5 ways to retain top talent

Traditional days of employees retiring from one steady job are over. Job security is a thing of the past. Employee layoffs in tough times are the norm, and people jumping ship often for better prospects is common.

With the job market being highly competitive and good talent scarce, people are always looking out for skilled people, and the talent is also scouring the job listings for better deals. In such a scenario, what does an organization need to do to retain talent?

One of the things that businesses have realized is that they must promote their work as an ideal location for top talent to do great work. Here are some strategies that can help in doing that.

Have good mentorship and training programs

Employees who get support for skill development in a job pay back by being more productive and engaging with the brand. 

According to Harvard Business Review’s research, in a survey of more than 1,200 high-performing employees, researchers found a huge gap between expectations and type of support and coaching those employees thought they would get and what they received. 

Most were open about scouring for better opportunities in the job market.

Flexibility

In today’s world, any company that has not adapted to the new norm of remote work culture, flexibility in schedules and work from home option is facing a bleak future. The talent pool has expanded, and geography and different time zones are no barriers with the type of technology now available. 

Skilled workers, when applying for jobs, look for companies that offer such flexibility of operations. 

The days of 9-to-5 workday are well and truly over. Even blue-collar jobs the require factory operations need to work out flexible schedules to accommodate the new ways of working if they want to retain a skilled workforce.

The focus is on productivity and what a worker achieves in his job profile rather than where he achieves it. A flexible plan that allows for both logging in from home and physically clocking into an office is ideal.

Invest in the latest tech and tools 

Outdated tools and tech create many redundancies and inefficiencies at work, which means a lot of frustrated workers at work. Investing in the latest cloud platform and management systems means that workflow is more streamlined and increased productivity.

Workers can concentrate more on important tasks after routine tasks are automated. It also shows that a company is committed to progress and cares about the workload of its employees. It exposes the talent pool to the latest available tech and keeps them engaged and motivated to do better.

Reward and recognition

The world revolves around recognition and rewards. All employees need that periodic pat on the back for motivation. Giving consistent feedback shows that you care about and are engaged in your employees’ progress and achievements. It can be in the form of monetary rewards for social recognition. Even a small lunch celebration for showing appreciation goes a long way in building loyalty and motivation.

Make the workplace less competitive and more engaged

A number of tech companies and corporates tend to grade people based on their performance and productivity. The higher graded get better pays and bonuses, and the lower graded ones face the threat of layoffs. This has been proved to be a short-term solution to push up the performance of the company.

In the long run, it leads to unhealthy competition, more focus on office politics and total disengagement from those who are not ranked high and who lose out on any incentive to do better.

Furthermore, the high-stress level of the job to continuously be on edge to do better leads to burnout. Many people opt out of the race, leaving them to consider other positions that offer more job security or a lower stress workplace

There are times when a company is left with a lot of top talent, but that is patently incapable of performing as a team.

There are too many divas, and managing them becomes a nightmare.

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