A global crisis as enormous as the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed every aspect of the business world. From organizational structure and policies to employees’ needs and work culture, the pandemic has reshaped everything. But many organizations are not able to reconstruct their employee retention strategies and business policies to match with the new set of employee expectations. As a result of this misalignment –
52% of employees are looking for a new job this year which is a significant 43% increase from 2020 and 2019
As organizations stand on the edge of a post-pandemic world, the global job market is anticipated to make a major rebound. This is increasing the need for the CHRO and organizational leaders to consider revamping their organization’s retention strategies.
Steps to consider while reconstructing employee retention strategies
Amidst the flux created by COVID-19, maintaining an engaged workforce where employees feel valued and motivated even during remote working, is an effective way to ensure stability within an organization. By creating viable employee retention strategies, organizations can attain higher productivity and increased organizational performance.
Employee Feedback
When rebuilding organizational policies and strategies, feedback from employees is a crucial component that companies must acknowledge, especially during a time as complex as the pandemic. Employers must make an effort to analyze the feedback they receive and make changes to cater to employee demands because this is the only way to reduce the risk of losing potential employees. Organizations can start collecting employee feedback by addressing the following key issues:
- How to improve work culture during the pandemic?
- How to improve the employee experience?
- How to improve diversity and inclusion within the organization?
- What are the work preferences of employees post COVID-19?
Create a culture of recognition
One of the keys to creating effective employee retention strategies is by facilitating a culture of record recognition within the organization. Feeling of underappreciation can also contribute to reduced employee engagement in an organization. It is also a reason why some employees feel overlooked and less connected to their companies.
Moving forward, organizations must focus on establishing employee connectivity and productive work culture by creating a more transparent and open communication platform that also focuses on increased recognition. On the other hand, employers must not forget to prioritize connection for remote workers especially if the firm is planning to keep a portion of employees entirely remote post-pandemic.
Maintaining work-life balance and productivity
Organizations often mistake work flexibility as work-life balance. Even though employees have gained significant flexibility as a result of remote working due to the pandemic, many employees still struggle to maintain synchronization between their work and personal life. The reason why several organizations lose their valuable employees is because of the disturbing work-life equilibrium and burnout that employees go through. In addition to this, remote working has also raised a new concern where managers are often doubting employee productivity that ultimately causes employees to start work earlier or keep working even after office hours.
Such employee concerns can eventually lead to burnout, employee disengagement, reduced productivity, and turnover. CHRO and organizational leaders can help managers and executives to deter workforce uncertainties by providing training and educating the employees on result-oriented management that focuses more on the outcomes of employee’s work rather than the time spent in the home office. This can only be done when managers themselves implement the same in their work routine by shutting off their computer after work hours and making sure to encourage vacation time within the employees.
As we move towards the second half of 2021, organizations must commit to building back a healthy work culture considering employee feedback and therefore, help employees foster a better work-life balance to keep them on board.
