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Retaining Your Top Talent: Insights from Hive’s State of Employee Retention Report

Retaining Your Top Talent: Insights from Hive’s State of Employee Retention Report

In today’s competitive job market, retaining top talent has become more important than ever. Employee turnover costs can equal up to one-third of the employee’s annual salary, meaning that retaining your talent not only helps to keep costs down but also ensures that your business continues to thrive. 

Employee retention impacts

However, it’s not always easy to know what employees are looking for when it comes to job satisfaction and retention. That’s where our 2023 State of Employee Retention Report comes in. This report surveyed employees from over 200 UK organisations to find out what motivates them to stay in their current job, and what factors contribute to their decision to leave.

Stay with us to find out what they had to say, and take away insight into how you can retain your top talent. 

Does remote-work retain employees?

Working from home illustration

Now, you might be surprised to hear that year-on-year retention rates have actually dropped for many remote-based businesses. Working remotely can be really challenging for some people. Feeling isolated, struggling to balance work and personal life, and difficulty collaborating with coworkers are just a few of the issues that can arise. Plus, now that remote work is becoming more normalised, employees have more options and don’t feel as tied to one specific company or region – you can now sit in the North East of England in the comfort of your home whilst working for an organisation in Westminster. 

That’s not to say you need to completely rule out remote working, but have you considered a hybrid approach? Or better yet, why not survey your employees to see exactly what it is they’re looking for. Remote working doesn’t suit every organisation, but for those it can, why not ask exactly what your people would prefer so you can stop your talent heading for the virtual door.

Think retention, retention, retention

Organisations that prioritise talent attraction and retention as part of their HR strategy achieve an increase in retention rates. Who’d have thought it! 

It sounds obvious that when you focus on the things you want, you have a high chance of achieving it. Investing in a positive culture, offering competitive salaries and benefits, and providing opportunities for learning and development can improve the employee experience and positively impact employee retention rates.

On the other hand, organisations that focused on culture and values, career development, wellbeing, or diversity and inclusion saw a drop in retention rate. However, this doesn’t mean these factors shouldn’t be prioritised. Many factors could impact their success. If you want to improve retention, then talent attraction and retention should be your focus. 

But, focusing on these individual factors alone may not be sufficient to retain your talent. Finding out what’s important to your people (e.g. culture, benefits, career progression, leadership, and employee wellbeing) will give you the full picture, helping to create a well-rounded talent retention strategy. When you know exactly what factors you could improve alongside talent attraction and retention, you can improve the likelihood of keeping your top talent within your organisation. Using employee feedback tools can support you in gathering this insight. 

Larger organisations need to be more connected

What does retention look like for those with larger workforces? Well, we found that organisations with 5,001 to 10,000 employees had the poorest retention rates. 

Managing and maintaining a large workforce can pose challenges such as communication, difficulty catering to everyone in terms of benefits and feeling a lack of a sense of belonging, especially in a time of remote working. 

It’s hard to please everyone, especially in those larger workforces, but ensuring you do your best as an organisation to stay connected to your employees to understand what matters most to them, is key to retaining them. Regular surveys, anonymous messenger services and always-on listening tools are great ways to gather regular feedback from your people, and get a better understanding of what they need to feel like they are listened to and really belong. This, ultimately, can help with your employee retention. 

To conclude

In conclusion, retaining top talent is crucial for the success of any business, especially in today’s competitive job market. To learn more about the findings and take actionable steps to retain your top talent, download the full report now. Retaining your talent not only helps to keep costs down but also ensures that your business continues to thrive. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your employee retention strategy. 

Enjoyed reading this blog? We’ve got more on the topic of employee retention. Read our blog on what employees really want using data-backed insights from our 2023 State of Employee Retention Report.

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