5 tips for retaining top talent

Few things are more important to a business than retaining top talent.

Although high turnover is indicative of deeper-rooted issues within a business, assessing the surface
impact of losing your talent should be worrying enough; Acas research stated that the average cost of
replacing an employee within the UK is around £30,000, with £25,000 of that cost coming from a loss of
productivity in the 28 weeks it takes to get a new hire up to speed.

The remaining cost comes from the logistics of sourcing the replacement such as agency costs,
advertisement fees, HR and management time and even the possibility of having to hire a temp before
the new starter joins. The analysis, based on figures drawn from five different industries including legal,
retail, accountancy, advertising and IT, found that the total costs for these sectors combined over the
course of a year was a shocking £4.3billion.

Why do people leave a company?

So, if it wasn’t already obvious, ensuring that your company promotes longevity and keeps hold of its
talent is a matter of extreme importance. This, then, begs the question – why do people leave? Whilst
inevitably salary plays a large role in peoples’ discontent within the workplace (16% of respondents to a
Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) agreed that this was their key motivation), finances aren’t the be-all
and end-all of retention.

Actually, far from it. The BLS put this largely down to the rise in living costs, increasing by 14% since
2015, whilst opportunities for growth or advancement opportunities came in at 11.7%, it’s unsurprising
that the largest factor that pushes people to quit by a dramatic amount, is toxic or negative company
culture at 40%.

Why do they stay?

So, the above detailed why people are keen to leave an organisation. And whilst this is worrying, HR will
no doubt be looking for solutions through the minefield of retention information. For this reason, here
are five of the best things HR can do to keep staff and ensure that their workforce is happy and
productive:

Culture

There’s no alternative to addressing your own company culture when seeking to improve retention.
Identifying the early warning signs of a toxic or hostile company culture, before it starts to have a truly
devastating effect on the business, can be the difference between thriving in the current volatile
marketplace and losing your best staff. Forbes reported on a Gallup study which found that 70% of
workers hate their job, with toxic culture identified as the biggest reason why. Staff who feel like they
are micromanaged, constantly watched and given no trust are inevitably counting down their days at
the company.

Inadequate investments in people

It’s the most obvious source of dissonance, yet lack of training is the number one contributing factor. An
ONS study recently found that 40% of managers have had no formal training in leading teams, whilst a
Shift study found that the average employee receives just 12 minutes of training every six months and
62% of employees stated that they are simply left to figure out their jobs – leading to confusion and
hostility between workers and managers.

A lack of accountability

When doubts creep into the employee psyche about a company’s commitment to its core values,
employees may use these as a justification for not reporting poor behaviour, as well as a reason to be
less careful about their own actions. One-third of employees surveyed by Weber Shandwick stated that
they believe their company doesn’t consistently hold people responsible for misconduct.

A lack of diversity

Diversity and Inclusion within the workforce has been proven time and time again to have a drastic
difference on company performance, but it also contributes largely to a positive company culture. When
people feel included and heard, they’re far more likely to invest in their work. Nearly eight in ten
employees who left their jobs last year stated that they were victims of unfair treatment such as
stereotyping, harassment, and microaggressions, according to a United Minds survey.
Poor leadership behaviours

A 2019 survey from PwC found that CEOs are being ousted from their companies, not just for poor
financial performance, but increasingly more for reasons related to poor personal conduct or other
ethical issues. This is evident in the vast string of CEO departures which have hit headlines in the last
year such as WeWork’s Adam Neumann and McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook to the resignation of
Overtstock.com’s Patrick Byrne.