Employee retention and job satisfaction are very important when managing the employees. When one employee resigns for no apparent reason it can cause a chain reaction of other employees wondering if they should be looking for other jobs and resigning. When working in human resources and managing employees it is very important to have an active employee retention strategy and to assess how well it is going and update it every year.
This article describes a number of companies who have interesting employee retention programs. To start the article cites a Gallup poll which shows that only 13% of employees feel engaged at the workplace. The five companies highlighted in this article are from among 40 companies that show an employee engagement rate over 64%. First up we have CarMax, they used an exciting strategy to manage employee retention during the recession that started in 2008. Instead of cutting benefits, perks, and recognition programs, CarMax started new training programs, new development programs, and helped existing employees earn raises. CarMax found that cultivating its current employees is more beneficial and cost effective than having to train new employees. This seems to be a very effective strategy when it comes to employee engagement, and prevents costs like having to train new employees.
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Charles Schwab seems to think that the way to employee engagement is via financial benefits. Instead of having a huge amount of new employee training programs, Charles Schwab has a 401(k) matching system that can be boosted with employee recognition rewards. The company also has a corporate bonus program that many employees actively participate in. Hyatt starts with top notch training and continues with many ways for advancement within the company itself. Hyatt has a long history of hiring from within and encouraging employees to do better and come up with creative solutions. Hyatt also has a commitment to hiring from various minority groups. Inchcape provides customers with ways to help the community at large.
For instance, the company donates money to charity and even lets employees volunteer to go help charities. A team from Inchcape spent Christmas in China helping local families and spending the day with orphans who have no one else to spend the holiday with. Inchcape also rewards employees with discounted cars and financial rewards, a strategy that has been shown to work in other companies as well. Mars, Inc. who makes a wide variety chocolate products and snacks, has had generations of employees work for it. Mars has 5 principles, quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency, and freedom, which its employees believe in and follow as well as possible. When it comes to quality, as many as 2% of M&Ms are discarded due to quality concerns. Employees say that the principles are as much cult as culture, which seems to follow from the generations of employees who have worked at Mars. There seem to be a number of strategies that work for employee retention, and each company needs to decide what strategy is best for them.
With an active employee management strategy it is possible to retain a large number of employees and stop a chain reaction when one employee resigns. Frequently empowering employees to become better versions of themselves and giving them opportunities to learn more and increase their skills helps to prevent employees feeling that they have become stagnant and have no chance for vertical movement through the company. Additionally a company with social programs is likely to have happier employees, and if employees are happy they have no reason to leave.
