How to Improve Employee Retention (15 Effective Strategies)

Employee turnover and absenteeism are significant issues affecting workplaces worldwide. More specifically, quiet quitting and subsequent silent turnovers have a compounding effect on losses that companies face in terms of reduced productivity and revenue.

For these reasons, employee retention and related initiatives are now a critical part of every company's HR activities. Retention strategies help companies focus on retaining their talented employees and ensuring they remain engaged and committed to the organization.

In this guide, we have compiled some of the proven strategies that have recently helped companies improve employee retention and establish themselves as trusted employer brands.

Why Employees Leave in the First Place?

According to Gallup trends on employee retention and attraction:

• One in two U.S. employees is ready to leave their current organization.
• Four times as many employees left their jobs due to a poor engagement culture and work-life balance in the company as those who quit due to pay or benefits.
• 37% quit their jobs because they no longer found their skills relevant to the jobs they held, with limited opportunities for growth and development.

These trends clearly demonstrate the need for companies to reassess and revise their core policies, which can act as barriers to employee retention. A poor company culture or disengagement often results due to the following reasons, forcing employees to leave their jobs ultimately.

1. Lack of growth opportunities

When employees realize that their skills are no longer relevant in the current industry landscape, they must upskill themselves to remain employable. However, a lack of opportunities to learn and grow while working can lead employees to quit their jobs in search of better opportunities.

2. Poor management or leadership communication

Decision-making by the top management should consider the collective opinions of all employees without any bias or prejudice. Insufficient communication channels or poor interpretation of employee opinions by leaders often result in ineffective decisions that can cause employees to feel unheard or undervalued.

3. Burnout and poor work-life balance

When managers are unable to delegate tasks fairly among all team members, some team members tend to become overworked. Working beyond their limits often leaves employees with no time for leisure or personal time, causing them to feel burned out. Consequently, this can impact their physical and mental well-being, leading them to consider switching their current job.

4. Inadequate compensation or recognition

Failing to receive proper recognition for significant contributions and comparing it to the way their peers are recognized elsewhere often makes employees feel that the company does not value them as they deserve. A poor rewards and recognition system is a common reason for turnover.

5. Misaligned culture and values

Companies must ensure all their leaders, managers, and HR professionals live by their core policies as an example for employees to follow. Failing to promote an inclusive culture, having disengaged or negative team members, leaders who bring in partiality and bias, and not meeting fair expectations for all employees make employees feel that the company is a toxic place to work.

15 Strategies to Improve Employee Retention

Sudden, unexpected employee turnover can be easily avoided if companies focus on the root cause.

Understand your employees! Hear them out during different phases of their lifecycle in your company. If employees have what they need to remain productive at work, there is no room for uncertainty to persist in the company.

Not sure how and where to start? Here are some areas where you can initiate changes to improve your employees’ expectations and satisfaction levels:

1. Strengthen Onboarding and Orientation

The first week at work is when employees get to see how their expectations from their new job coincide with reality. The onboarding experience can motivate employees to remain productive or allow them to make a job switch as soon as possible.

Along with hiring the right candidates for the job role, ensure that your orientation process clearly conveys the company and the team’s expectations from them. Also, provide sufficient channels for employees to provide their feedback, so that their valuable suggestions can be taken into consideration.

• Conduct onboarding surveys to understand how employees are satisfied upon their entry and how the company fulfills their expectations.
• Provide opportunities for employees to interact with top management, key leaders, and their new team members to facilitate interactions and clarify any questions.
• Elaborate on the different channels of communication and representatives to approach for any concerns, so that employees never feel lost or unheard.

2. Develop Mentorship Programs

A mentor can help handhold employees for as long as possible once they join a company. Pairing a new joiner with an experienced mentor is a warm way to welcome the employee, so that they feel comfortable, get inspired by their journey, and can always reach out to their mentor for aid.

Moreover, mentorship programs help employees reach out to mentors for various purposes, including serving as a guide within their team, navigating organizational culture, resolving technical issues, and more. Special recognition may be given to such mentors who have helped employees resolve their issues, thereby encouraging more employees to start mentoring and improving the company culture.

• Have a voluntary or mandatory mentorship program where skilled and experienced employees can help new joiners and others who wish to grow in a similar manner.
• Create a separate recognition portal where mentors appreciate and encourage their mentees for their efforts.
• Also, ensure the mentors are rewarded or compensated effectively based on the number of employees they mentor.

3. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits

Pay packages and insufficient compensation for the work they do are often common reasons why employees seek other opportunities. Additionally, indirect benefits, like flexible work hours, health insurance, bonuses, rewards, paid leave, and similar factors, can motivate or demotivate employees to stay in their current job.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, flexible work hours and remote roles are given higher preferences over pay packages. Therefore, companies must ensure that their compensation packages are continually updated to reflect current industry standards, while also providing sufficient benefits to keep employees productive.

• Revise your pay packages annually to ensure your company offers the best compensation among your peers in the industry.
• Conduct fair annual appraisals so that your employees feel valued for getting what they deserve.
• Collect employee feedback regularly to understand how satisfied they are with the benefits you provide, and revise them to suit the majority of your employees.

4. Invest in Employee Well-Being

Healthcare benefits are among the mandatory compensatory benefits that employees are increasingly seeking in their job roles, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. A comprehensive health insurance with coverage on physical and mental wellness, extendable to immediate family members, helps employees feel secure at work while safeguarding their loved ones.

A well-implemented safety and health program can help companies be prepared to face any crises and pandemics that can completely shift an organization’s work dynamics. The way a company handles employees during periods of their physical or mental health challenges plays a crucial role in their retention with the company.

• Ensure your health insurance cover includes the latest health challenges and medical procedures that most of your employees require assistance with.
• Have dedicated mental health professionals and therapists in the office whom employees can reach out to when they find it challenging to navigate their day-to-day life.
• Encourage employees and their teams to engage in recreational and team-building activities to take breaks from work.

5. Improve Communication and Transparency

Effective communication between employees, leaders, and company management should be two-way. Any miscommunication or lack of transparency can cause employees to feel that the company does not value them.

Additionally, a lack of clarity in employee feedback can lead to poor decision-making by company management. A robust internal communications channel, periodic engagement surveys, and leaders connect sessions help facilitate clear communication among employees and the company management.

• Have an engaging internal communication system where the company can share information while also getting instant feedback.
• Encourage managers to hold regular one-on-one sessions with their team members to understand their pulse and bring any issues to the attention of senior leaders.
• Collect feedback surveys regularly and share the results/insights with all participants and leaders to decide on the further course of action.

6. Offer Continuous Feedback and Recognition

Feedback works wonders in retention, where managers and peers provide constructive criticism and appreciation for employees’ contributions. Recognition for exceptional work makes them feel worthwhile and that their work has made a difference.

Teams and managers must hold regular meetings where they appreciate and recognize the contributions of employees, while also sharing areas of improvement. Peer support and encouragement help boost the morale of every team member.

• Create different levels of authority for employees to recognize and reward their peers and reportees.
• Encourage employees to share any kind of feedback or concerns transparently with their leaders and managers.
• Make regular appreciation and peer recognition a mandatory activity for employee engagement.

7. Provide Career Development and Upskilling Opportunities

The top reason to switch companies today is the lack of opportunities for professional and personal growth while working with the current company. Opportunities for learning and upskilling enable employees to continue learning and growing while fulfilling their work duties.

Companies can partner with multiple learning and development platforms to help employees acquire skills that enhance their current roles, while also staying current in the job market. Leadership training, team management, personality development, and similar trainings help employees get prepared to ascend the corporate ladder.

• Allow employees to pursue distance learning by tying up with top universities and professional training centers.
• Encourage employees to attend mandatory skill and technical workshops by offering paid leave and other benefits.
• Train managers and team members to balance work tasks efficiently, allowing all employees sufficient time for skill development.

8. Empower Managers to Lead Better

Managers can be a reason for employees to stay in the company, as well as a reason for them to quietly leave. This is because managers are the immediate point of contact whom employees must reach out to in case of concerns. However, when differences arise between managers and employees, the latter often have no choice but to quit.

To avoid such situations, train your managers to be unbiased and fair in their dealings with all reportees. Managers must be encouraged to put themselves in their employees' shoes and understand how they can best support them.

• Hold regular leadership training sessions to help new and growing managers discuss the latest challenges and solutions.
• Empower managers to be an authorized voice of the company in communicating company-wide decisions and initiatives to employees personally.
• Encourage managers to lead by example, demonstrating to their reportees how to manage time, handle technical issues, resolve conflicts, and be a good listener, among other skills.

9. Build a Strong, Inclusive Company Culture

Employees form a company’s most important asset. The way a company cares for its employees reveals a great deal about how it values the quality of its products and services.

Equal and fair treatment of all employees, embracing diverse cultures and identities while leveraging collective strengths, celebrating significant cultural festivities, upholding strong core policies, and working together to support one another during challenges, defines a healthy company culture.

• Ensure that your employees do not feel excluded because of their background.
• Have strict rules relating to sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
• Frame your company’s policies while abiding by DEI principles.

10. Encourage Work-Life Balance

All work and no time to spend with family and for recreation makes employees feel burned out. High work stress and increasing work pressure are often a silent reason for employees to quit their jobs and move to places that offer flexible work schedules and a tolerable workload.

Several office spaces are now introducing engagement and recreational initiatives to help employees unwind and take breaks from their work. Spending time with their loved ones and taking up pleasure and hobby activities helps employees get the much-needed boost to remain productive at work every day.

• Have an hour dedicated in a work week exclusively for fun recreational activities at the team or company level.
• Managers must encourage employees to take leave after hectic work schedules to reduce feelings of burnout.
• Companies can offer flexible working hours, remote working options, and similar arrangements for employees who need to care for their loved ones, such as new mothers, those caring for elderly parents, or young children.

11. Foster Team Collaboration and Connection

The working team has a significant impact on an employee's overall attitude at work. Even one disengaged team member can lower the energy levels of the entire team. In contrast, a highly motivated team member can boost the morale of other team members and encourage them to work to their best efforts.

Teams must be encouraged to embrace diverse employees and leverage their unique strengths to their benefit. Amicable conflict resolution, transparent communication, avoiding biases, and regular team connection sessions are ways to help team members form stronger bonds with each other beyond their work goals.

• Encourage team members to participate in team-bonding activities both within and outside the workplace.
• Conduct role-plays where every member gets a turn to mediate, make decisions, analyze viewpoints, and share opinions.
• Ensure all members are aware of the work done by each other so that no work remains stuck and no one member becomes a bottleneck during emergencies.

12. Recognize and Reward Employees Regularly

Rewards and recognition are second, next to attractive pay packages, which influence employees' decisions about whether to stay in the company or leave for one that offers better recognition. Timely recognition, even with just a few words of appreciation, can motivate an employee to work harder than before and exceed expectations.

Most companies nowadays have a separate rewards and recognition portal to encourage peer recognition and reward. Such portals enable faster rewards and reimbursement, and also provide instant recognition companywide, making employees identifiable through their achievements and skills, rather than their backgrounds.

• Apart from regular quarterly, half-yearly, and annual performance awards, introduce spot awards for instant recognition at any time.
• Offer various reward options, such as coupons, cash, points, vouchers, and more, which employees can redeem for the rewards they have earned.
• Recognize and appreciate employees on a common platform so that the whole team, group, and organization get to know employees for their contributions.

13. Make Data-Driven Decisions

Retention initiatives for all employees in the company require careful deliberation and decision-making. Coming up with initiatives that do not satisfy a majority of your employees only leads to more losses, without serving the original purpose.

For these reasons, companies must leverage data insights and analytics from tools like feedback surveys and pulse surveys to determine which initiatives will work best.

Platforms like Revaluate180 help companies track employee sentiments, analyze turnover trends, and compute employee engagement scores to provide accurate insights that support informed management decisions.

• Invest in a good employee retention software platform.
• Utilize engagement tools and surveys to gauge your employees' sentiment and gather valuable insights.
• Take the help of an HR consulting firm to deduce the insights from your feedback and engagement surveys, and decide on the best retention initiatives.

14. Conduct Stay and Exit Interviews

While turnovers are sometimes inevitable, never forget to conduct exit interviews. Such interviews help understand where the company failed in meeting the exiting employees’ expectations and how it can be improved to prevent similar exits in the future.

Stay interviews are often conducted when employees share with their managers their wish to leave the company in the near future. Responses from employees in stay interviews help managers and leaders take prompt actions to prevent them from leaving the company by addressing their reasonable demands.

• Have a handy checklist of exit interview questions to ask employees during their last day of work.
• Conduct periodic engagement surveys to determine if employees are exhibiting signs of potential departure.
• Encourage your managers and employee mentors to conduct occasional check-ins with your employees, engaging with them on a deeper level.

15. Align Employee Purpose with Organizational Vision

Employee engagement initiatives not only help employees meet their personal and professional goals, but also make them feel that they have a greater purpose in serving the organization they work for. All employees must develop the understanding that they collectively fulfill the company’s vision to achieve their own personal goals and growth.

Top leaders and managers must play a significant role in instilling the company’s vision in the minds of all their employees. When leaders lead by example and show how it is done, all others follow their lead.

• Have monthly or quarterly articles from top management shared with all employees on how the company is performing in relation to its competitors.
• Encourage transparent information sharing, giving no space for rumors and anxiety.
• Create a separate session during employee onboarding/orientation to demonstrate the company’s growth, vision, and how every employee’s contribution shapes the company’s future.

How Revaluate180 Helps Improve Employee Retention

Improving employee retention is easier said than done. The key lies in understanding what employees truly need to stay motivated and committed. While surveys help capture feedback, interpreting results and turning them into action often remains a challenge.

This is where Revaluate180 comes in. Using AI and predictive analytics, we help companies detect early signs of disengagement and uncover the root causes behind turnover. Our data-driven consulting approach examines the whole picture from team dynamics and leadership to culture and communication to deliver actionable retention insights.

We design tailored retention strategies that enable HR leaders to make smarter, people-focused decisions, resulting in stronger engagement and long-term loyalty.

From engagement surveys and team workshops to customized action plans and value-building programs, Revaluate180 helps organizations turn insights into measurable impact.

Final Thoughts

Turnovers can be easily avoided with the right retention strategies that accurately target neutral or disengaged employees in your company. By regularly collecting engagement surveys and pulse surveys, you can gain insight into the primary concerns that are prompting your employees to consider switching jobs or exhibit signs of leaving.

Interpreting feedback surveys, understanding blocker issues, and framing effective retention strategies can be challenging for company leaders, who are often juggling multiple other issues that require their attention. Reach out to us if you need assistance in evaluating your company’s retention rates and identifying opportunities for improvement in employee retention.