What’s your employee turnover rate right now? Whatever it is, we bet that it’s higher than you’d like.
Let’s face it: between the Great Resignation and the Great Retirement, retaining employees has become a major challenge—and that’s not good for business.
For one thing, turnover is expensive. One study found that—between recruiting, onboarding and training—the average cost to replace an employee is $15,000 a pop.
And that’s not all. Turnover hurts productivity—not just for the position in question, but the whole team. When a coworker quits, it lowers engagement and morale.
Plus, employees appreciate in value over time. Because veteran employees know their company’s processes, customers and culture, they can contribute more to their organizations.
For all of these reasons, preventing turnover is top of mind for many employers right now. And chances are, you’ve already employed some key retention strategies, like increasing compensation and offering flexible work arrangements.
But there’s always room for improvement. In that spirit, let’s examine five insightful retention strategies that are likely to resonate with your employees.
Most mentoring programs pair older, experienced employees with younger, recent hires—making it an effective way to share inhouse wisdom. That in itself is awesome, but mentoring programs do more than that.
For example, in one study, a whopping 91% of mentored employees reported job satisfaction. Satisfied employees don’t leave, which is why those employees had a 50% higher retention rate than their non-mentored peers.
But the really surprising discovery here: those who served as mentors had a more impressive 69% retention rate. Mentoring benefits all parties, while boosting retention across the board.
No doubt about it: offering internships is a surefire recruiting strategy. Last year, 57.6% of college interns were subsequently hired by the employers that sponsored them, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
But here’s the really interesting part: employees who intern are less subject to turnover. That same NACE study found that, in general, retention rates for employees who serve internships are higher than those that don’t.
And interns who are hired by their sponsoring employers have the highest retention rates of all. Today’s crop of interns may be tomorrow’s leadership team, so it’s worth going all in.