Retaining your employees can be difficult. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 38 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs in 2017. The number of quitting employees has increased each year since 2010. The impact on employers can be devastating, costing between 20% of a typical salary up to over 200% of an executive’s salary to replace an employee.
From the employee’s point of view, changing jobs and moving to a new company often results in a 10-20% increase to salary, much higher than the average raise (3%). According to Forbes, “staying employed at the same company for over two years, on average, will plummet your lifetime earnings by about 50%.”
Is new, outside talent more valuable than retaining existing employees? It is possible for employers to recruit new talent and retain existing talent at the same time.
How do Successful Companies Recruit and Retain Employees?
Salary and benefits attract employees to a company, but ultimately the work culture is what will retain employees in the long term.
Employees earning high wages and receiving great benefits still leave companies when it conflicts with their values such as work-life balance and office environment. Moreover, employees are likely to stay at a position with lower wages and benefits if they feel appreciated and love their job and coworkers.
Industries and companies have values that attract employees with compatible personalities. Some companies are laid-back, offering flexible schedules and open communication. Other companies carry a stricter atmosphere, catering to professionalism and rigid work schedules. In either case, people with dissimilar work styles will be repelled from staying with a company that doesn’t provide the environment that makes them the most productive.
Communicate Values Through Job Perks to Retain Employees
Businesses advertise the values they seek in their employees through the perks they offer at work. REI, a company that sells outdoor adventuring equipment, offers its employees opportunities to go on outdoor adventures. Airbnb gives each employee a $2,000 travel coupon each year. Netflix offers employees unlimited vacations and a year of paid paternity leave. Movie theaters offer free viewings, airlines offer free flights, breweries offer free beer, etc. The job you have should reflect what you enjoy doing in life.
You don’t need to be a large company to offer quality benefits. The key is to find a benefit that fits your company’s values. If you’re a company that values educated employees with college degrees, attract those types of employees by offering student loan benefits through IonTuition. Offering student loan assistance demonstrates to your staff that you value their backgrounds and understand how difficult the route of repaying student debt.