Employee Retention: Your Employment Brand Is Key
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
The last thing that companies want is to spend a lot of resources hiring employees only to have them leave in a few weeks or months. I’d like to believe that everyone agrees with me on this. That’s why it’s important not only to have a good recruitment strategy but also a good employee retention strategy.
Personally, I think that one of the big reasons employees leave organizations shortly after being hired is because what they were promised during the interview doesn’t match what they’re experiencing as an employee. There’s a disconnect. If that’s true, the first place to look is the organization’s employment brand.
Companies need to make sure that what they’re selling to candidates is what they’re delivering to employees. If you’re looking to assess your employment brand, here are a few articles that might help.
Your Employment Brand Matters Now More Than Ever
We all want the same things. Everyone wants the pandemic to be behind us. Organizations want to make money. People want to stop wearing masks and travel again. But we need to be smart about the process of re-entry. Coming across as an organization that puts profit over people might not be the best look for your employment brand – especially at a time when you need employees the most.
Employee Wellbeing Should Be Part of Your Organization’s Employment Brand
Many companies are looking for ways to stand out as an employer right now. Showing candidates and employees that the organization values wellbeing is a way to do it. The keyword here is “showing”. It’s time for organizations to let candidates and employees know they have programs in place for wellbeing. Don’t be afraid to make the wellbeing message part of the organization’s recruitment marketing strategy. It could be very helpful in attracting, engaging, and retaining talent.
Employees Today Want Jobs That Offer a Future and Good Pay
Is the key to attracting, engaging, and retaining talent really that simple? It could make some sense for organizations to ask themselves a couple of questions: Do we offer a pay and benefits package that’s internally fair and externally competitive? Does the company make it a priority to provide employees with advancement opportunities? Maybe this is the place to start when it comes to the employee experience. If organizations don’t focus on these two things, then I’m not sure that fancy amenities are going to convince employees to stay.
Employee Benefits Strategy: How Organizations Stay Competitive in Today’s Labor Market
Benefits are an important piece of an employee’s overall compensation. Yes, employees do need a competitive salary. But benefits are an opportunity to set the organization apart. The benefits that a company offers say a lot about how much they value employees and their wellbeing.
5 Ways Managers Can Support Working Parents
Over the past year, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about how the pandemic has changed work. But it’s also changed our personal and family lives. Especially if you’re a parent. About half of employed parents (52%) say it’s been difficult to handle childcare responsibilities during the coronavirus outbreak, according to Pew Research. In addition, we’re hearing that childcare is an obstacle to employees returning to the office.
Employee Retention: Think About Post Pandemic Strategies
Organizations that want to increase employee retention are going to want to communicate regularly, make employees feel safe and welcome, and give managers the tools to handle issues. Countless studies show the way to make employees stay with a company come down to making them feel wanted, giving them the tools to do the work, and thanking them for a job well done. Now is not the time to forget what it takes to keep employees engaged and connected to the company.
Every organization needs an employment brand, but the brand itself should be unique to company culture. Brands also evolve over time. So, if you’re saying to yourself, “We went through this branding exercise 5-6 years ago. We don’t need to do it again.” Well, do a quick check to be sure. Go ask a handful of people in the organization to describe the company’s employment brand. If they all respond exactly the same way, then yeah, maybe you can skip it for now.
But if you don’t get a consistent reply about what the organization’s employment brand stands for, then maybe it’s time to assess and adjust the brand.
Images captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Fort Lauderdale, FL
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