69% of Employees Have One Foot Out the Door– Four Strategies to Retain and Attract Top Talent

It's been almost a year since many companies pivoted to a primarily remote workforce.

But with vaccinations underway, executives everywhere are thinking about the critical next months of the pandemic. And many organizations are also getting ready for a hiring spree to help handle all the new innovations, processes, products, and improvements.

Are you are trying to keep your facility open after it has been closed partially or fully after the pandemic? Check out Stay Open Responsibly, A Guide for Safe and Healthy Workplaces.

However, even as businesses attempt to grow and build, a new report shows that 69% of employees are considering finding a new job this year, and of those 52% are actively job hunting.

Can your business handle over half your workforce leave this year?

A large turnover can lead to some major headaches and increase expenses for the company. The average cost to replace a current employee ranges from one-half to two times the employee's annual salary.

Here are four strategies you can use at your organization to help prevent mass turnover, improve retention and recruit top talent.

Find out what is important to your organization and act

One of the primary reasons employees are planning to leave their current employer is because their needs have changed, but the organization did not. The current policies, perks, and culture are no longer in line with what employees value.

Open the lines of communication and find out what is important to your organization. Talk with employees, have marketing or HR create employee surveys, and ask managers to have discussions with their teams about the things that are important to them.

Giving employees a voice to help shape the future of the company is a great way to not only engage staff but also encourage them to stick around.

Prioritize health and wellbeing

The CDC has recently determined that while cleaning and disinfection help reduces the virus spread, air quality and ventilation are now characterized as more important than surface disinfection to reduce the spread of COVID-19, especially within commercial facilities.

Check out the recording of our second edition of Peace, Love, and IFM: Beyond HVAC: Indoor Air Quality and COVID-19. We discussed indoor air quality (IAQ) changes that are needed during COVID-19 and some strategies to improve your facilities’ IAQ that go beyond the HVAC system.

They recommend a layered approach to reduce exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, within facilities. This approach includes using multiple mitigation strategies to help keep employees, visitors, and customers safe.

Make sure you communicate the measures that are being taken at your facility to keep everyone healthy and safe and encourage employees to provide feedback.

Acknowledge successes and grow from within

Remote work has proven to be a great success, not only allowing for more flexibility for employees, but it has also helped companies thrive. Over 80% of employers stated that the shift to remote work was successful for their company over the last year.

However, despite the successes of the organization, lack of recognition is one of the primary reasons that employees will leave this year, according to the report.

Don’t let the great talent of your workforce go unrecognized. These employees helped your business get through the pandemic. Make sure you acknowledge all their efforts, and praise and reward the hard work that your teams have done.

Beyond that, take some time to improve your training, increase mentoring programs, and give your staff the skills they need to grow and succeed.

Establish new employee benefits or expand current benefits

The world has changed, for businesses, facilities, families, employees, and everyone! Your organization needs to recognize that and revamp current benefits and establish new benefits that make sense in the “new world”.

For example: As schools closed and senior living facilities stopped accepting new residents due to COVID-19, many women had to leave the workforce and take on the roles of teachers, caregivers, childcare providers, etc. There are now 2.2 million fewer women in the labor force, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

To help caregivers at their facility, Guild Education unveiled the Beehive, an affordable childcare option. They are also releasing open-sourced plans so that other companies can follow suit and build similar facilities for their employees.

When your employees are your most important asset, it is important that you work toward their best interests.

If you listen and engage employees, make their well-being a top priority, help them succeed, recognize their accomplishments, and adapt benefits, you can create an environment where people want to work and want to stay.