How Employee Retention Consulting Helps You Keep Top Talent

Employee retention is undoubtedly a crucial area of focus for all organizations worldwide, amidst highly volatile industry markets. As a reminder, employee retention refers to how happy and satisfied employees feel when working in their company, and show no interest in leaving the company anytime soon.

Measuring employee satisfaction levels, analyzing barriers to long-term retention, and implementing effective retention strategies can be challenging for company leaders and management if not done with proper guidance and support.

That is why employee retention consulting is a niche specialization provided by HR consulting firms. In this guide, we’ll explain what retention consulting is and how companies can leverage these services by hiring an in-house or outsourced employee retention consultant.

Understanding Employee Retention Consulting

Retention consulting is a specialized niche within the broader field of HR consulting. It involves seeking expert advice and guidance on how a company can improve its retention rates after analyzing its current performance parameters.

Retention consultants assess patterns like:

• Turnover rates during different periods
• Engagement levels across teams in the organization
• Impact of leadership on employee turnover, and many more.

These patterns can be identified through periodic employee retention surveys, which employees complete to provide feedback and opinions on work-related concerns. The survey data insights are analyzed in-house by an expert HR professional.

Moreover, companies can seek the services of external retention consultants when they lack in-house professionals to assess their employees’ feedback.

Unlike HR consultants, retention consultants are not always required in a company. They are sought after mainly during phases such as high turnover, restructuring teams, and plans to expand their business. That is why companies seek employee retention consulting services on a need basis.

Why Employee Retention is Important For Business Success

Out of the several reasons highlighting the benefits of employee retention, we will recollect the main reasons why employee retention is a non-negligible aspect of a company’s growth.

First and foremost, the never-ending costs of recruiting, onboarding, relieving, and repeating the same. This cycle not only leads to monetary losses but also causes significant losses in terms of productivity and the effort required to select and train employees.

Second, a company that sees employees leave soon after joining and conducts regular hiring drives is often perceived as a toxic workplace. This pattern undermines the morale of existing employees, who also feel they can perform better elsewhere.

In most cases, people leave their workplace not just because they have a better pay offer elsewhere. Several benefits, including growth, learning, development, and the presence of dynamic leaders, contribute significantly to attracting top talent to work.

How Employee Retention Consultants Help Businesses

Just as retention surveys differ from other forms of employee feedback surveys, retention consultants are highly specialized in analyzing employee concerns based on how they will affect their tenure with the company.

Here is how an employee retention consultant typically works to identify retention issues and match them with existing gaps in the company’s framework and policies.

1. Diagnose the Root Causes of Turnover

Retention consultants guide companies on framing employee retention surveys and occasional stay interviews for all employees. They utilize data analytics and retention software platforms to help identify patterns and derive valuable insights.

Then, they map these insights to different aspects of a company’s turnover parameters, such as cultural misalignment, management gaps, role dissatisfactions, inability to provide the right benefits, and others.

2. Build Tailored Retention Strategies

After identifying the reasons for dissatisfaction and eventual turnover, retention consultants develop the most effective strategies to help companies prevent similar situations in the future. Their goal would be to align retention strategies while meeting the organization’s business goals.

Consultants develop suggestions for customized engagement initiatives, enhance existing rewards and recognition programs, and create additional opportunities for learning and professional growth. They also create and implement specialized training programs for leaders to ensure better relationships between managers and employees.

3. Redesign Employee Experience

Since most employee concerns arise from the experiences they have faced in the company, consultants review and try to revise several processes in the employee lifecycle. Retention consulting helps companies improve their onboarding experience and career development initiatives for employees.

Moreover, consultants emphasize the importance of creating clear communication channels and recognition frameworks that help boost employee morale and enhance transparency. Their efforts help companies focus on creating a comprehensive safety and health program where employees feel secure to work in an inclusive environment.

4. Implement Data-Driven Tracking Systems

Today, retention consulting primarily focuses on data and analytics, enabling consultants to guide company leaders in making informed, data-driven decisions. Data from retention surveys and other sources of employee feedback (such as 1-1 sessions with managers) help consultants and retention platforms decipher metrics related to engagement, satisfaction, and turnover intent.

This predictive analytics helps companies derive turnover patterns and identify “at-risk” employees who are on the verge of leaving the company. Retention-related metrics can help benchmark retention progress over time, allowing for further analysis of what worked and what didn't.

Benefits of Employee Retention Consulting

From learning about the tasks involved in structuring retention strategies, it can seem easy to do without any external help. However, analyzing and making decisions on retention initiatives is like the underside of an iceberg, requiring a high level of experience and expertise.

Here are some benefits of consulting with retention consultants for key decisions made by your leaders.

1. Improved Employee Engagement

Engagement across different levels is a crucial review to conduct to ensure better employee retention. Consultants help you identify and develop the right engagement initiatives to keep your employees loyal and productive.

2. Reduced Turnover Costs

Retention consultants help frame each phase of your employee lifecycle to enhance their experience in the company. Naturally, companies can reduce costs on repeated hiring, training, and onboarding.

3. Enhanced Leadership Effectiveness

Consultants are the ideal professionals to conduct highly specialized training and workshops for company leaders and managers on topics such as effective communication. They coach managers to be better listeners and try to find the root causes of employee concerns much before they decide to leave.

4. Stronger Company Culture

Retention consulting professionals are well-versed in the principles of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. They ensure that all retention and engagement initiatives target collective majorities of employees, where no individual feels left out or unheard.

5. Long-Term Productivity and Growth

Retaining your best talent for an extended period means spending less time on hiring and training, and more time on innovation and collaboration. Naturally, higher retention leads to higher output and improved business profits for your company.

Data-Driven Retention Consulting with Revaluate180

Identifying and reaching out to highly specialized retention consulting platforms involves researching different platforms and consulting firms that provide this exclusive service. Revaluate180 is one of the industry leaders in providing ideal retention strategies for small, medium, and large companies.

R180’s data-driven model combines analytics, psychology, and organizational behavior to deliver the most accurate insights for your retention roadmap. As part of the retention goals, we strive to improve the employee experience across all stages of an employee's and the organization’s lifecycle.

Our experienced consultants guide companies in the following areas:

• Curation and Change Management: Aimed at helping companies make smart, sustainable hiring decisions, matching the “right person for the right job”.
• Maximize, Develop, and Retain: Improving employee engagement, team dynamics, leadership efficiency, and retention through behavioral analytics.
• Severance: Handling sudden turnovers in a dignified manner, by sufficient contingency planning to protect brand reputation and internal morale.

Our AI-powered model provides predictive insights into potential turnover risks, enabling companies to avoid and plan for such situations before they occur.

By proactively monitoring employee satisfaction levels, you can achieve sustainable employee retention, enhanced business performance, and a robust workplace culture.

Final Thoughts

Monitoring and ensuring long-term employee retention is a challenging task for company leaders and HR professionals, who must also focus on their business deliverables. That is why it is a wise choice to utilize employee retention consulting services on a full-time or as-needed basis to ensure your employees are satisfied with their work environment.

Ready to retain your best talent? Connect with us to learn how Revaluate180 can help you build a data-backed retention strategy that lasts.