The Great Resignation is impacting most businesses in retaining the talent they need. To compete in today’s environment, employers must take action and find ways to differentiate the company’s values in terms of benefits to the employees. Buck the typical trends by taking a proactive approach in differentiating your business with positive stories that show how your company values and recognize the value of your employees. Then back it up with demonstrated actions. Other important actions that are needed to avoid the Great Recession and retain employees are included below.

According to Robert Half, employees leave a company for the following reasons:

• Inadequate salary and benefits
• Feeling overworked
• Feeling unsupported
• Limited career advancement opportunities
• Lack of work-life balance
• Lack of recognition
• Lack of appreciation
• Unhappiness with management 

How do you overcome these issues?

1. Communication
2. Appreciation
3. Recognition and Reward

First of all, your company needs to define and communicate the company’s values in terms of the employee. I am not talking about defining the company’s values in the stuffy old way of listing “integrity, trustworthiness, customer-centric” and other values. The trend today is to turn these value descriptions into stories that are examples of how your company’s values have been incorporated into the actions of those who work at your company. 

Gather these stories by encouraging your employees to share their own stories with you, particularly those that reflect your company values. Light a fire under your employees to share examples of why they are proud to work at your company. Then share these with other employees. It will refresh their memory as to why they have selected your company as their place of work.

Ensure that you communicate information about the company’s growth, new approaches, new focus, and successes. Keep employees informed. They will feel more a part of the company and take pride in the understanding that their efforts are making a difference. Remember that internal communications can always be better, regardless of what you are doing now. Timely, positive communications to teams, departments, and individuals are required to ensure retention of all employees but particularly your best performers. Continuous and frequent feedback on individual and department or team performance goes a long way in terms of retention.

Appreciate your employees. Share with all employees your ongoing appreciation of employees doing great things or routine things consistently well. This should apply to things inside your company as well as the positive things employees do outside the company in terms of volunteer work, donations, etc. Give employees a clear picture of what your company feels is important. Consider flexible work arrangements and work-from-home options as means of showing your appreciation of your employees. Today, work-life balance is most important. Consider making it a part of your work environment to aid in employee retention.

Recognition of your employees is vitally important in retaining employees. This should include recognition of individuals for outstanding performance or consistent performance over an extended period. Communicate this recognition throughout the organization to build pride in the recipient and inspire others to seek the same recognition. Make a big deal out of employee performance and spread the word.

Don’t forget teamwork. Recognize the various teams within your company for working well together in achieving outstanding results. Identify the members of the teams who worked well together to make success possible. Spread the word. If newsworthy, send a press release and team photo to the local media as well as add this story to your Facebook page. Advise employees to read the published information to further recognize successful team performance.

How do you reward an individual for great performance or longevity? Consider paying for dinner for the employee and spouse, significant other, or friend. This action is of low cost but with significant benefits to employee morale. Try to get a photo of the couple that enjoys the dinner and add it to the company newsletter or post it on social media. Another option is tickets to a local community event, a play, an orchestra performance, visiting art exhibition, or sports events. There should also be company promotional items that are packaged or bagged specifically as rewards for performance. These will quickly become recognizable by other employees. Make sure you include a coffee mug or insulated drink container with the company name or a logo specifically designed as a reward that others recognize and will seek the same reward.

Another element of employee retention is training and development. This should be available to high-performing employees or those upcoming employees marked for retention. Consider identifying areas of professional growth for specific individuals. Align this with online and in-person education and training. Don’t overlook the utilization of internal, experienced personnel for the training of newer hires who have potential. And, of course, recognize those individuals for the completed training.

To have a positive impact on employee retention I have suggested three basic drivers that will provide results.

• First, focus on frequent communication of the company’s values in terms of employees. Ensure that you communicate information about the company’s growth, new approaches, new focus, and successes. Keep employees informed. Present this information in story form to make your information more acceptable to employees and the public.
• Second, share with all employees your ongoing appreciation of employees doing great things or routine things consistently well. This should apply to things inside your company as well as the positive things employees do outside the company in terms of volunteer work, donations, etc.
• Third, recognition of your employees is vitally important in retaining them. This should include recognition of individuals for outstanding performance or consistent performance over an extended period. Communicate this recognition throughout the organization to build pride in the recipient and inspire others to seek the same recognition.

There are many other ways to reward your employees but these ideas are a good start to identifying reward opportunities appropriate for your company. The Great Resignation is real and is upon us, however, some actions can be taken to avoid the trend and strengthen your employee retention today.

For further information about employee retention ideas or to acquire promotional items with innovative packaging, contact your Think Patented account executive or call 937.353.2299.