We know that it’s far cheaper to retain an employee than to replace them.
But in order to understand how to retain, we first need to understand the elements that go into an employee’s decision to stay or leave their job.
Generally speaking, there are three broad categories of elements that make up an individual’s decision on to stay or quit their job:
1. Overall Compensation
This is the most straight forward of the three. How much do they make? What are their benefits? And – the most critical factor – how does it compare with the salary and benefits they would get for doing essentially the same job elsewhere?
This is the area that a manager likely has the least amount of control over. HR people have their salary ranges and their benefits packages and, whether they are fair market value or not, there’s usually not much to be done about it unless you are a high-level executive.
As a manager, make sure you’re documenting reasons to argue for salary increases and promotions so that you can make the case. It also may not hurt for you to ignore the official vacation policy, and allow your rock star employees an off-the-record extra day or two here or there.
2. Career Progression
Career progression is the notion that this job is helping them to advance along their desired career path.
Does their day-to-day work help them to develop the skills and experience necessary to get them to their professional goals? In this case, it’s critical for a manager to understand what an employee’s long-term goals are, and to help them draw correlations between the things they are doing today and how it will help them out tomorrow.
It’s also important to budget for professional development activities, like conferences or trainings. Not only will the knowledge they gain help them do their current job better – it will also set them up for success tomorrow.
Originally published on TNLT by Karlyn Borysenko.