formal learning programs and provides employees with personalized guidance, career development insights, and a sense of belonging within the organization. 

By nurturing these mentorship opportunities, your organization can significantly contribute to higher employee retention and engagement, ultimately leading to a more motivated and successful workforce.

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According to a study by Deloitte, Millenials workers who stay with their organization for more than five years are twice as likely to have a mentor (68%) than not (32%).

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The Power of Learning with LMS: Building a Resilient and Engaged Workforce

Investing in your employees' learning and development is the key to unlocking their potential and driving remarkable employee retention and engagement. Embrace the power of in-house experts, utilize Workleap LMS' Course Authors feature, and build a culture of continuous learning.

With LMS as your partner, you'll create a workforce that is inspired, driven, and firmly committed to your shared vision of growth and success.

Let's embark on this journey together — a journey that transforms not just businesses but the lives of those who power them. Request a free demo now and shape a brighter future for your team!

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What's in this article

• Collaborate with your in-house experts for better content creation
• Leveraging your in-house experts has never been this easy
• Build a Learning Culture
• The Right LMS for your Business

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Collaborate with your in-house experts for better content creation

Delegating content creation to in-house experts takes the pressure off the Human Resources department and gives employees an opportunity to show off their skills and expertise. By tapping into the knowledge of employees, HR can produce high-quality content that resonates with their target employees. In-house experts are familiar with the company's culture, values, and mission, which allows them to best create content that aligns with the organizational goals. Additionally, involving employees in content creation can boost morale and engagement. It gives them an opportunity to showcase their knowledge, which can lead to career advancement and recognition. Overall, delegating content creation with in-house experts is a win-win situation for HR and employees. 

Leveraging your in-house experts has never been this easy

With Workleap LMS’ new feature: Course Authors, you can add an unlimited amount of course authors on a course and assign it to them instantly. The course authors will be able to build a course plan, create course content and integrate within the desired lessons. It's about time we start leveraging the knowledge of our best employees and create the learning and development programs that have been on the backlog for way too long!  

- Mathieu Dumont, Product Director 

Build a Learning Culture

Needless to say, these tools will only work if you create a culture that encourages learning and knowledge sharing. One thing you can do right now is to enforce a culture that supports learning and development and rewards employees for content creation. Training is the perfect way to bring the whole team together and set the tone for internal growth and talent development. 

The Right LMS for your Business

If you're looking for a software that allows you to create courses and manage your company's internal training, Workleap LMS is the solution for you. Our LMS offers both synchronous and asynchronous learning, making it the perfect tool for learning and development. With LMS, you can easily manage your courses and enrollment, as well as set employees up for success when getting certified and accredited. Want to learn more about how Workleap LMS can help your business? Request a Demo today and see for yourself! 

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What's in this article

• The importance of skills-based workforce planning
• Strategies to master skills-based workforce planning
• Challenges and considerations in skills-based workforce planning
• Leveraging technology and data analytics
• The road ahead: Your journey begins with Workleap Skills

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In the fast-paced whirlwind of the business landscape, where markets shift and customer demands evolve in the blink of an eye, organizations must be nimble and adaptable to keep their edge.

Enter organizational agility, the ability to respond swiftly and effectively, and a critical factor for success. To achieve agility and unlock their team's full potential, HR managers in modern companies need a strategic approach – skills-based workforce planning.

The importance of skills-based workforce planning

Say goodbye to rigid role-based approaches that leave you stuck in the slow lane. Embracing skills-based planning opens up a world of possibilities and offers a transformative approach to HR management — fostering adaptability and growth within the organization.

The roadblock of traditional workforce planning

While this method may have been good in stable environments, traditional role-based approaches hinder agility in a fast-changing environment. Although this can still work for some industries, it might be time to consider a more agile system.

If you use a role-based approach, you’ve likely experienced:

• Rigidity: Job roles are often static and do not account for the dynamic needs of the business. When unexpected shifts occur, you may find it challenging to reassign employees effectively, resulting in resource constraints and missed opportunities.
• Limited adaptability: As market conditions change, new skill requirements emerge, and some become obsolete. With role-based planning, it’s difficult to predict which skills will be most valuable in the future, making it harder to build a resilient and adaptable workforce.

• Talent misalignment: Employees may possess valuable skills that remain underutilized within their designated roles. Misalignment can lead to reduced productivity, employee disengagement, and missed opportunities for organizational growth.

Paving the path to agility with skills

Agility is no longer just a buzzword—it’s a prerequisite for survival and success. A more agile approach is the name of the game, and it all starts with skills.

Skills-based planning unlocks many benefits, including:

• Adaptability: By focusing on skills, you can seamlessly adapt your workforce to changing business needs, enabling teams to tackle new challenges outside of what’s been pre-set.

• Future-proofing: Skills are transferable assets across various roles. By building a talent pool based on skills, organizations future-proof themselves against industry disruptions and tech advancements.

• Enhanced collaboration: Employees with diverse skill sets can seamlessly work together, fostering connecting, creativity, and innovation within the organization for a positive impact on projects.

• Talent development: Identifying and nurturing employees' core competencies empowers them to grow professionally and take on new responsibilities. Skills-based planning aligns personal development with organizational goals, and everyone wins!

Strategies to master skills-based workforce planning

Effective skills-based workforce planning involves comprehensive skill assessments and strategic talent mapping. But where to start?

Conducting skill assessments

The first step to building an agile workforce is to assess and map employee skills accurately. Best way to go about this through:

• Self-assessment: Evaluation of one's own skills and performance. These can be done regularly as part of general pulse checks or ahead of performance evaluations.
• Peer feedback: Feedback provided by colleagues or coworkers. A great way to collect this data is through anonymous online surveys.
• Performance evaluations: Formal assessments of an individual's job performance by supervisors or managers. While a more traditional approach is the yearly evaluation cycle, managers are now opting for more frequent (and less formal) moments to do so.

Skill inventories and competency frameworks also play a vital role in accurately capturing employees' capabilities, ensuring the creation of a comprehensive skill profile.

Aligning skills to business objectives

Mapping skills to business objectives is a critical aspect of driving organizational agility and performance. When your employees' skills align seamlessly with your organization's goals and strategies, it's like magic—efficiency and innovation flow effortlessly.

By strategically placing your talented team members in roles that leverage their strengths and expertise, you empower your teams to navigate the ever-changing market conditions, conquer challenges, and seize every golden opportunity.

Take, for instance, a company who needs to change its marketing strategy so it focuses more on sales-led objectives. This will probably reshape sales skill needs and require training for existing team members to adapt to a new sales flow. 

Ultimately, skills-based planning enables you to develop a highly adaptive talent pool, enabling companies to stay ahead in a competitive landscape!

Identifying and addressing skill gaps with precision

Skill gaps can impede agility. Thankfully, there are proactive strategies for identifying, addressing, and closing skill gaps to ensure employees are equipped to meet future challenges. 

• Reskilling: Training (or retraining) employees in new skills. This aims to equip employees to take on different roles or adapt to changes in job requirements.

• Upskilling: Providing additional training to enhance existing skills. This strategy looks to improve employees' proficiency and performance in their current roles.

• Talent mobility initiatives: Programs for employees to move within the company based on skills and interests. matching employees with appropriate roles that allow them to explore different career paths helps enhance employee engagement, loyalty, and adaptability.

Proactively identifying skill gaps allows you to take preemptive action and nurture a skilled and future-ready workforce!

Challenges and considerations in skills-based workforce planning

Overcoming challenges in skills-based workforce planning is crucial to its successful implementation. By prioritizing accurate skill data and cultivating a learning-centric culture, you’ll be setting the stage for future success.

Obtaining accurate skill data

Accurate skill data is the foundation of effective workforce planning and development. However, gathering and maintaining reliable skill data can be a challenging endeavor, especially when it comes from diverse sources.

Two steps to address data gathering challenges:

1. Implement a comprehensive skill assessment tool like Workleap Skills that includes self-assessment and peer feedback abilities to capture a holistic view of employees' abilities.
2. Integrate skill inventories and competency frameworks to create a standardized skill mapping process, ensuring consistency and accuracy.

The best way to ensure data integrity is to regularly update employee skill profiles and encourage employees to provide timely updates to reflect their evolving competencies. Establishing data validation mechanisms and verification processes to cross-check information also helps maintain data accuracy.

Creating a culture of skill development

A vibrant learning culture lies at the core of progressive organizations, driving continuous skill development and nurturing a growth mindset among employees.

To promote a culture of learning, emphasize learning and development as integral to the company's vision and values. Encouraging leadership to lead by example will also inspire others to participate in learning initiatives. 

Offering diverse training opportunities, from workshops to online courses, shows that your company values continuous development. By providing personalized development plans and mentorship opportunities, you’ll also enable employees to own their growth journey.

Celebrating learning milestones and embracing mistakes as valuable experiences cultivate a growth mindset. Foster open feedback and encourage employees to seek challenges, and promote improvement and innovation.

By prioritizing skill data accuracy and fostering a learning-centric culture, organizations empower their workforce to adapt, innovate, and excel, paving the way for a successful future.

Integrating skills-based approaches into talent processes

Skills-based workforce planning seamlessly aligns talent acquisition and development strategies with performance management. 

By assessing candidates based on their specific skills and competencies, organizations ensure they hire individuals who can contribute to their objectives effectively. This approach also fosters personalized training plans, enabling employees to enhance their core competencies and thrive in their roles. 

Integrating skills-based planning into performance management provides a more accurate evaluation of employee contributions and encourages continuous skill development, leading to individual and organizational success.

Leveraging technology and data analytics

In the realm of skills-based planning, digital tools and data-driven insights are indispensable in maximizing its benefits and optimizing workforce management. And technology and data analytics play a pivotal role in revolutionizing HR practices.

The role of technology in skills-based workforce planning

Digital tools and platforms offer a seamless experience for HR managers, simplifying skills mapping and analysis in workforce planning. Workleap Skills' user-friendly platform, for example, allows you to focus on strategic decision-making by automating various tasks.

Through digital platforms, skills mapping and analysis become more efficient, saving valuable time and effort in the workforce planning process. Automation and AI streamline workflow, freeing you from routine tasks and allowing them to concentrate on more strategic initiatives.

Data analytics for predictive workforce planning

Data analytics and predictive modeling are the superheroes of skills-based planning! Armed with valuable insights, HR managers make informed decisions and drive organizational agility.

Workforce analytics and predictive modeling provide a crystal ball for future talent needs, enabling proactive planning and readiness. Data-driven decision-making empowers you to respond swiftly to market changes, securing a competitive edge in a dynamic business environment. For example, a financial services company used predictive modeling to forecast skill demands, leading to targeted upskilling programs that supercharged employees' capabilities and performance.

By embracing the tech side of skills-based planning, you can harness powerful insights to optimize talent management and drive success. 

The road ahead: Your journey begins with Workleap Skills

Embrace skills-based workforce planning and fuel your organization's agility. Your future-ready workforce awaits! Ready to embark on this thrilling adventure?

Book a demo or start your free Skills trial and buckle up for the ride of a lifetime. Together, we'll steer your organization toward success, armed with skills and ready to conquer the ever-changing horizon!

In the dynamic landscape of today's businesses, an effective performance management plan is a cornerstone of organizational success. As leaders and managers, understanding the significance of a well-crafted performance management plan is imperative to foster growth and development within the company.

This article will equip you with the necessary insights and tools to create an effective performance management plan that drives excellence and unlocks the full potential of your team. From setting clear objectives to providing continuous feedback, discover how this strategic approach can propel your organization towards greater achievements.

But before deep diving into how to build a performance plan, let's get a bit more context.

Build effective performance management plans

What is a performance management plan?

A performance management plan is a structured approach that enables organizations to optimize an employee's performance, development, and engagement. It encompasses a set of core components that work together to support employees in achieving their goals and contributing to the company's success.

What is performance management? See it like an ongoing dialogue between managers and employees throughout the year, discussing job performance, growth opportunities, and ways to elevate their skills.

Key components of a performance management plan

A successful and good performance management plan comprises several key components. These include:

• Goal setting: Establishing clear and measurable performance goals for employees that align with the organization's vision. Consider SMART goals and OKRs to steer your plan.
• Performance reviews: Conducting regular evaluations, including self-assessments, peer feedback, and manager assessments, to provide constructive feedback and encourage continuous improvement.
• Feedback mechanisms: Creating a continuous feedback loop to facilitate open communication and foster a culture of learning and development between managers and peers.
• Development plans: Designing individualized development plans to nurture employee skills and capabilities.
• Recognition and rewards: Showing appreciation towards employees reinforces good performance just like it encourages them to keep persisting through challenging times.

When integrated effectively, these elements create a powerful performance management process that empowers employees and fuels continuous improvement. And as a manager, they'll help you master your craft of leading great one-on-one performance discussions and reviews.

Benefits of performance management planning

Not only does a well-implemented performance management plan identify underperformance and drive improvement, but it also boosts employee engagement, motivation, and satisfaction. The benefits of performance management are countless.

But it doesn't stop at improving employee performance alone. Organizations that prioritize performance management also experience enhanced team collaboration and productivity, leading to improved business outcomes.

• Identifies underperformance and drives improvement: If you don't know about underlying issues, you won't know what needs to be fixed. Performance management plans help identify underperforming areas and provide a framework to address them effectively. This allows employees to receive the necessary support and resources to overcome obstacles.
• Boosts employee engagement: Performance management boosts employee engagement by providing clear objectives and regular feedback. Employees feel more connected to and engaged with their work when they understand how their contributions align with organizational goals.
• Increases motivation: Setting specific, achievable goals and recognizing achievements helps motivate employees, making them more enthusiastic about taking on challenges and continuously improving their skills, leading to higher job satisfaction and team morale.
• Improves productivity: Providing a structured approach to goal-setting and continuous improvement optimizes productivity. Regular feedback and development opportunities also ensure that employees are equipped with the resources and support to enhance their performance.
• Enhances team collaboration: Open communication means more collaboration within teams, which is exactly what performance management seeks to do. When team members understand how their individual efforts contribute to collective success, they're more likely to share knowledge and support one another.
• Helps achieve overall business success: Engaged, motivated, and productive employees contribute to higher-quality work. When guided by the right performance management processes, employees are more likely to exhibit these qualities, contributing to better customer satisfaction, profitability, and competitive advantage.

How to create performance management plans

To create effective employee performance management plans, follow these essential steps:

1. Set employee performance goals

Employee performance goals are the guiding stars that illuminate the path to success. Clear and measurable objectives not only drive individual growth but also contribute to the organization's overall achievements.

To set your employees up for triumph, follow these essential steps in creating SMART goals:

• Specific: Define precisely what you want to accomplish. Avoid vague statements and be clear about the desired outcomes. Example: "Lisa will achieve a 20% increase in monthly sales revenue by the end of the quarter."
• Measurable: Ensure your goals are quantifiable, allowing you to track progress and evaluate performance. Example: "Martin will increase the number of followers on the company's Instagram account by 15% within the next six months."
• Achievable: Strike a balance between ambition and realism. Goals should be challenging yet attainable with effort and commitment. Example: "Paula will deliver the first phase of the software development, including core features, in three months."
• Relevant: Align individual objectives with the organization's vision and priorities, ensuring a direct contribution to overall success. Example: "Sal will increase employee engagement survey scores by 10 points by the end of the year, supporting the company's focus on enhancing the workplace culture."
• Time-bound: Set specific deadlines for each goal, providing a sense of urgency and encouraging timely action. Example: "Bjorn will respond to all customer inquiries within one hour during business hours by the end of the quarter."

By integrating these key principles into your goal-setting process, you provide employees with a sense of direction and purpose. When alignment is met at every level, everyone has a better chance to win together.

If you really want to raise your game, download our guide for goal-setting. It covers everything from SMART goal checklists to OKRs, to tips on aligning employee performance objectives to company goals.

2. Conduct performance reviews regularly

Conducting performance reviews with employees is a vital aspect of a comprehensive performance management system. These regular evaluations serve various purposes and offer numerous benefits to both employees and the organization as a whole.

While traditional performance management processes center around the annual performance review, modern approaches, like agile performance management, keep the conversation going all year round. Managers can chat about performance continuously through one-on-one meetings, instead of only having a nerve-racking evaluation once a year. They should also be supplemented with regular self-assessment, peer feedback, and manager assessments to gain a holistic understanding of an employee's performance.

Each employee performance review is an opportunity to provide valuable feedback to employees, offering insights into their strengths and areas for improvement. Constructive feedback is essential during these reviews, as it helps individuals identify growth opportunities and fosters continuous improvement. By keeping employee development in mind throughout the process, managers can provide performance feedback that is useful and purposeful, aimed to encourage skill enhancement and career growth.

Data-driven performance reviews provide more precise and objective insights into where there's an opportunity for improvement. But you don't have to become a data-processor calculator all on your own — Officevibe is here to help.

3. Monitor and evaluate employee performance

To ensure the success of your performance management plan, it is crucial to track employee performance and evaluate it. Regular check-ins and progress tracking help identify trends and areas for improvement, enabling timely adjustments and support. By establishing a culture of ongoing monitoring and assessment, you create an environment where employees feel supported and empowered to excel.

Take Sarah, who recently took on a new project. Through regular check-ins, you notice she is making steady progress but facing challenges with time management. By discussing her experiences openly, you can offer guidance and resources to help her overcome these obstacles, ensuring her success on the project. The result? She now uses a calendar planning tool to help her prioritize (and deprioritize) tasks when needed.

Embracing the power of one-on-one tools that facilitate data collection, goal setting and note-taking can provide valuable insights into individual and team progress and achievements. These capabilities make it easier to identify both areas of excellence and growth and provide accurate, data-driven performance reviews.

4. Build performance improvement plans

You can't address a problem without a well-defined and thought-out solution. With that in mind, addressing underperformance or skill gaps requires performance improvement plans. These structured plans involve setting specific improvement targets and providing the support and resources needed to help struggling employees succeed. This demonstrates your commitment to employee growth and development and creates a safe space where employees are not retributed for making mistakes.

For instance, imagine you have an employee, Alex, who has shown exceptional dedication and enthusiasm for their role, but their time management skills could use improvement. With a performance improvement plan in place, you can work with Alex to set achievable goals and provide resources like time management workshops or coaching sessions. This targeted approach empowers Alex to overcome challenges and thrive in their role.

Discussing poor performance doesn't have to be all bad and can truly bring many positive opportunities. Clear communication and coaching play a pivotal role in the process. By creating an open and supportive space for dialogue, employees feel comfortable discussing their areas of improvement and are more receptive to constructive feedback.

5. Provide employee development and training opportunities

Investing in employee training and skill development is a cornerstone of an effective performance development plan. Training, mentorship, and professional development opportunities enhance employee skills and boost overall performance. By providing these opportunities, you demonstrate your commitment to nurturing talent and fostering a culture of continuous learning.

Consider Chris, an employee who has expressed an interest in a leadership role. By offering mentorship from experienced leaders and providing leadership training programs, you not only enhance Chris' skill set but also prepare them for future career opportunities within the organization.

Discover the benefits of ongoing learning and career development, not only for individual growth but also for the collective success of your organization. When employees see a clear path for their development, they are more engaged and motivated to contribute their best to the organization.

Have you heard of the GROW coaching model? It stands for "Goals, Reality, Options, What’s Next". It's a great framework that will help you ask the right questions at your next performance management meeting.

6. Offer recognition and rewards for performance

Recognition and rewards play a pivotal role in motivating employees and fostering a positive work environment. When employees feel appreciated and valued, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to their work. Explore different types of recognition, including peer-to-peer acknowledgment, public praise, and career advancement opportunities, to create a comprehensive and impactful recognition program.

For instance, consider implementing a peer-to-peer recognition system where team members can celebrate each other's achievements openly. This not only boosts morale but also strengthens the bonds within the team, creating a culture of support and encouragement.

Design a well-thought-out recognition program that celebrates achievements and empowers your team to reach new heights of productivity and success. By aligning recognition with your organization's values and goals, you ensure that recognizing and rewarding employees become integral parts of your performance management plan — and the employee experience altogether.

Recognition on speed dial is one of the inspirations behind our Good Vibes feature. When it's so easy to overlook good performance, or things get so busy we forget to give a kudos, this feature makes a little go a long way for employee morale.

7. Refine your performance management practice

Performance management is a continuous journey that requires constant improvement and refinement. Emphasize the importance of gathering honest feedback from employees and stakeholders to enhance your performance management system iteratively.

In-person feedback can be really powerful, although sometimes anonymous is the way to go. Consider conducting regular pulse surveys to collect employee feedback on the effectiveness of your performance management plan. By listening to your team's insights and suggestions, you can make informed adjustments, foster open communication, and build a culture of continuous improvement.

Create an environment of ongoing feedback, where feedback is valued and leveraged to drive meaningful change and growth. This approach not only benefits individual employees but also contributes to the overall success and development of your organization.

Building a performance roadmap that considers performance management as cycles is time well spent. The easiest way to ensure continuous performance cycles is by automating checkpoints, timely feedback, and goal alignment — don't worry, we've got you covered.

Crafting a performance management plan for epic wins with Officevibe

A top-notch performance management plan is your secret weapon. By setting clear, measurable goals, giving constructive feedback, conducting regular performance reviews, tracking performance metrics, creating improvement plans, nurturing growth, and recognizing achievements, you'll unlock the true potential of your team.

Performance management planning empowers each individual employee to reach their full potential. It not only enables organizations to identify and address underperformance effectively, but also leads to boosted employee engagement, increased motivation, enhanced productivity, and improved team collaboration. High-performing and well-supported workforce in turn drives overall business success.

Embrace the power of performance management with Officevibe and watch your employees thrive like never before.

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Today's organizations face the growing challenge of effectively managing and developing their workforce's skills. To meet this demand, a skills-based approach has emerged as a powerful strategy to align employee capabilities with organizational goals. At the heart of this approach lies the skills-based canvas, a structured framework designed to support skill management and drive talent development.

In this article, we will explore the various facets of the skills-based canvas, its key components, and the remarkable benefits it offers to organizations seeking to enhance their workforce's skills.

Understanding the skills-based canvas

To build a strong foundation, let's delve into the concept of a skills-based approach and its crucial role in talent development. The skills-based canvas serves as a structured and comprehensive framework, enabling organizations to identify, assess, and develop their employees' skills effectively. By adopting this approach, organizations gain a deeper understanding of their workforce's capabilities, allowing them to align talent with strategic objectives and adapt to changing market demands. 

Benefits of the skills-based canvas

Comprehensive skill management: Gain a holistic view of employees' skills and competencies, aligning them with strategic goals to drive organizational success.

Targeted skill development: Identify skill gaps within the workforce and implement targeted training initiatives to bridge these gaps effectively.

Cultivate a learning culture: Empower employees to take ownership of their skill development, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Enhanced workforce efficiency: Streamline talent management processes, from recruitment to performance evaluation, for increased efficiency and productivity.

Improved employee engagement: Engage and motivate employees by providing opportunities for skill development and growth, leading to improved retention rates.

Adaptability and agility: Equip the workforce with the necessary skills to adapt to changing market demands and maintain a competitive edge.

Strategic talent development: Utilize the skills-based canvas as a strategic tool to unlock the full potential of the workforce and achieve long-term organizational success.

How to use the Skills-Based Canvas 

The skills-based canvas consists of key components that work in harmony to support skill management. From defining skill categories to conducting skill assessments and creating personalized development plans, each element contributes to a holistic approach to talent development.  

Here are the 7 key components of the Skills-Based Canvas Framework. 

1. Identify the key organizational objectives:

• What are your business and organizational objectives? What are the next organizational priorities? 

Examples: increase talent retention, increase internal mobility, improve organization agility

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Protip: Linking your HR initiatives to the business strategy is crucial for stakeholder buy-in and creating the wanted value for the organization. Understanding the organization's vision and objectives is crucial for HR to become a strategic partner.

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2. Identify key stakeholders:

• Who are the key stakeholders or managers within your organization in each critical function who hold valuable insights to guide you towards success? How can their domain expertise be leveraged to identify skill gaps?  

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Protip: Foster collaboration with these stakeholders, tapping into their knowledge and expertise to enhance the identification of the required skills in the organization to achieve business objectives and the skills present in the organization, to identify the gaps.

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3. Identify top skills

• What are the critical skills required to achieve your business objectives? Can you identify these top skills with the help of each function stakeholder? How can you strategically align your talent development efforts with these critical areas for success?  

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Protip: As an HR professional, you can conduct research and stay in tune with your industry through trend monitoring, professional networks, and engaging discussions. This will help you identify some of the most sought-after skills in the market, both now and in the future. Discuss with your stakeholders to see if these skills could be added to the necessary skills to achieve business objectives.

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4. Assess skill gaps:

• What skills currently exist within your organization? Can you identify these with the help of each function stakeholder? How do these skills compare to what is required, highlighting any gaps? What insights can this evaluation offer to deepen your understanding of your workforce's capabilities and pinpoint areas for development?  

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Protip: AI tools are now available that make skills mapping and generating comprehensive skills gap reports quick and effortless, requiring just a few minutes of your time. The best part is that some of these tools are completely free. By utilizing these tools, you can gain valuable insights into your workforce's capabilities and identify specific areas for development.

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5. Develop an HR strategic plan:

How can you bridge the identified skill gaps within your organization? Here are the various strategies to consider:  

• Update your Talent Acquisition Plan: Evaluate the need to hire external talent or engage outside contractors, considering time, budget, and candidate availability.  
• Rethink upskilling & reskilling: Explore opportunities to train and develop existing employees, equipping them with the necessary skills. Consider feasibility within your desired timeframe and budgetary constraints.  
• Address organization-wide learning needs with learning programs: Develop targeted learning programs to enhance essential skills for the modern work environment. Prioritize skills like resilience and innovation that are relevant across teams and throughout the organization. Equipping employees with comprehensive training in these areas empowers them to excel in a fast-paced and ever-changing workplace.  

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Protip: Customize your approach for each situation, be it talent acquisition, upskilling, or reskilling, to address skill gaps in your organization. Choose suitable strategies and utilize tools to create targeted employee development plans that address identified gaps. This ensures effective and focused efforts in closing skill gaps and fostering continuous growth in your workforce.

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6. Find your collaborators:

• Who are the mentors and subject matter experts who can contribute valuable guidance and support in executing your strategic plan? Who are the individuals within your organization with the expertise and willingness to facilitate skill development and foster a culture of continuous learning?  

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Protip: Perfect your talent development efforts by defining SMART KPIs that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Regularly track and analyze these metrics to gain valuable insights and drive long-term organizational growth. By continuously watching and evaluating the effectiveness of your talent development initiatives, you can make data-driven decisions and enhance your organization's overall performance.

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7. Measure and track success:

• How can you effectively measure and track the success of your talent development initiatives? What key performance indicators (KPIs) should be defined and aligned with your objectives? 

Examples: NPS score, retention rate, etc.

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Protip: Perfect your talent development efforts by defining SMART KPIs that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Regularly track and analyze these metrics to gain valuable insights and drive long-term organizational growth. By continuously watching and evaluating the effectiveness of your talent development initiatives, you can make data-driven decisions and enhance your organization's overall performance.

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Moving forward 

The skills-based canvas serves as a potent tool for organizations seeking to optimize talent development and drive workforce success. By adopting this structured approach, you can unlock the full potential of your workforce, aligning skills with strategic goals and embracing adaptability. We encourage organizations to embrace the skills-based canvas as a pivotal element in their talent development journey. 

Starting with guidance and real-life examples can make the process easier, and we have great news! We are organizing a workshop on September 8 to help you unleash the full potential of the skills-based canvas. Reserve your seat now - it's free! 

Reserve your seat for the workshop today. 

There was a time when employees commonly spent their entire careers at one company. While these days are long gone, organizations still strive to retain employees for the long run. And with good reason. Companies don’t want a revolving door of employees, and employees want to feel happy, fulfilled, and motivated in their jobs. When both sides have each other’s interests at heart, great things ensue.

When the opposite happens and issues in employee experience fester, employee turnover (especially voluntary turnover) rises. High employee turnover often stems from ineffective leadership, lack of career development opportunities, toxic work environments, dissatisfaction with annual salary, or a mix of it all. And when you’re blind to how employees really feel at work, it’s easy to lose sight of these factors and how to remedy them.

Once you realize the true cost of employee turnover, it’s hard to ignore. We’re here to break it down for you.

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What is employee turnover and why does it matter?

Employee turnover looks at the changes in your company's workforce during a given timeframe, particularly the number of employees who quit an organization (or are asked to leave), and are replaced by new employees.

But if this is a normal phenomenon for any company, why does employee turnover matter? For starters, the cost of employee turnover is significant, and we don't just mean financially. While that is a major factor, it's also costly on the human front: lower employee morale, lost productivity, and a negative impact on the employer brand. While a certain level of employee turnover is expected at every company, retaining top performers is key.

Types of employee turnover

Understanding the different types of employee turnover can provide valuable insights into the reasons behind employee departures and help in developing targeted retention strategies. There are two main types:

• Voluntary turnover: When employees choose to leave the company of their own accord. They may be seeking better opportunities, career growth, improved work-life balance, or a more positive work environment. Voluntary turnover highlights factors that may be driving employees away and provides an opportunity to address those issues.
• Involuntary turnover: When employees are terminated or laid off by the organization. This type of turnover can be a result of poor performance, company restructuring, or other reasons that lead to the employer's decision to end the employment relationship. Involuntary turnover can indicate where performance management, employee development, or organizational process improvements can be made.

By distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary turnover, organizations can gain a clearer understanding of their employee retention challenges and tailor strategies to address the specific drivers of turnover.

Star employees don’t up and quit out of nowhere. Learn how to spot signs and symptoms of disengagement, and what you can do to prevent your best people from leaving.

The real cost of employee turnover

Employee turnover costs can be split in two main categories: hard and soft costs. Hard costs are the easier-to-measure costs that most people take into account when turnover is on the rise. Their impact is more overt and often felt sooner by the team. Soft costs, on the other hand, are largely unaccounted for or unnoticed until they lead to bigger issues. Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Hard costs of employee turnover

• Offboarding costs mainly include the resources and time spent on administrative tasks, like updating HR files, conducting exit interviews, removing employee accesses, and collecting IT equipment. In rare cases, these costs can also include severance pay and even legal fees.
• Hiring costs are the most obvious costs of high turnover. They include resources spent on job posting services and advertisement, applicant screening, interviews, and background checks.
• Onboarding costs are similar to offboarding ones, as they encompass the administrative resources needed to set new employees up. This includes the prep and shipping of a new hire’s computer, and all the IT and HR support they’ll need in their first few weeks.
• Training costs include the time senior employees spend teaching new hires the ropes, as well as resources associated with putting the trainings together. These are especially costly for technical positions where training timelines are longer and more rigorous.
• Benefit costs can also rack up when turnover is on a hike. If your company offers employees competitive perks like tech and furniture budgets, for example, you can expect to spend more when an employee leaves.

Soft costs of employee turnover

• Opportunity cost of employees’ time. Every cost mentioned above has the common denominator of time. Looking at the hard cost is simple. You take the hourly wage of the people involved in setting new hires up, and multiply that by the hours spent doing so. The soft cost is a bit harder to measure. It looks at the cost of what employees could be working on instead and the value you’re missing out on.
• Lower employee morale.When a team member leaves, team dynamics are likely to shift and can make remaining employees feel uneasy and unmotivated.
• Added stress. Hiring, onboarding, and training a new employee is a lengthy process. And to make sure productivity doesn’t dwindle too much, the rest of your team often takes on larger (usually unsustainable) workloads to compensate.
• Lost productivity. An employee’s value appreciates with time. The longer they stay with your organization, the more autonomous and productive they are. It takes time, sometimes years, for new employees to make up for this lost productivity.
• Lost knowledge. Similar to the point above, the longer a person works at your company, the more they know about your products, brand, processes, and more. And while some of this knowledge can be documented, it’s hard to replicate years of experience-based learnings.
• Weakened employer brand. Losing employees — especially losing a lot of employees over a short amount of time — can be jarring for the rest of your team and can also deter potential new recruits. That’s because turnover is a great indicator of what it’s like to work at your company. The larger the number, the bigger the hit on your employer brand.
• Decreased quality of work. It’s only normal for people to make mistakes, especially when they’re new on the job. And while a certain degree of error is accepted, quality control can become a bigger issue when employees are continuously replaced.
• Lower customer satisfaction. When quality fumbles, those who usually pay the price are your customers. It’s also more difficult to nurture positive client relationships when your team is constantly changing.

While the exact cost of employee turnover is based on many factors, like those mentioned above, research by the SHRM estimates that each departure costs about a third of that employee’s annual salary. Of this cost, it’s estimated that 33% covers hard or direct costs, while the remaining 67% accounts for soft or indirect costs.

Some experts, like Edie Golberg, founder of Californian talent management company E.L. Goldberg & Associates and SHRM Chair, believe the cost of replacement can be as much as four times the departing employee’s salary.

Whether your personal cost of employee turnover is 30 or 300%, or anything in between, it’s not negligible and can really hurt your business’s success. But do not fret. We’re here to help you figure out where you stand and how you can drive your company forward by prioritizing its people first.

How to calculate and understand your employee turnover rate

Before putting a strategy into play, it’s important to learn how to calculate employee turnover and understand your turnover rate. Once you have that down, you can lay out the steps needed to improve your retention rate.

How to calculate your employee turnover rate

It's actually quite simple, so get your calculators out and follow these four steps:

Step 1: Add the number of employees at the start of the year with the number of employees at the end of the year. For example: 20 employees at the start of the year + 18 employees at the end of the year = 38 employees.

Step 2: Divide the total you got from step one in half (by 2). For example: 38 total employees ÷ 2 = 19 employees.

Step 3: Divide the number of employees who left during the year by the outcome of the first equation. For example: 2 employees left during the year ÷ 19 employees = 0.105

Step 4: Multiply this final number by 100 to get your employee turnover rate. For example: 0.105 × 100 = 10.5% turnover rate.

Voluntary turnover in particular speaks volumes about employee satisfaction and employee engagement. When employees quit by choice, it’s often because there hasn’t been enough prevention. A recent Gallup analysis revealed that 52% of voluntarily exiting employees say their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job.

Let’s take a look at the retention strategies that are most effective in helping to reduce turnover.

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How to reduce employee turnover: 15 Proven retention strategies

In order to put together a solid employee retention strategy, we first have to understand the main reasons why employees decide to leave their company. While there are many possible reasons to quit and find employment elsewhere, these are some of the most common ones:

• Lack of career advancement opportunities
• Not enough flexibility or work-life balance
• Lack of feedback and recognition
• Poor management (or a bad manager, in particular)
• Feeling disrespected at work
• Toxic company culture
• Low salary (and finding higher pay elsewhere)
• Not allowing remote work
• Burnout

Luckily, there are several ways to address these reasons and improve employee engagement and retention, ultimately reducing employee turnover. This is part of good human resource management.

1. Hone in on employee engagement

Employee engagement is a key ingredient for happy and committed employees, leading to better retention rates. When employees feel engaged, they are connected to their work, motivated, and dedicated to their role.

Several factors drive engagement, including:

• Meaningful work: Employees thrive when they find purpose in their work and see how it makes a difference. When their tasks align with their values, they feel fulfilled.
• Clear goals: Setting clear and achievable goals helps employees know what they should focus on. When they understand their objectives and how they contribute to the organization, they feel a sense of direction.
• Clear roles and responsibilities: Employees need clarity about their roles to perform well. Knowing their specific responsibilities and how they fit into the bigger picture gives them a sense of ownership.

There are several strategies you can implement to drive engagement up, like fostering a positive work culture, providing growth opportunities, encouraging work-life balance, engaging in feedback loops, or establishing a strong recognition program.

Try our employee engagement strategies designed to help employees feel valued, motivated, and committed.

2. Make people feel valued

There’s tremendous value in recognizing great work. Every employee deserves to feel appreciated and acknowledged for their efforts and contributions to the organization, so regular recognition should always be part of the plan, and even made a priority. When employees feel valued, they also feel more engaged, motivated, and more likely to perform.

Recognition at work benefits everyone — both the employee and the company. In fact, SHRM survey findings show that 68% of HR professionals believe recognition programs positively impact retention, and 56% say it also facilitates recruitment.

Make every person feel appreciated in your organization with these 5 steps to create a culture of recognition at work.

3. Create a feedback loop

Much like employee recognition, a continuous feedback loop is another powerful tool in keeping employees, well, in the loop. We’re talking collecting opinions, suggestions, and comments from employees on a regular basis. Tap into their insights, get people on the same page, and most importantly, enhance engagement.

Two-way communication is king, and feedback is important on both sides. Giving and receiving feedback helps keep the momentum going, gets everyone involved, and acknowledges the value that everyone brings to the table. It can also help build team spirit. When team members continuously give each other feedback, it gives everyone the opportunity to learn and improve.

Creating a feedback loop can feel like a real head-scratcher if you don’t know where to start. Luckily, these 10 tips can make giving and receiving feedback an effortless part of your company culture.

Officevibe research shows that a fifth of employees do not feel that the feedback they receive helps them grow in their role, so there’s definitely room for improvement. Remember that engagement and employee development help reduce turnover — which leads to our next point.

4. Keep professional development top-of-mind

In order to not feel stuck or stagnated in a role, employees need to have the opportunity to grow. Career development helps them build and work towards professional goals, but getting there isn’t a solo mission. It’s up to the organization to create opportunities to learn and develop new skills, and mentorship can have a real positive impact.

1 in 4 employees feel they do not have the opportunity to grow within their organization.

Officevibe Pulse Survey data

Having a workplace mentor can help give employees a more solid direction in which to go. Employee development can strengthen engagement, which has a direct impact on employee retention, helping to reduce employee turnover.

Need to check in with your employees on professional development? Use our template to start a conversation about career development in your next one-on-one meeting.

5. Prioritize work-life balance and well-being

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential in today's professional world. It recognizes the significance of mental and physical well-being, benefiting both employees and organizations. Imbalances and high stress levels can lead to disengagement, absenteeism, and even resignations, whereas employees with a positive work-life balance are happier and 12% more productive.

Promoting well-being and work-life balance through various initiatives, such as flexible work arrangements, limits on job-related communication, and family-friendly programs, allows employees to balance personal commitments with work responsibilities. You can also implement wellness programs that focus on physical and mental well-being, including fitness challenges, mindfulness sessions, and health seminars.

Offering employee assistance programs provides confidential counseling services and resources for personal and work-related challenges. It's also important to ensure sufficient time-off policies for employees to rest and address personal matters, considering additional paid leave or extended weekends. Lastly, providing stress management support through workshops or training sessions will equip employees with effective coping techniques and empower them.

Prioritizing work-life balance and employee well-being reduces turnover, enhances productivity, and fosters engagement. A healthy and happy workforce contributes to organizational success!

Assess your team's levels of stress, workloads, and work-life balance through an employee wellness survey to identify underlying issues and provide appropriate support.

6. Build your employer brand and attract top talent

Your employer brand is a key factor in attracting and retaining top talent. It reflects your organization's values, culture, and reputation, making it appealing to job seekers.

To build a positive employer brand, you must define your employer value proposition and clearly communicate what sets your organization apart as an employer, like benefits and career development opportunities. Enhancing your recruitment practices to create a seamless and positive candidate experience will also set a good first impression. You can also leverage employee referral programs to encourage your employees to refer qualified candidates. They can serve as powerful brand ambassadors, attracting like-minded individuals and contributing to a strong company culture.

Also, you can't underestimate your online presence, so ensure your website is optimized and leverage social media channels to reflect your employer brand. Fostering employee advocacy by encouraging employees to share positive experiences on professional platforms, like LinkedIn or through online reviews, will amplify your brand's reputation and credibility, too.

By investing in your employer brand, you create a magnetic pull for talent and establish a competitive edge in the job market. It's a strategic approach that pays off in attracting and retaining the best talent for your organization.

7. Nail the onboarding process

While it may not be the first strategy that comes to mind, companies should really think about retention from the start. That includes creating a lasting first impression with a great onboarding process.

Why is this so important? The onboarding process gives employees a glimpse into the company culture and shapes their perception of their new workplace. A good first impression impacts their desire to stay, while a negative impression can lead to turnover even sooner.

Tools like Softstart can help companies structure, automate, and measure the onboarding process. It helps new employees understand the company, get a taste of the culture, train for their new role, find documents, install their tools, meet their teammates, and so much more, creating a stellar onboarding that engages new hires from day one.

8. Support and engage your remote employees

In the era of remote work, it's crucial to prioritize the needs of your remote employees to ensure their satisfaction, productivity, and retention.

To effectively support these employees, foster remote engagement through regular virtual one-on-ones and team-building activities. Enhance communication channels and promote collaboration by providing tools that facilitate efficient remote teamwork and knowledge sharing, such as instant messaging platforms and project management software. Cultivate relationship building through virtual coffee chats and informal meetings to foster personal connections within the remote team.

Regularly seeking feedback through surveys can provide valuable insights on how to cater to the unique needs of remote workers and create an inclusive environment. Find 30 remote work survey questions specially designed for that.

9. Compensate your team with fair pay and benefits

It’s no surprise that a higher annual salary (or better pay for hourly employees), benefits, time off, and other forms of compensation are motivating factors to stay at a company.

In a competitive labor market, keeping up with the market rate and compensating employees fairly is especially important. If you don’t pay your employees well, they’ll find a company that will. The research confirms this: salary is still the top reason why people consider changing jobs. But while an employee’s salary is enough to make them leave, salary alone won’t make them stay. It’s crucial to complement fair compensation with other positive factors in the employee experience.

10. Conduct stay interviews regularly

There’s something to be said for staying a step ahead. Remaining proactive at all times is a great way to prevent employee turnover. We all know that when employees leave, you conduct exit interviews to better understand the reasons behind their departure. But rather than waiting until it gets to that point, having stay interviews with current employees is a great way to better understand what’s actually keeping them at your company.

When building your retention strategies, the insights and knowledge you gather from stay interviews can really help you tap into your employees’ needs.

Not sure where to start? Here are 6 stay interview questions that are sure to give you the insights you need to have your employees stick around for the long haul.

11. Learn from departing employees with exit interviews

By leveraging exit interviews, organizations can learn from departing employees and improve their retention efforts.

These interviews enable candid feedback, allowing exiting employees to openly share their thoughts and reasons for leaving, providing valuable insights into potential issues and areas of improvement within the organization. Capturing departing employees' feedback also helps retain institutional knowledge and expertise for process improvement and information sharing.

Exit interviews enable organizations to learn, make informed decisions, and create a more supportive and engaging work environment to retain the current (and next generation) of top talent. They show you care about your employees' experiences throughout their journey at the company and demonstrate your commitment to continuous improvement.

12. Pay close attention to your company culture

Creating and maintaining a positive company culture not only helps you retain current employees, but it also plays a big role in attracting new ones.

Employees are more likely to enjoy their jobs and stay long-term if their environment is pleasant and constructive. And while workplace culture can’t be created, per se, a great culture can be fostered with the right care and mindset. Involving your team in the process is always a good idea, since they’re the ones that contribute to the vibes day-in-day-out. Encourage team bonding (even if it’s simply eating lunch together), try new engagement activities, and celebrate people’s milestones and achievements.

We’ve said it before: employee turnover lowers morale. So creating a workplace culture that promotes healthy relationships, great collaboration, and a little bit of fun can have a significant impact on business outcomes.

The distributed work reality has shifted what workplace culture means. Check out our VIBE magazine to learn more about human-generated culture in the world of remote-first work.

13. Embrace diversity and foster inclusion

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is not only the right thing to do, but it also leads to numerous benefits including higher employee satisfaction, increased innovation, and reduced turnover.

To promote diversity and inclusion, organizations can establish inclusive policies that ensure equal opportunities and respect for all employees, regardless of their background. Embracing diverse hiring practices by actively seeking candidates from various backgrounds and experiences can further enhance inclusivity.

Additionally, providing diversity training programs helps educate employees and leaders on unconscious biases, cultural competence, and the significance of inclusivity. Engaging in diversity and inclusion activities, like encouraging open communication within the organization and breaking down stereotypes, also fosters an environment where employees feel safe to share their unique perspectives and experiences.

Nurturing diversity and fostering an inclusive culture creates a workplace where all employees feel valued, respected, and motivated to contribute their best.

Surveys help assess how your workforce is feeling and offer an opportunity for your organization to improve its DEIB practices. Start with 21 diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging survey questions.

14. Ensure strong leadership and management

Strong leadership and effective management can guide and inspire your team, drive productivity, and create a positive work environment. But what are the key management skills good leaders possess?

First, they communicate clearly and openly, and listen attentively, establishing trust and engagement. They demonstrate empathy, provide support, and understand their employees' needs. These leaders prioritize coaching and development, offering feedback and growth opportunities. They lead by example by exhibiting integrity, accountability, and a strong work ethic, so they can inspire their team and set a positive tone for the entire organization.

Investing in leadership skill development and providing ongoing support for managers will not only benefit the leaders themselves, but also contribute to higher employee satisfaction and retention.

A refresh is always a good thing and brushing up on management skills can ensure you're up to speed with today's best practices. Check out our management skills guide that compiles up-to-date practical and human skills.

15. Listen to your employees through satisfaction surveys

Regularly conducting employee satisfaction surveys is a powerful tool for understanding your workforce, addressing concerns, boosting engagement, and reducing turnover. By asking the right questions, these surveys provide valuable insights into specific pain points, such as workload, communication gaps, or lack of recognition.

By prioritizing areas for improvement and developing targeted strategies based on survey results, you show that you value your employees' feelings and opinions and are committed to creating a positive work environment. Regular pulse surveys also allow you to measure progress over time and evaluate the impact of your initiatives.

Remember to ensure confidentiality, simplicity, and actionable follow-up steps to demonstrate that employee feedback matters and promote higher satisfaction and retention levels.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, use our 10-question employee satisfaction survey template. You can modify or add to tailor it to your company's reality.

Succeed at employee retention

We now know that the cost of both involuntary and voluntary employee turnover is significant, so preventing it by implementing these proven retention strategies is key. Once you put them into play, you can observe their impact by regularly measuring employee retention rates. In essence, the steps to follow are to establish your benchmark, make the strategic changes, and track the results.

Retention strategies are a part of good human resource management. While implementing your employee retention strategies be sure to make good use of employee engagement solutions like Officevibe that can help you boost engagement, offer meaningful recognition, and encourage sharing valuable feedback.

Here’s to creating a successful employee retention strategy!

When it comes to employee performance, effective performance management is truly the glue that holds it all together. Some might even say that employee performance management is the backbone of achieving organizational success. With the right strategies in place, organizations can boost employee performance, see greater productivity, and foster growth — and it all stems from good ol' communication.

When employees have regular check-ins, performance evaluations, and get meaningful feedback, they have a clearer understanding of their strengths and areas for improvement. With the right tools in hand and great support at their disposal, they can focus on building their skills, getting aligned, and contributing to achieving organizational goals. And that's a powerful thing.

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What is employee performance management?

By definition, performance management is a process by which an employer involves its employees in improving organizational effectiveness. As we touched on, it's achieved through continuous communication and feedback between managers and employees to ensure that employees are staying motivated and have everything they need to perform at their very best.

Employee performance management is a great way to keep employees engaged and aligned. It also enables managers to address and help remedy any issues that might affect employee performance. Only positive outcomes can come from it, so let's take a look at the how and why.

The trick here is to keep performance management continuous. When you have constant momentum, you make room for ongoing progress and improvement.

The benefits of performance management for employees and companies

When we say that only good things can come of solid a employee performance management process, we're talking major benefits like:

• Better goal alignment
• Improved engagement and satisfaction
• Increased productivity
• Reduced employee turnover
• A positive environment where everyone can excel

When you create a company culture of continuous improvement and offer ongoing development opportunities, you're cultivating a space that's designed to thrive. From stronger employee-manager relationships and less micromanagement to greater autonomy and accountability for all, the benefits of performance management are plentiful.

Putting the performance management process into play

Putting great employee performance management systems into play doesn't need to be complicated. In fact, a performance management cycle is a continuous six-step process that optimizes employee performance and growth:

Planning

Step one of the performance management process is planning. This is when you establish clear goals and expectations for your employees' performance. By setting objectives that align with your organization's vision and strategy, your team gains a solid sense of purpose and direction.

Monitoring

Based on the objectives that you created in step one, you'll then want to monitor performance. This is essential to ensuring that progress is being made toward these goals. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions allow managers to see what's working well and what isn't so that they can then provide guidance, support, and even recognition.

Developing

It's important to nurture growth and support potential. That's why this step in the performance management cycle focuses on fostering continuous growth and development. Offer learning and development opportunities, coaching, and mentoring to your employees so that they can continue to improve. And don't forget to keep up the regular feedback, goal-setting, and skill development along the way.

Rating

It's important to monitor performance in an objective way. This kind of performance assessment provides a structured framework for rating and measuring individual and team achievements so that you can then identify strengths and areas for improvement. Use rating scales, peer reviews, and self-assessments to get a 360-degree view of an employee's performance. The insights you can gain from this step help support the decision-making processes for the entire organization.

Rewarding

We can't stress enough how much employee recognition means to individuals and the organization as a whole. When people work hard to reach their goals, it always deserves recognition. Recognizing goal achievement and rewarding exceptional performance is a pivotal part of the performance management process, so remember to give credit for individual and team achievements and efforts to reinforce positive actions and motivate ongoing success.

Renewing

Last, but certainly not least in the performance management cycle is renewing. This final step of the performance management process involves assessing the outcomes and learnings from the previous cycle. Gather feedback, analyze the results, then implement effective changes so that you can adapt to the ever-evolving needs of your organization.

What's key in this entire process is to remember that there is always room for improvement, and that's a good thing! That's where growth and progress come from. Before you begin creating your own performance management strategy, let's get you equipped with some best practices.

Want a handy hack? Officevibe's performance management platform provides simple and intuitive tools to help you streamline this entire process, from one-on-one meetings and goals and OKRs to performance reviews and continuous performance management features.

Best practices for employee performance management

Just like any other area of business, there are effective best practices for performance management. We're here to help you navigate and understand them so that you can help your team level up and your organization thrive.

1. Set and communicate clear expectations and goals

Just like in sports, without a goalpost in sight, we have nothing to aim for. That's why setting clear and specific performance expectations for each employee is key. Having goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs) in place gives employees a clear understanding of what to aim for, what's expected of them, and how to shoot to score.

This makes each employee accountable, gives everyone something concrete to work towards, and even unites your team around a shared objective. There's power in numbers, so this kind of alignment paves the way for success.

Check out our practical goal-setting guide that's designed to help you take your team to new heights together.

2. Perform continuous feedback

Did we mention that communication is key? Giving regular, constructive feedback is one of the most essential best practices that should always be consistently implemented, no matter what. It's a powerful tool in helping employees know how they're performing, understand what's expected of them, identify their strengths, and take note of areas for improvement.

Constructive feedback takes the right method, the right tone, and the right timing. Be helpful and empathetic rather than critical, make feedback continuous rather than a sporadic one-off, and be ready to listen actively in return.

Take the guesswork out of mastering feedback with our 22 constructive feedback examples.

3. Implement multiple communication channels

By now, you're probably noticing a theme here. We've said it (more than) once, and we'll say it again (and again), that regular communication channels are essential in providing feedback and discussing performance. We're talking scheduled one-on-one meetings, frequent performance reviews, and informal check-ins sprinkled in the mix to provide guidance and address any concerns that may pop up.

Regular and real-time feedback shows employees that their managers are invested in them and want to help them succeed. What you get in return is more engaged, loyal employees. So keep that communication flowing!

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4. Conduct regular performance reviews

For employees to progress, they need a clear path for navigation. And that's where regular performance reviews come in handy. Regular performance reviews can help managers assess employee progress, provide valuable feedback, and set new goals moving forward.

Remember that a performance review should always be objective, fair, and based on measurable criteria. The best way to do this right is to use a performance review platform to gather insights because, at the end of the day, data reigns supreme.

And managers need not go at it alone! Our guide on mastering employee performance reviews is here to help.

5. Recognize good performance

Once the goals have been set, the momentum is happening, the regular feedback is given, and your employees are performing, it's absolutely time to recognize them for their achievements. Recognizing and rewarding high-performing employees is essential. They're the ones showing up every day, keeping the wheels turning, and going above and beyond to help your organization succeed.

The beauty of employee recognition is that there are so many ways to give it. From loud and proud public recognition to kind words from peer to peer to offering career advancement opportunities, it's always a good idea to give someone their shine, and there are many ways to improve how it's given in the workplace.

Need the inspiration to find the right words? Browse through our examples of employee recognition messages and make them your own.

6. Create performance improvement plans

Fail to plan, and plan to fail, they say. The same goes for performance management. Performance improvement plans pave the way for success, so implementing them is a must if you want to keep high performers rolling, and to help under-performers step up.

That's where a performance improvement plan (PIP) comes in. They can help you track and guide work performance, identify areas where employees need to correct the course and offer solutions to improve and get back on the road to success. For every problem, there's a solution and it usually comes in the form of clear expectations and support to help employees achieve improvement goals.

7. Provide learning and development opportunities

Never stop learning. It's life advice, and it's sound performance management advice too. Providing employees with opportunities for learning, development, and career growth open the doors to enhancing their skills, expanding their knowledge, and putting them on the path to even greater success.

Offer training programs and workshops, provide mentoring, and always encourage growth. It helps employees flourish, feel valued, and stay motivated. It also gives them an even greater sense of purpose within your organization, which is essential for employee retention.

Did you know? Our learning management system is designed to build, manage, and monitor employee training to help both your employees and the organization grow. It's worth trying!

8. Support career development

Expanding on our last best practice, supporting each employee's career ambitions is a key factor in helping to improve their performance, stay motivated, and even grow within the company. Tapping into this growth starts with a conversation designed to help guide them toward their career goals and aspirations.

The best way to have this kind of one-on-one conversation is to come prepared, so we've put together a handy guide to help you craft an effective career development talk.

9. Train managers to be coaches

Just like a coach leads a sports team, a manager should be able to provide the same kind of motivational guidance to their own team of employees. Coaching and mentoring are powerful tools for improving employee performance and facilitating professional development, but we can't expect all managers to be automatically equipped and able to lead in the same way. It's important to understand that everyone has a different leadership style, and it's a learning process for everyone.

What we do know is that a coaching style is an effective one. It's one that prioritizes empowering employees, giving them a sense of accountability and ownership, and pushing them toward embracing opportunities. Coaches encourage employees to grow, and this kind of leader helps build a loyal, productive, and focused team.

10. Use performance management technology

Now that we've touched on all of the human elements of employee performance management, we can't forget the technology side. Employee performance management tools like Officevibe can help you streamline your performance management systems, facilitate goal tracking, manage your feedback loop, and analyze performance management data.

Don't underestimate the value employee performance management software brings to the table. Get ready, set goals, and prepare to soar!

Reach new heights with outstanding performance management

By now, we've gathered that effective employee performance management capabilities and great communication go hand in hand. We've learned that goal-setting, constructive feedback, frequent employee recognition, and ample opportunities all contribute to the success of your organization, and it all starts with getting prepared.

When done right, continuous employee performance management is a powerful thing. When you have continuous feedback and regular check-ins, it really helps to keep everyone aligned and powering ahead toward employee growth and organizational success. So keep that performance management momentum going!

Employee retention is a crucial part of organizational success. Most employers know this, yet a surprising amount don't measure it often enough (and some may not even know how to). If you want to create an engaged workforce that sticks around, calculating and tracking your employee retention rate over time is a big part of the equation.

Think of your credit score. Not knowing it means you can't improve your financial habits — and neglecting it can impact major life events like buying a house. Thankfully, with proper assessment and guidance, you can rebuild it. Similarly, measuring your retention rate consistently informs you of your progress, areas for improvement, and the effectiveness of your retention strategies.

In today's dynamic job market, retaining top talent is crucial for businesses to stay ahead of the competition. That's why we're here to guide you on how to calculate employee retention rate. In the long-run, investing a little time in crunching the numbers is well worth it.

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What is the employee retention rate and why should you track it?

The employee retention rate is a way to measure how successful your company is at keeping a stable workforce. It's a percentage of the number of employees who stayed with your organization during a certain period of time.

Employee retention rate is a KPI for workforce stability

Why is it so important to calculate this rate? It's a key performance indicator (KPI) to measure the effectiveness of your HR strategies.

1. Qualitative retention measurement: Provides a measurable benchmark for assessing the effectiveness of employee retention strategies.
2. Data-driven decisions: Identify areas of improvement, implement targeted actions to optimize workforce stability and reduce turnover.
3. Part of employee engagement: Understanding retention rate is a part of boosting your employee engagement, and overall job satisfaction.
4. Insights on impact: Better understand the impact of various programs, policies and interventions on employee loyalty and commitment.

In short, you can never go wrong with measuring your retention rate. It's an important tool for employers to evaluate the health of their workforce and make informed decisions to improve their retention and recruitment strategies.

Methods for your employee retention rate calculation

Methods for calculating your employee retention rate are crucial for understanding your organization's ability to retain employees. Choosing the right time period, applying the same calculation formula consistently and considering the types of turnover will allow for more accurate insights.

Choosing a time period

When calculating employee retention rates, choosing the appropriate time period is essential. While many organizations prefer yearly or quarterly calculations, these intervals may not capture the nuances of retention strategies.

• Shorter periods, like monthly or quarterly, offer detailed insights for identifying trends and making timely adjustments.
• On the other hand, longer periods, such as annually or bi-annually, provide a broader perspective to assess long-term retention initiatives.

It's important to strike a balance between frequency and practicality based on your industry's turnover rates and dynamics. This will enable you to gather meaningful data and improve retention in your specific business context.

Retention rate calculation formula

As long as you use the same formula consistently when calculating employee retention rate, you should be able to track changes and effectively determine how various retention strategies work.

A good starting formula for employee retention rate is:

Total number of employees at the end of a given time period ÷ total number of employees at the start of the time period x 100

For instance, let’s say your company decides to calculate your retention rate monthly. At the start of the month, you have 200 employees, and at the end of the month, you're down to 188. Plugging the numbers into the employee retention rate calculator, you'll get:

188 ÷ 200 x 100 = 94%

By expressing the retention rate as a percentage, you can easily compare it and interpret the data.

Consideration: Adjust for involuntary turnover and new hires

While this formula is a great starting point when comparing retention rates across months, it doesn't clarify who left and why. It's important to distinguish between different types of employee turnover — voluntary and involuntary — as both tell a very different story.

Voluntary turnover occurs when employees choose to leave the company, while involuntary turnover happens when employees are terminated or dismissed. To get a clearer picture of your voluntary retention efforts, it's recommended to exclude involuntary turnover and new hires from your retention rate calculation. This way, you can focus on assessing how well you're retaining employees who actively choose to stay with your organization.

By making these adjustments, you'll gain more accurate insights into employee satisfaction and the effectiveness of your retention strategies.

What is a good employee retention rate?

A good retention rate, just like a good employee turnover rate, depends largely on your industry.

For instance, hospitality is notorious for having an extremely high turnover rate of 62%, with average employees only remaining on the job for 110 days, according to 7Shifts. In contrast, healthcare has an average turnover rate of 25.9%.

In general, most businesses aim to have a retention rate between 90% and 95% for a given period. This means your top employees are willing to stay and your ability to retain talent is high.

However, while high retention rates indicate a healthy work environment, you should allow for a little bit of leeway.

All organizations benefit from the flow of employees. This allows the company to hire external talent while making space for dedicated employees to move vertically through the organization.

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Understanding and improving employee retention rate

Businesses that regularly measure employee retention tend to have a better understanding of their workforce stability. They're also more likely to be nipping retention problems in the bud before they seriously affect their retention rate. Naturally, businesses that know their retention rate and continuously work towards improving it have better chances of retaining their employees long-term.

Analyzing and understanding your retention data

When you dive into your retention data, amazing insights await. Analyzing and understanding this data is a game-changer for organizations, empowering them to make data-driven decisions and develop targeted retention strategies.

By analyzing your retention data, you can uncover trends and patterns that highlight areas for improvement. Maybe certain departments or job roles experience higher turnover rates? With this knowledge, you can focus your efforts on addressing the underlying factors and taking proactive steps to enhance retention.

To make the most of your data, HR professionals can employ statistical analysis, trend analysis, and data visualization tools. These tools provide valuable insights, helping you understand the factors that contribute to retention or turnover. Armed with this information, you can have meaningful, data-driven discussions that lead to impactful solutions.

How to improve employee retention rate

If your organization already has a high retention rate, you can pat yourself on the back for your success at maintaining high employee morale and ensuring productive employees remain in the workplace.

However, most companies' retention rates have room for improvement. It's worth implementing employee retention strategies to encourage employees to stay while improving engagement and productivity.

📊 Learn about the latest labor market trends and employee engagement statistics, and how they can help you build retention strategies for a modern workforce.

Step 1: See where you stand and how you compare to your industry average

If you're consistently losing employees to other employers, or you struggle to attract new employees from other companies, knowing how to make employees stay will become an invaluable part of your HR strategy. It's worth comparing your retention rate to your competitors, especially if it's not something you usually do.

It's important to refer to trusted sources when comparing your company's performance to the industry standard or to your direct competitors. Retention rate benchmarks are sometimes difficult to find, so you can lean on your employee turnover rate to paint a better picture if needed.

Do you have your employee turnover rate on hand? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released their 2023 list of turnover rates per industry.

While where you stand in the industry is important, the main purpose of regularly calculating your employee retention rate is to discover how your retention strategies impact new and current employees. Once you've established procedures for regular retention rate evaluations for a given time period, you'll be able to compare your current vs. previous performance, which is often a much more valuable metric comparison.

Step 2: Gather feedback on employee retention

As more employees expect higher standards from their workplace, it's up to managers and senior executives to discover how to keep employees satisfied and motivated. If you've implemented ways to get employee feedback, gathering this information should be relatively easy.

Employee surveys are a great way to get feedback from a large number of employees at once. Officevibe's Pulse Surveys are short weekly or bi-weekly surveys you can send to understand why your retention rate is suffering. These surveys are a valuable asset in determining whether employees are satisfied overall.

Psst: You can also send a survey to specifically address retention. Use these 20 employee retention survey questions to understand why employees choose to stay at your organization and how their employee experience can be improved.

Step 3: Build a retention strategy (based on collected feedback)

Getting feedback from a large number of employees can be exceptionally useful, but it's only the first step in building a successful retention strategy.

Your strategy needs to take in every aspect of the employee experience, from their very first encounter until the day they leave your organization.

Create a great onboarding process

According to the Harvard Business Review, an effective onboarding process is essential to reducing turnover and boosting retention. Onboarding allows the company to put its best foot forward in welcoming new employees and building solid working relationships from the start.

Creating a great onboarding process requires understanding what employees expect and delivering a warm, human experience.

Ensure company-wide and team alignment

Understanding what success means at all levels is crucial to ensuring engagement and ultimately retention. Aligning on company, team, and individual goals gives employees a stronger sense of purpose because they can tie their objectives directly to the company's. When employees know what's expected of them, they'll also have better clarity on their role and responsibilities.

Check out our Vibe Check episode about day-to-day alignment and how it can affect employee turnover.

Give meaningful recognition

Employees want to feel that their work has meaning, and a large part of that is receiving appreciation and recognition. However, if improperly handled, insincere recognition can backfire. It's vital to have a solid strategy in place to improve employee recognition, both for teams and individuals.

Focus on professional development

While it's not always possible to offer every employee the vertical mobility they crave, horizontal moves and a focus on career development can often be enough to entice employees to stay in a company. Having regular, honest career talks is key to maintaining a high average headcount of motivated and inspired employees.

Offer fair pay

Offering fair and adequate pay also helps improve your employee retention rate. Not only does this help people feel valued, but it also makes it less likely that they'll leave for another company, which is often significantly more expensive for the organization than offering a pay raise.

Step 4: Recalculate your retention rate and keep tracking it over time

Once you start implementing various retention tactics, evaluate your rate over a monthly or quarterly time period to measure their success. Remember that some strategies, such as raises and meaningful recognition, may produce results rapidly, while others may take more time.

Step 5: Adapt and iterate your retention strategy

Workplace culture and employee perceptions evolve continuously, so it's important that your retention strategy changes accordingly. Regular measurements and feedback from employees can help you adapt to these changes before they take a toll on your retention rate. Even small tweaks may be sufficient to keep your rate at optimal levels for your organizational needs and enable your company to reap the advantages of an engaged, dedicated workforce.

There are numerous benefits of employee retention for businesses, including:

• Reduced costs: Many studies show that losing employees is costly. Not only does it cost your business money to find, hire, and train a new employee, but it also results in lost productivity and decreased employee morale. When retention is high, you can avoid both the hard and soft costs of turnover.
• Improved employee productivity: The longer a person works at a company, the more productive they become. Long-term employees understand the company's processes and have the experience and know-how needed to do their job well. What's more, replacing employees requires time and effort from other team members. Having to teach new hires the ropes makes the team as a whole less productive.
• Boosted employee engagement: An employee who is enthusiastic about their work will be more likely to put in extra effort, and less likely to make mistakes. Improving retention also impacts engagement because it leads to a healthier workplace culture, better sense of community, and more positive morale in general.
• Facilitated recruitment: A high retention rate is a KPI people leaders and recruiters should shout from the rooftops. It tells candidates and top talent that your organization is a great place to work by showing first-hand that employees actively look to stay there.

Step 6: Perform continuous monitoring and adjustment

To maintain a thriving workforce, continuous monitoring of the retention rate is key. It allows you to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and stay on top of any changes or trends.

HR professionals should regularly analyze how the retention rate aligns with the implemented strategies. This analysis helps determine their impact and guides necessary adjustments to keep improving.

Adaptation and refinement of retention strategies based on data analysis and employee feedback are crucial. This ensures that your strategies are always in line with organizational goals and meet the needs of your employees.

Creating a culture of continuous improvement fosters an environment where retention strategies are consistently evaluated, enhanced, and optimized for better outcomes.

Remember, employee engagement plays a pivotal role in retention. It's essential for HR professionals to prioritize creating a culture that nurtures engagement, as it directly influences overall retention rates.

By continuously monitoring, adapting, and engaging your employees, you can proactively approach retention, boosting the likelihood of long-term commitment and satisfaction among your valuable team members.

Boost your employee retention rates and enjoy the benefits of an engaged workforce

High employee retention rates indicate a satisfied workforce, and regularly measuring them can help you catch potential issues before they escalate. That's because calculating and tracking your employee retention rate helps you evaluate your strategies, spot areas for improvement, and make informed decisions. It's a simple key to unlock success at your company.

Remembering these three takeaways will help you make the most of your employee retention rate calculations so you can reap all the benefits:

1. Consistent measurement of the employee turnover rate provides insights into workforce stability, boosts employee engagement, and enhances job satisfaction.
2. Analyzing retention data and adapting strategies fosters a proactive retention approach.
3. Continuous monitoring, adjustment, and employee engagement lead to long-term commitment and satisfaction.

Keep your employees happy and reap the rewards of an engaged workforce! We have compiled effective strategies to help you be successful in retaining employees for the long term.

We encourage introverts to act like extroverts instead of acting like their best selves.

Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking

There's a huge misconception in the business world that you need to be loud, powerful, assertive, sticking your chest out, and grinding to get what you want.

But in fact, quiet employees often are more successful and are considered better leaders.

Why is that?

What are the key characteristics of an introverted employee?

While everyone has their own unique personality traits, there are some key characteristics that more introverted employees share. Introverts tend to work well independently and prefer to do so in a quieter, less stimulating environment that's free from excessive distractions.

Those with introverted personalities may also think and reflect more than others before speaking, and could even feel drained after too much social interaction. Not everyone has the same social battery, and for more introverted people, it definitely takes a little more out of them.

How do the management strategies for introverts differ from those for extroverts?

When it comes to managing introverts in an effective way, it's important to understand what resonates with them, compared to more extroverted employees. As we touched on before, introverts thrive in quieter work environments and tend to feel more comfortable with one-on-one communication rather than in a group setting.

Sometimes, they may take a little longer to process information and respond accordingly and can be more pensive and less reactive in their communication style. These are all things to keep in mind when it comes to managing introverts and developing a management strategy that is inclusive of every team member, their communication style, and their personality types.

What are some common misconceptions about introverted employees?

Nobody wants to judge a book by its cover, but we can't deny that it still happens. When someone is more introverted, we can easily succumb to making judgments about why they seem so quiet. This quiet nature can sometimes be misconstrued as being disengaged, or even uninterested when in reality, they're simply not as forwardly outgoing as others.

This more introverted nature can also lead to employees not being considered leadership material, or perceived as not enjoying or valuing teamwork when in most instances this isn't the case at all. These kinds of misconceptions show us how important it is to learn about each individual, how they work best, communicate best, and what they can bring to the table.

What are some common challenges faced by introverted employees in the workplace?

A loud, bustling workplace environment can be daunting for introverted team members who prefer the solace of a quiet space over the overstimulation of a noisy environment. Their quiet demeanors in these kinds of settings can be misunderstood, and it can sometimes be challenging for them to feel like they fit in amongst their more extroverted colleagues. And as we touched on, their more introverted manners can even lead to them being potentially overlooked for leadership roles that they are actually just as capable of stepping into.

With these misconceptions in mind, let's look at some of the positive attributes our introverted colleagues bring to the workplace:

Introverts are better listeners

Introverts are naturally better listeners, which is great when you're leading a team. Some extroverted leaders, on the other hand, may have the tendency to monopolize conversations without realizing it, leaving little room for their team members to speak. They're generally better with the command-and-control type of management, whereas introverts can be more inclusive.

Introverts are more humble

The best leaders practice what's known as “servant leadership”, which is essentially when you put your employees first and are acting to serve them.

The traits associated with servant leadership, like humility, are found more commonly in introverts.

Introverts are more creative

Quieter employees tend to be more reflective and take their time to analyze what's going on. That reflection tends to make them more creative and helps them make more informed decisions.

Extroverts, on the other hand, can be a bit bolder when it comes to decision-making.

Introverts form deeper connections

Many introverts prefer to build deeper one-on-one connections. They're much more likely to get to know their team members on a more personal level, making employees feel more connected to them.

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Introverts are more self-aware

Self-awareness is one of the most important things you can have to be an emotionally intelligent leader.

That self-awareness lets them listen attentively, pick up on social cues, process information, and see the bigger picture. And they love the time alone to process that information.

If you haven't seen it already, Susan Cain's TED talk about the power of introverts is definitely worth a watch:

{emphasize}

"As an introvert myself, I often wonder if I'm perceived to be not as good as I actually am.

If I'm a little quiet in a meeting, does that mean I'm in a bad mood? Does it mean I'm not engaged?

Absolutely not.

There are times when I'm in a meeting and I can perceive the people around me noticing that I'm probably losing focus or not into it, but that's simply not true.

I'm just digesting and processing the information."

{emphasize}

Introverts and quiet employees work differently, but managers might be missing out on a huge opportunity by not fully trying to understand them and adapting the way they manage them.

Not only is it important for the success of your business, but it's important for the well-being of your employees and your culture.

{emphasize}Check out our 11-day email course to become a leader that employees look up to and want to work for.{emphasize}

7 Tips to manage quiet employees

As a leader, you'll have to learn how to deal with multiple personality types and adjust your management style accordingly. Here are a few ideas to help you better lead and manage those quiet employees.

1. Don't assume

The first (and best) tip is not to assume anything.

As mentioned earlier, they might be quiet in meetings or at their desks but don't assume that they're in a bad mood or disengaged. They might be processing some information that was just given to them or developing a new idea, and that can make them the more engaged members of your team.

2. Don't just show up at their desks

Chances are, they'll prefer to communicate by email or chat, so try to respect that communication style.

If you just show up at their desks or catch them by surprise, they likely won't give you the answer you're looking for. They need time to process and think about what they want to say. So give them the space and time they need.

3. Use one-on-ones

One-on-one meetings are probably where you're going to get the best feedback from your quieter employees. They'll be comfortable in that calm, quiet environment.

If you can, send them a meeting agenda at least 24 hours in advance to make sure they have some time to gather their thoughts.

4. Don't ask for their opinion on the spot

If there's anything you want their opinion on, it might be a good idea to wait a while before asking them for their thoughts. Again, many introverts need time to process, digest, and formulate their ideas.

Give them time to think and come back to you with their thoughts and opinions collected.

It also might be a good idea to ask for their opinion using their favorite form of communication. For example, you can wait an hour or two and send them an email or chat message and ask for their opinion.

5. Give them a quiet environment

It makes sense that quiet people would like to work in quiet environments.

Try your best to create a quiet environment so that they can work at their best. If the workplace is noisy and there's no way for them to get the quiet they need, you might want to consider letting your introvert team members work remotely.

6. Don't ignore them

It's easy for introverts or quiet employees to go unnoticed, but you need to make a conscious effort to notice them.

For instance, try to avoid words like “outgoing” in job descriptions. You don't want to miss out on introverted people that, as we've seen, can bring valuable contributions to companies.

And remember, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffett, Steve Wozniak, and Michael Jordan are all introverts!

7. Be mindful of them

Emotional intelligence is truly a key trait to develop as it allows you to better understand the many different employee personality types.

Quiet employees are often perceived as shy, unhappy, or not “into it.” You need to be mindful of how you perceive these employees, adjust your own attitude toward them, and guide your extrovert team members through doing the same.

What benefits can introverted employees bring to a team or organization?

Having an introverted personality often means that rather than being the louder more outgoing one, a person likely has stronger listening skills. This is a wonderful skill to have, especially when it comes to forming deep, meaningful relationships.

Relationships of any kind, whether personal or professional, work best when there is balance, so without different personalities, we wouldn't have the beauty of opposites complementing each other. Sometimes the most thoughtful insights come from those who process their thoughts more inwardly, which can even result in better decision-making.

Why is it essential to adapt management strategies to accommodate different personality types?

The saying "different strokes for different folks" is especially true when it comes to adapting management strategies to suit different personality types on different teams. No strategy can ever be one-size-fits-all if you want to have a harmonious, productive work environment that ensures all employees feel understood and valued.

Our best advice is to embrace people's differences, and leverage the strengths of each personality type, rather than focusing on what they lack. Introverts and extroverts bring different qualities to the table, and when different pieces of the puzzle come together, they really do connect to create the big picture.

What is the concept of "servant leadership" and why does it suit introverted leaders?

Now that we've established that introverts can be just as great in leadership positions, it's also important to understand the leadership style they are more likely to have. It's not uncommon for many introverts to have a servant leadership style, where their focus is on serving others before themselves. This tends to be the case as they are known to have valuable assets like being good listeners, more humble, and more focused on the team's needs, rather than their own.

Can introverted employees be successful in leadership roles?

Contrary to the perception of some, introverts are just as capable of handling stressful or challenging situations. Just remember that their approach may be a little different. In fact, introverts tend to excel in listening, building deep relationships, and putting strategic planning into play. Introverts typically like to work independently but are more than capable of stepping up and being the leader their team needs to succeed.

Managing introverts in a meaningful way

Our differences are what make us unique. Introverts and extroverts both present qualities and working styles that contribute to a successful and healthy workplace. Managing introverts is no different than managing anyone else. As always, it takes open communication and understanding. When we push past the misconceptions and embrace the differences, that's when we can all truly excel together in a meaningful way.

As the old saying goes, you only get to make a first impression once. That's why as a new manager, your first staff meeting is so important. Chances are employees are feeling curious (or even apprehensive) about having a new supervisor. Your first team meeting offers the perfect opportunity to put people at ease, make a great first impression, and kick things off on the best possible note.

So how exactly do you do that? How do you ensure your introductory meeting with your new team goes off without a hitch and sets you and your people up for success moving forward?

With a bit of preparation, clear objectives, and a flexible meeting agenda, you'll be ready to run your first staff meeting as a new manager like a seasoned pro.

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How to prepare for your first staff meeting as a new manager

A critical part of a successful meeting as a new manager is making sure you're well prepared. There are a few things you'll definitely want to do ahead of time to ensure that your first staff meeting is a success and that your new team has the opportunity to get excited about working with you.

Set a clear objective

You can't say a meeting is successful if you don't know what you're trying to accomplish with it. This is why you want to set meeting goals for one-on-ones as well as team meetings. Before your first meeting as a new manager, think about your meeting goals, whether that's breaking the ice with your new team, or talking through your first project.

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Setting meeting goals helps you save time and increase productivity during these moments with your team. Get inspired by our meeting goal examples for every type of meeting!

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Outline important topics to cover

While you don't have to write a script for your meeting, you do want to have a general outline of the topics you'd like to cover.

For example: If your meeting objective is to break the ice with your new team members, you may want to cover topics like your professional background, management style, and leadership philosophy.

Prepare talking points

Once you know what topics you want to cover, you'll also want to prepare a few specific talking points for each topic. Think about what topics will be more suited to a team meeting setting, and which ones might be better covered in one-on-one conversations.

For example: You may want to prepare one or two anecdotes or accomplishments to share with the group, plan an icebreaker exercise, or prepare a meeting check-in activity.

Coordinate team meeting logistics

You want to work out all your meeting details ahead of time. Think about whether you're hosting an in-person or remote meeting, where you'll meet (a physical space or meeting room, or a virtual one), and who needs to be there. Be sure to share those details with your meeting attendees in your calendar invite or as soon as possible.

Ease your new manager nerves

If you're feeling a little nervous or apprehensive about leading your first staff meeting, it's perfectly normal! Doing anything for the first time can be nerve-wracking — and running your initial meeting with your team is no different.

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Tip to handle pre-meeting nerves: Schedule some time in your calendar right before your meeting to put your mind (and nerves) at ease. You can use this moment to go for a walk or do a few deep breathing exercises before your meeting.

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How to run your first team meeting

Once you've done your prep work, the next step in the process is actually running your first team meeting. Here are a few pointers on how to run your first staff meeting that will help you achieve your meeting objective, connect with your team, and lay a solid foundation for a successful and productive team experience.

1. Break the ice with your new team members

This is your new team's first time attending one of your meetings — and, in some cases, may even be their first time meeting you. As mentioned, there may be some curiosity, apprehension, or nerves floating around. Before you dive into your meeting content, take some time to break the ice and put everyone (yourself included!) at ease.

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Icebreaker tip: Start off your meeting with a quick get-to-know-you game or a round of icebreaker questions.

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2. Keep the meeting structure flexible

It's important to have a meeting agenda but you don't need to be so committed to it that you miss an opportunity to have meaningful conversations or interactions with your new team. During your first staff meeting, you definitely want to come prepared with your topics and talking points but also keep things flexible enough to let conversations, questions, or interactions unfold organically.

3. Make it an interactive experience

No one likes to be talked at for an hour straight. Look for ways to involve your team and keep them engaged in the meeting content. This will keep them present during your scheduled time and let them know from the start that you're prioritizing participation and employee engagement.

For example: After you walk your team through your background, you might also go around the room and have each employee introduce themselves and their roles.

4. Keep the meeting a manageable length

It doesn't matter how engaging your first team meeting is, if it goes too long, people are going to have a hard time staying engaged. Try to keep things as concise as possible and aim to keep your total meeting time under an hour. If you have to go longer, make sure to schedule time for breaks.

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Remember: Once you meet with your new team, it's a good idea to meet individually with your team members, too. There are many benefits that come from one-on-one meetings, and keeping that in mind will help you make the best use of each scheduled meeting.

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5. Leave time for employee questions

Your first staff meeting is your first chance to introduce yourself to your new team, but it's also your team's first chance to meet and get to know you. As such, they'll probably have questions, so make sure to leave plenty of time at the end of the meeting for a team Q&A. You'll have the chance to ask all of your own questions during your one-on-one meetings.

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Meeting Q&A tip: Try to see this as an opportunity to get to know your new team's challenges and concerns. You might not have all the answers to their questions, and that's okay! Note them to come back to next time, and make sure to follow up.

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6. Be yourself and show your personality

Part of being an effective manager is connecting on a personal level with your new team. This will make for better communication, stronger trust and respect, and ultimately, better working relationships. Building trust and authentic connections happens when people get to see who you really are. So when you run your first staff meeting, let your personality shine through!

For example: If you're a witty person, crack jokes. If you have a hobby you're passionate about, talk about it. The more “you” you let your employees see, the more quickly you'll connect with them.

7. Have some next steps planned

When you end your meeting, you want everyone to walk away knowing exactly what's expected of them and what comes next. Have a few next steps prepared for after your first staff meeting, and let your employees know what those are. On top of that, you might set a few next steps from whatever comes up during your meeting time.

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Next step ideas: Schedule one-on-one meetings with each new team member, host a training session on new systems and processes, have a brainstorm for planning projects, or book a time to collaboratively create team values and principles.

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A new manager's first team meeting agenda template

Still feeling a little unsure of how to navigate your introduction meeting? Not to worry! Whether you're just getting started with staff meetings, or looking to bring more structure to your scheduled times, meeting templates can help keep you on track. This helps you cover all your agenda items before your team meeting is over.

Here's an example of a first team meeting agenda template to help you visualize the structure of your meeting space, and stay on track when the meeting is actually taking place.

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45-minute first staff meeting agenda

1. Greet the team, introduce yourself, and ask your new team members to introduce themselves. (5 mins)
2. Do an icebreaker activity. (5 mins)
3. Let your team know your expectations as a manager. (10 mins)
4. Ask about the team's strengths and challenges, their input on what they'd like to see change as you step into a management role, and what they'd like to stay the same. (15 mins)
5. Give the team the opportunity to ask questions. (10 mins)

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How often should you run staff meetings?

Once you've got your first staff meeting under your belt, the next thing on your agenda is determining the right meeting cadence for your team. In other words, as a new manager, how often should you plan to run staff meetings?

There's no magic count for team meetings. Some teams meet every day, some meet once a week, and some meet once a month. The frequency you'll need to host all-team meetings will depend on your team, your objectives, and the projects you're working on.

• Scenario #1: Your team has a looming deadline on a project with many moving parts. So you make sure to have daily team meetings for as long as there are several time-sensitive tasks to manage.
• Scenario #2: You're managing a team of introverts who feel drained after getting all team members together. So you decide to host fewer staff meetings and give everyone more time for focused individual work.

How to manage meeting with your team

When deciding your meeting cadence, it's also important to balance out group sessions with one-on-ones. Depending on the size of your team, what they're working on, and each employee's individual needs, you might opt to run one-on-one meetings more frequently than team meetings, or vice versa. Just make sure that you're making time for both because developing personal relationships with each team member is equally important as creating a positive and healthy team culture.

Generally, you'll want to meet with your team at least weekly or bi-weekly. It's important for you to stay on top of what they're working on, but also to give them dedicated time to raise any challenges they're facing or share their wins. Meeting with your whole team is an opportunity for alignment and connection, maintaining that sense of collective purpose.

FAQ on your first meeting with employees as a new manager

As a new manager, your first meeting with employees sets the tone for your working relationship and establishes the foundation for a successful team dynamic. It's natural to have questions about how to make this initial meeting meaningful and effective.

In this FAQ section, we've compiled answers to common queries you may have about your first meeting with employees.

By following these tips, you'll be well-prepared to navigate this important milestone and build a positive rapport with your team members. And remember, these tips are just as good for any other future meetings (not just the first ones!).

What should I include in the agenda for my first meeting with employees as a new manager?

In your first team meeting with employees as a new manager, it's important to have a well-planned agenda. Start with a warm welcome and introductions, followed by sharing a bit about your background and experience. Discuss the team's purpose and goals, establish expectations and responsibilities, and provide time for questions and open discussion.

How can I effectively introduce myself and establish a positive relationship with my employees during the first meeting?

To establish a positive relationship with your team members, be approachable and friendly. Show genuine interest in their work and contributions, and actively listen to what they have to say. Share your leadership philosophy and values to give them an idea of your approach. Express your commitment to supporting the team's success and creating a positive work environment.

What strategies can I use to make employees feel comfortable and engaged during the first meeting?

Making team members feel comfortable and engaged during the first team meeting is crucial. Create a welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued. Encourage team members to participate and be actively involved by using icebreaker activities or team-building exercises. Acknowledge and appreciate their contributions, and be transparent and honest in your communication.

How should I address any concerns or anxieties that employees may have during the first meeting?

Addressing any concerns or anxieties team members may have is important to foster a positive atmosphere. Encourage open discussion and questions, and respond to their feedback with transparency and honesty. Acknowledge their concerns and empathize with their feelings. Offer reassurance and support, and make a commitment to address their concerns in future meetings.

What are some key communication techniques I should employ to ensure a successful first meeting with employees?

Communication is key to running a successful first team meeting. Use clear and concise language to convey your message effectively. Maintain eye contact and positive body language to show your attentiveness and interest. Practice active listening and ask follow-up questions to ensure understanding. Provide context and examples to enhance understanding, and consider using visual aids or presentations to convey information effectively.

How can I set clear expectations and goals for employees during the first meeting as a new manager?

As a new manager, it's important to set clear expectations and goals for your employees during your first meeting. Effectively communicate your performance expectations, encompassing both individual responsibilities and contributions to overall team goals, in a clear and concise manner. Collaborate with each employee to establish measurable goals that align with their skills and aspirations. Follow up on goal progression and provide consistent support as this will lay the foundation for a successful and high-performing team.

What steps can I take to encourage open dialogue and active participation from employees in the first meeting?

Encouraging open dialogue and active participation during meetings creates an inclusive and collaborative environment. Create a safe space for open discussion, ask open-ended questions to encourage input, and value diverse perspectives and ideas. Encourage team members to share their thoughts and opinions, and recognize and appreciate their contributions during the meeting.

How do I handle any conflicts or disagreements that arise during the first meeting with employees?

If conflicts or disagreements arise during the first meeting, handle these difficult conversations with empathy. Listen to all parties involved in a respectful manner and seek to understand the root cause of the conflict. Facilitate a constructive dialogue to find common ground and encourage compromise. If needed, follow up with individuals privately to address any lingering concerns with all parties involved in a respectful manner.

Should I discuss individual performance or address any performance issues during the first meeting as a new manager?

During the first team meeting, especially with new team members, it's best that you set expectations and goals rather than address individual performance issues. If there are immediate performance concerns, address them privately. Express your commitment to providing regular feedback and support for employee growth. Drive home the importance of open communication regarding performance throughout the meeting.

What follow-up actions should I take after the first meeting with new team members to maintain communication and address any outstanding concerns or questions?

After the first team meeting, always follow up to maintain communication and address any outstanding concerns or questions. Send a follow-up email summarizing the key points discussed and any successive action items. Schedule regular team meetings to keep communication channels open. Encourage employees to approach you with any concerns or questions they may have. Conduct one-on-one meetings to address individual needs or concerns, and seek feedback from team members on the meeting and their overall experience.

Your first meeting with employees as a new manager is the best opportunity to create a positive working relationship and collaborative work environment. It's vital to embrace this opportunity to connect with your team members, understand their perspectives, and inspire them to achieve shared goals. Plus, this will have a huge (positive) impact on team culture!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… engage your employees or watch them go.

Okay, that's an oversimplification of how things work… but you get the point. You'd never leave employee retention to chance and risk losing your star talent, would you?

With talent shortages, shifting work realities, and new employee mindsets, it's important to keep up with the times and find fresh new ways to keep employees engaged and on board for good (or at least for a long while). Doing so won't just make your organization a better place to work, but it'll also make it run more successfully.

We all know that great employees are worth their weight in gold, so making sure they feel valued is also, well, golden. Their level of satisfaction stems from so much more than how engaged they are. If you want to keep them around long-term, then you need to respect and ensure that everyone has healthy work-life balance, and enjoys being part of the team.

Ready to get started? Read on to understand what employees really want at work and uncover our data-backed employee retention strategies.

{emphasize}Learn tried and true strategies on how to retain your employees

• Understanding employee turnover and resignation: Why are employees quitting?
• The business impact of high employee retention
• Key considerations for improved employee retention
• 13 Employee retention tactics aligned with modern workforce needs
• How to build your employee retention strategy
• Unlock your unique retention strategies with an employee engagement solution{emphasize}

Understanding employee turnover and resignation: Why are employees quitting?

We first heard about the Great Resignation in May 2021. The pandemic changed the reality of work and acted as a catalyst for people to think about and re-prioritize their needs.

Flexibility played a huge role in this. People grew accustomed to working remotely and many employees left hustle culture behaviors behind in search of a better work-life balance. But flexibility wasn't the only cause of employee turnover that led to record-breaking levels of attrition.

The current landscape of the modern workforce

Did you know? 50.5 million Americans quit their jobs in 2022, surpassing the previous record set in 2021 by 2.5 million.

McKinsey surveyed over 13,000 employees in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States to dig deeper and fully understand the phenomenon at hand. The study found the most common reasons employees quit or thought about quitting their jobs, including:

• Lack of career development
• Inadequate salary and total compensation
• Uncaring and uninspiring leaders
• Lack of meaningful work
• Unsustainable work expectations

High attrition rates are bad news for businesses around the world. Not only does turnover cost a lot from the get-go, but it also leaves lingering effects that can hurt your company culture, employee morale, and profitability down the line.

The good news is that we now have access to a ton of data to help us understand how people feel at work so that we can build stronger employee retention strategies.

The business impact of high employee retention

If you (or your leaders) are still hesitant on investing in employee retention, remember this: every employee departure equals at least a third of their annual salary in replacement costs. Prioritizing employee retention doesn't just make sense financially in the short term, though. There is a slew of benefits that come with high retention and engaged workforces.

When employees stay at an organization, they're more likely to:

• accumulate valuable knowledge about your business and products or services,
• create strong and consistent processes for higher productivity and quality of work,
• build solid, trust-based relationships with your customer base,
• contribute to positive team dynamics,
• and strengthen your employer brand for an easier recruitment process.

Put simply, keeping your employees on board makes your business run smoothly and efficiently. When you work towards building employee retention strategies, you'll see employee satisfaction, productivity, and happiness soar. Keep it consistent year-round, and strong financial returns are sure to follow suit.

So, how can you make this happen?

Key considerations for improved employee retention

Recognition of the importance of work-life balance and flexibility

Everybody knows that we're in a new work era. One that puts the spotlight on having healthy work-life balance more than ever before. The hybrid and remote work models that we've become accustomed to have given employees more flexibility and time to tend to their personal needs, which has essentially become non-negotiable. Employees have proven that they're capable of balancing their time and remaining productive. That's why acknowledging and respecting this balance has become a key factor in employee retention.

Flexible work schedules and remote work options accommodate employees' personal needs and enable them to prioritize things that matter, like self-care and family time. Employers who provide the resources and support needed to help manage stress and promote well-being are the ones that come out on top and retain top talent. Foster a culture that values work-life balance and emphasizes the importance of personal time and it's a win-win for both sides.

Consideration of career growth and development opportunities

While growth looks different for everyone, what remains the same is that all employees want opportunities for professional development along their career path. That's why it's so important to make training programs and workshops accessible, and to offer mentorship or coaching programs to support each employee's career growth.

It's also important to remember that no plan is ever one-size-fits-all. Take the time to create individual development plans, have conversations about career opportunities with employees, and always, always recognize and reward employees who take initiative and make notable strides in their professional growth.

Significance of a positive and inclusive work culture

There's a lot to be said for having a workplace culture of respect, trust, and open communication. It lays the foundation for success within an organization and makes it a safe space for everyone to grow, connect, and learn. This kind of environment celebrates diversity, promotes inclusivity in all aspects of the organization, and tends to ensure equal opportunities for all employees, regardless of their unique backgrounds.

When you support this kind of inclusivity, you also encourage teamwork and collaboration, and create a sense of belonging among employees. When you have this sense of belonging, you feel more valued and embedded in the organization, which is of course a positive factor of retention. Be sure to recognize and appreciate the contributions of individuals from different backgrounds so that everyone feels valued.

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13 Employee retention tactics aligned with modern workforce needs

Employee retention can be tackled in more ways than one. We put together the following list of employee retention strategies based on the insights we've uncovered from industry research and our latest Officevibe Pulse Survey data. We've also included an example and some actionable advice for each tactic.

1. Define a clear and inspiring mission

These days, it's rare to find people who don't care about contributing positively to the world — even at work. We've gone through a series of very unfortunate events as a collective, but the silver lining is that people are prioritizing what's really important to them, and that includes working for organizations that do good by society. This is especially true for the hyper-cognitive and purpose-driven Gen Z generation.

 “Their desire to know how their individual contributions and role in the team help support the organization’s mission differentiates them. They make career choices and purchasing choices driven by the impact these make in the world.”

Harvard Business Review

That's why it's so important to make your stance known by defining and communicating your mission in an inspiring way. Tap into what matters by developing a meaningful mission statement that emphasizes your company's commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, for example.

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Once you've talked the talk, be sure to walk the walk by regularly communicating it to employees, integrating it into company-wide initiatives, and creating opportunities for all employees to contribute to the company's environmental goals so that everyone can do their part and feel good about it!

2. Align your strategies to your values

It's clear that modern employees are value-oriented. They not only care that their organization's values align with their own, but also expect companies to act in alignment with those values. Considering that 26% of employees feel their organizations do not make decisions that reflect their values, per Officevibe Pulse Survey data, there is a lot of room for improvement.

How? By making sure your values carry through into concrete, actionable strategies. For example, if one of your company's core values is "continuous learning," work on establishing and implementing a learning and development program that offers ongoing training and educational opportunities to all employees.

Next step

Keep it going by frequently assessing the alignment of your company policies, practices, and decision-making with the values you laid out. This makes you better able to make effective adjustments along the way, and communicate updates to your employees so that they can see the alignment in action for themselves.

👀 Are you hitting the mark on alignment? Learn to spot the signs of a misaligned team and use these 5 tips to ensure alignment and improve performance.

3. Make sure your objectives are challenging, yet realistic

Objective setting is a big part of the alignment puzzle. Challenging company objectives often lead to exciting new projects and help employees grow, pick up new skills, and gain knowledge. But big, hairy, audacious goals can quickly become demotivating when they feel too unattainable.

31% of employees do not feel their organization invests the necessary resources, people, and efforts to measure up to its ambitions.

Officevibe Pulse Survey data, August 2022

The magic happens when you break it down into more attainable, realistic goals. For example, why not set quarterly goals instead of annual goals? This stretches employees' abilities and drives innovation, while giving consideration to the resources and capabilities available. This puts goals more within reach, which is a far more effective strategy.

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Start by providing clear guidelines and assigning the right resources to support employees in smashing their objectives. Review progress on a regular basis and offer constructive feedback that can help employees navigate challenges and continue to grow.

What this all boils down to is that it's okay, and necessary for business success, to think big. But it's crucial to match your ambitions with the resources needed to make them realistic.

4. Show employees why their work matters

When employees can tie their daily work back to broader company objectives and outcomes, they're more likely to understand the value they bring. Not only does this boost their confidence, but it also instills a strong sense of purpose, which we've already seen is an important need for younger employees.

A great way to give recognition and inspire others to do great work is to share success stories that highlight how your employees' contributions have positively impacted your customers, organization, and even the community.

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When managers have regular conversations around the broader impact of each employee's individual tasks and projects, it helps them see the connection between the work that they do and the company's mission and goals. After all, greater meaning makes for greater motivation!

5. Give employees access to the right tools and technology

Few things are more frustrating than feeling stuck because of a lack of resources. If you aren't giving your team the tools and technology they need to do their job well and efficiently, you're putting your company's success and your employees' job satisfaction on the line. It's a zero-sum game. Investing in the essentials is a surefire way to ensure high levels of productivity and engagement.

One of the best things you can do is invest in project management software that streamlines workflows and enhances collaboration among team members. This helps get everyone aligned on what they need to do, and how it contributes to the big picture of each project.

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Since technology is always evolving and improving, be sure to have regular technology assessments so you can identify gaps or outdated tools that are no longer serving you and your team. Whenever you implement a new tool, it's important to provide proper training and support to your employees to ensure they're proficient in using the tools effectively. We can't simply assume that everyone will be able to pick it up and run with it, so remember that a little guidance goes a long way.

6. Offer a fair and competitive compensation package

In times of economic uncertainty, compensation matters. And considering that salary is the main reason people look for new jobs, your compensation strategy shouldn't be neglected. But you don't have to dish out salaries your company cannot afford to make a difference. What matters most to employees is that they are compensated fairly.

39% of employees do not feel they are paid fairly when taking their responsibilities, skills, and experience into account.

Officevibe Pulse Survey data, August 2022

The best approach to navigating fair compensation is to conduct salary benchmarking research to ensure that your company's salaries align with industry standards, while also considering additional benefits like performance bonuses or profit-sharing.

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What's important to note here is that this should be an ongoing practice. As time goes on and the market changes, keep up with reviewing and adjusting your compensation packages in order to remain competitive. It's also a good idea to be transparent with your employees about the factors considered in determining their salaries (which we'll elaborate on next).

To keep them happy, be sure to assess the total compensation package and make sure you're fairly in line with the rest of the job market.

7. Be transparent about compensation

Transparency is key when it comes to money talk. Officevibe Pulse Survey data revealed that 34% of employees do not trust that they are paid fairly compared to similar roles in other organizations. But is compensation itself truly the issue, or is it perceived unfairness? We looked at our fairness sub-metric in Officevibe and found that the root of the problem was a lack of transparency and communication.

Implementing a clear and consistent compensation structure that includes transparent criteria for salary adjustments, promotions, and bonuses is the fairest way to ensure clarity for everyone. When you get rid of the gray areas, you build trust.

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This trust comes from communicating the company's compensation structure to all employees, and giving them the opportunity to openly ask questions or seek clarification. Check in regularly to review and address any discrepancies or concerns that may pop up.

At the end of the day, employees want to understand exactly how compensation is determined and whether it is equitable. So if you have a special formula, a market baseline that you follow, and performance standards, be sure to share them with your team from the start. 

8. Provide opportunities for growth and professional development

Career growth is of utmost importance for young employees. So much so that many of them are likely to change jobs ten times between the ages of 18 and 34 in search of professional development. If you want to ensure high retention, you must support your team internally with career planning, skills mapping, and training and development.

In order to give your junior team members the support they need, it helps to establish a mentoring program where more experienced employees provide guidance. They're a truly valuable asset in helping more junior employees grow into their role and navigate their career path and professional development.

Next step

Once again, it's important to look at this through an individual lens. Create personal development plans that identify specific training opportunities and areas for growth, and encourage employees to attend conferences, workshops, or online courses to expand their knowledge and skills.

Setting SMART performance goals helps employees reach their full potential, while also getting your company closer to its objectives. Support your team's performance with these 10 employee goal-setting examples.

9. Encourage employees to recognize each other

Employees are more likely to stay in an organization where they feel valued and celebrated. And people aren't just looking to be recognized by their managers or superiors; they want their peers to do it too. Peer-to-peer recognition programs strengthen work relationships and team dynamics. A kind kudos or note of appreciation also sprinkles a little joy into a person's day.

Help get the ball rolling by implementing a peer recognition program where employees can personally nominate and acknowledge their colleagues' contributions. Making it simple and accessible to all is a great way to encourage employees to share kind words with one another.

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Once the platform or tool is up and running, communicate the recognition program and its purpose with your employees. Beyond the personal messages, it's also great to celebrate and highlight recognized employees in team meetings or company-wide communications so that they can really have their shine and feel valued.

🎉 Use these 6 ideas to help boost peer recognition within your team.

10. Invest in employee health and wellness

The great reprioritization highlighted that health and wellness are non-negotiable for today's employees. But Officevibe data shows that most companies are still falling behind, and it's likely impacting their retention rates:

• 29% of employees do not feel their organization offers the support they need to deal with work-related stress.
• 24% of employees do not feel their organization cares about their mental well-being.

Knowing how important work-life balance is to today's workforce, it's more important than ever to take the opportunity to implement health and wellness programs that people truly value. From yoga classes and meditation sessions, to access to mental health resources, there are so many ways employers can support the physical and mental health of their team.

Next step

To help take the guesswork out of figuring out what people want, conduct regular wellness surveys or focus groups to assess what your employees' wellness needs and preferences are. The feedback you gather can help you design, shape, and implement wellness initiatives that address their specific wellness concerns. These are the first steps to showing employees your organization truly cares.

11. Pay attention to workloads and energy levels

Many employees are disengaged and choose to leave because of high-stress levels at work and unmanageable workloads.

23% of employees are not able to maintain a good level of energy at work and 34% feel negatively about their level of work related stress.

Officevibe Pulse Survey data, August 2022

Avoiding burnout starts with properly assessing your employees' workloads to make sure they're not overloaded and overwhelmed. Once you have a clear picture of the workloads, it's important to take action by implementing measures to redistribute projects and provide any additional resources or support your team needs. You'll demonstrate that you care about their wellbeing, and they'll appreciate the extra hands on deck.

Next step

Proactivity is the only solution. Check in with employees on a regular basis in order to gauge their energy levels and workload satisfaction. Encourage them to speak up about their workload concerns, and provide flexibility in task assignments or schedules when possible. Keep on supporting proper work-life balance in every regard, and encourage them to take breaks and vacations to recharge, refresh, and come back feeling stronger.

Notice someone struggling at work? Discuss work-related stress and find solutions together before it's too late.

12. Don’t let diversity, equity, and inclusion fall behind

To achieve true belonging and psychological safety within an organization, everyone should feel seen, supported, and heard. Workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI for short, should be top of mind at every employee touch point and stage in the employee experience journey. All employees deserve equal opportunities. If they don't feel accounted for and respected, modern employees won't shy away from seeking a new job.

47% of Gen Z employees identify as BIPOC, compared to 39% of millenials, making it the most diverse generation in the job market to date.

Great Place to Work

If you want to foster a more inclusive culture, it's a great idea to form a diversity and inclusion committee or task force with your employees. Rally people from different backgrounds to drive initiatives together.

Next step

Conduct diversity and inclusion training for all employees to raise awareness and promote understanding. You can also start at the very beginning by implementing recruitment and hiring practices that prioritize diversity and ensure equal opportunities. Take the time to assess the inclusiveness of your company policies, practices, and employee experiences so that you can spot areas for improvement. When everyone feels equal, valued, seen, and heard, great things happen.

What's the current reality of different demographics within your organization? Send a diversity, equity, and inclusion poll using these 21 DEI survey questions to find out.

13. Prioritize culture contribution over culture fit

The idea of hiring for culture fit is passé. This mindset encourages uniformity, ignores DEI best practices, and often leads to echo chambers in the workplace. A better way to tackle company culture and make your workplace better for all is to hire people who will contribute positively to your organizational culture, instead of fitting into a predetermined mold. During the hiring process, ask yourself:

• Does this person bring a new perspective to the table?
• Do they have skills, hard and soft, that can complement the rest of the team?
• Are their values in line with the organization's values?

All of this starts at square one, during the interview process. Try focusing on assessing candidates' potential contributions to the company's culture, values, and goals rather than solely evaluating their fit within the existing culture. See the potential, support progression, and welcome diverse perspectives.

Next step

First, define the desired cultural attributes and values that align with your organization's mission and strategic objectives, then incorporate behavioral-based interview questions that elicit responses related to cultural contribution. Just be sure to equip your interviewers with proper training on assessing cultural alignment and potential so that they can make the best choices for your organization.

When you take a human-generated approach to culture, you'll see your team thrive and become the best version of itself.

How to build your employee retention strategy

If you're starting from scratch, you can't go wrong with building the first iteration of your retention strategy with a mix of the tactics above. However, it's important to keep in mind that no single retention strategy will work for every company. The best way to boost retention is to tailor your efforts to your own people and their needs.

Here's how you can figure out what's most important to them (and what will make them stay in their jobs): 

• One-on-one meetings give you insights on the individual level and can help you understand what makes each person on your team tick.
• Regular pulse surveys take the guessing game out of receiving feedback. They provide employees with prompts they wouldn't have otherwise thought about and they ensure you have a consistent and measurable bank of feedback at all times.
• Anonymous feedback tools give employees the opportunity to share thoughts, feelings, suggestions, and concerns openly and honestly, without fear of repercussion. They help managers focus on the message, rather than the messenger.
• Onboarding surveys allow new hires to share feedback specific to their first few months on the job. They help HR and managers improve employee retention from the start by nailing the onboarding process.
• Stay interviews uncover how employees feel in their current roles, what's keeping them engaged, and what can boost their job satisfaction.
• Exit interviews are the last resort to collect feedback on how to boost employee retention in the long run. During these meetings, a departing employee can give you concrete insights into what led them to look for greener pastures.

Unlock your unique retention strategies with an employee engagement solution

Congrats! You just read everything you need to know to get started with your employee retention game plan. You have a better understanding of the current global context, you know why people are leaving their jobs, you can outline the business impact of employee retention, and you even have some employee retention strategy ideas to get the ball rolling.

If you want to solidify your employee retention strategies, the next step is to find the right employee feedback and engagement tools to help customize your plan according to your business's needs.

Officevibe's employee engagement solution can help get you there by taking the guessing game out with actionable insights on where your team is and where you want it to be.