The cost of employee turnover can be staggering. It can cost up to three or four times the annual salary of a position to replace an employee. That’s why retaining your top talent is not only cost-efficient but also essential for the success of your organization.
A Changing Talent Pool
As the future of work continues to rapidly evolve, organizations must adapt and create a human-centric talent life cycle experience designed for retention in a new environment.
One of your biggest challenges? Your talent pool has shifted. The traditional full-time, in-office employee is no longer the majority in today’s workforce. “Deloitte’s Forces of Change” study highlights that remote work trends, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have significantly increased off-balance sheet talent, like contractors and transactional remote workers. These individuals are crucial in engaging with customers and representing your company. Recognizing and valuing non-traditional AND traditional talent are essential for your company overall.
Consider This: How has the competition for talent and the remote work trend post-COVID impacted the composition of your talent pool?
Reengineering Talent Retention: A New Lifecycle Model
While your workforce and workplace are changing rapidly, most organizations are still focused on the traditional employee and the traditional employee lifecycle experience. The focus on company processes, like recruit, retain, onboard…, doesn’t work anymore. Your diverse talent pool has different expectations and is demanding a more humane experience.
Six Stages of a Human-Centric Talent Lifecycle Experience
To create a cohesive and meaningful talent experience, it is vital to understand the six stages of a Human-Centric Talent Lifecycle: Cultivate, Connect, Care, Contribute, Close, and Champion. These stages interplay across the talent experience.
Let’s explore the difference in this human-centric framework.
- Cultivate:
“You cultivate direct connections and indirectly a desire to do business with you.”
Cultivating talent focuses on creating connections and adding value, long before you need to post a new job opening. Organizations with strong core values, a respected reputation, and a commitment to doing good in the community attract top talent.
Consider This: How can your organization cultivate talent before opening or releasing job postings?
- Connect:
“We all learned from having to be healthy at home during COVID that we are people, people.”
Building a sense of belonging and community within the organization is vital. Whether in the office or working remotely, people need to feel connected to the organizational purpose and community. Foster relationships, help individuals understand the importance of their contributions, and build a culture of belonging.
Consider This: How do you foster a sense of community and belonging, whether employees are working remotely or as off-balance sheet contractors?
- Care:
“Gallup’s engagement research has long demonstrated that among the top drivers of engagement are that my boss cares about me and I have friends at work.”
Caring for employees as whole individuals is crucial. Gallup research shows that employees’ perception of being cared for by their boss and having friends at work are major drivers of engagement. Organizations must prioritize caring for and valuing individuals as human beings, respecting their personal lives, and helping them feel seen and included.
Gallup’s Engagement Research: Knowing people are seen and respected at work can improve their overall lives.
Consider This: How is care demonstrated, respecting and valuing each person as human beings?
- Contribute:
“People want to come to work and contribute in meaningful ways.”
People innately want to make meaningful contributions and do good work. Investing in talent development, providing constructive feedback, and facilitating career discussions all contribute to a rewarding and purpose-driven work experience. Remember, it is about giving back and making the world around you better!
Consider This: How do you invest in and empower talent to contribute at their highest levels of potential?
- Close:
“Building positive endings helps maintain relationships and fosters goodwill.”
There will be times when a relationship closes based on either the choice of the individual, the choice of the employer, or when the contract or the project ends. Honorable closure is essential. Separation may be the end of engagement, but people carry their experiences with them. They can potentially become boomerang talent or advocates for your organization. Don’t slam the door. Close with dignity and respect.
Consider This: How does your organization ensure an honorable closure of employment or contract relationships?
- Champion:
“No matter whether people are working for us today, worked for us yesterday, or want to work for us tomorrow, we must earn willing and eager advocacy.”
Aim to earn and maintain willing and eager advocacy from current, past, and potential talent. When individuals champion your organization, it positively affects not just your brand, but also the perceptions of customers and potential customers.
Consider This: How do you earn willing and eager advocacy?
Your ROI
Your aspiration is to hear: “This is an organization I love to work for because I feel seen and valued.”
By implementing this human-centric approach to talent retention, your ROI is realized in lower turnover, higher engagement and retention, improved morale, higher productivity and enhanced profitability. What your talent experiences internally will directly impact how they interact with your customers. Positive experiences lead to greater customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Reengineering Talent Retention: Strategies that Work
Tune In
Check out the episode of our popular podcast “GGG Unleashed: Better Leaders, Better Workplaces,” where we explore next-gen strategies to re-engineer talent retention with special guest: Michele Koch, former SVP, Chief Culture & People Development Officer with Republic Bank & Trust Company.
We hear a lot about advocating for a better work environment in organizations. Retention is heavily influenced by how people experience the work environment. And, how people experience the work environment is heavily influenced by culture.
You can also listen in on the deeper fireside chat I had with Michele. She pulls back the curtain on strategies that helped boost talent experience and talent retention in their organization during her tenure. Click here to watch.
Listen to previous podcasts and check out the show notes with Michelle Koch: https://vivianblade.com/podcast/
Connect with us via Linkedin!
Vivian Blade https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianblade/
Additional resources from Vivian Blade:
My books explore the crucial topics of resiliency, influence, leadership, career advancement, and more! https://vivianblade.com/books/
I’m always sharing resources and generating conversations about the topics we talk about on my podcast. https://vivianblade.com/podcast/
Don’t know where to start? How can I help improve the culture of your organization? I work with organizations to build better leaders and better workplaces. Let’s work together to enhance yours. If you’re ready to elevate your leadership, let’s have a conversation. I’m here to help.https://vivianblade.com/services/
