As top executive recruiting firms and human resources consultants are all too familiar with, issues with employee retention have become quite prevalent in the workforce of the United States – spanning many different industries and fields of work, for that matter. And the data that has been gathered on the subject is more than in support of this claim. This data shows, after all, that more than two and a half million people had left their positions on a voluntary basis by the time that the end of the year of 2015 had been reached. In addition to this, more than half of all Millennials have also stated that they would leave their current jobs if it meant taking a better one – a statistic that has earned them the title of “the job hopping generation.”
But there are a number of reasons that job hopping has become so popular – and that it has become so difficult to keep employees in one place for long. As top executive recruiting firms are well aware, a poor skills match and poor overall hiring process can lead to a failed hire, something that more than 35% of all surveyed top executives felt was a leading cause behind issues with employee retention. Fortunately, top executive recruiting firms and HR services for startups and other such companies and organizations can really make a difference. Top executive recruiting firms alone can help to cement a good hiring process in place – or at least provide high quality candidates to choose from. For this reason, top executive recruiting firms and even the typical job placement agency are both becoming more popular than truly ever before.
But this is far from the only reason that job retention (or the lack of it thereof) has become such a problem, and a prevalent one, for that matter. Unfortunately, far too few people feel supported and encouraged to do their best work in their places of employment. As a matter of fact, only a scant one fifth (around 20%) of all employees actually feel this way, leaving up to 80% feeling dissatisfied and likely apathetic as a result of the lack of support given to them by their superiors. And when apathy is in place in any given place of work, it is all too likely that the quality of said work will also suffer – perhaps even quite greatly, for that matter.
But there are steps that can be taken to improve such matters, even outside of what top executive recruiting firms and the like are able to help with. For instance, more and more places of work are instituting and employing some type of employee recognition program. While this might not seem like a huge step to take, even small changes can garner largely positive results. Employee recognition programs provide an example of exactly this, thanks to the fact that more than 85% of all companies using one have seen an overall increase in rates of employee happiness, something that can translate quite directly into better rates of employee retention. In addition to this, employees who are happy are far more likely to produce more work and work of a higher quality as well, two things that can also serve a large benefit to just about any company or place of work.
Gender diversity and ethnic diversity are two additional – and key – factors in creating a happy workplace in which employees want to stay for at least a good period of time. The benefits of having a diverse workplace even extend further past matters of employee retention alone, something that is very much supported by the data that has been gathered on the subject. In fact, gender diversity alone can increase the overall performance of any given place of work by as much as 15%. And ethnic diversity can do it even more impressively – by as much as a full 35%, a number that is not to be discounted or overlooked.
There is no denying that employee retention is a prominent problem, but it is one that can be solved here in the United States and beyond.
