Take 5 steps to avoid losing great employees

Employee burnout and stress are hitting organizations hard. In some cases, hiring freezes and layoffs have been hard to reverse, leading to more work for fewer employees. And in other situations, burnout is high because remote workers feel they are always on the clock.

Energage has seen waning loyalty (lower employee engagement) in survey feedback, and fewer employees are willing to recommend their company to others as a great place to work.

Despite all of these challenges, focusing on the past won’t likely be helpful. Here are five ways for employers to avoid unwanted employee breakups.

1. Prioritize your employee retention plan and make sure you’ve got support from senior leadership.
2. Determine why employees choose to stay. Use a reliable, third-party employee engagement survey to give employees a voice. And then listen to them. Really listen.
3. Know what really matters to employees. Listen to the feedback employees offer through the engagement survey. Use those insights to identify what’s going well and encourage those things. Uncover where there’s room for improvement and then go after it.
4. Turn survey insights into action. If you aren’t sure what the survey data says, enlist the help of an expert who can present high-leverage recommendations to senior leadership.
5. Review and repeat. Consider using pulse surveys for more frequent check-ins. Remember, employee engagement is a journey, not a destination.

“Organizations should resist the urge to overanalyze declines in employee engagement and instead focus on improvement going forward,” said Doug Claffey, Energage founder and chief strategy officer. “There are plenty of challenges and opportunities ahead that will impact future engagement.”

Top Workplaces take these steps to boost employee engagement and minimize unwanted turnover. And the results show. First, these award-winning companies achieve engagement levels double the U.S. average – and some even higher. A people-first culture pays dividends for these companies in terms of employee commitment.

Data from Energage shows while an average company might have an employee engagement rate of around 50%, a typical Top Workplace is closer to 70%. And among the very best Top Workplaces, it’s not unusual to see employee engagement at 80% or higher.

The takeaway? Employees at Top Workplaces feel heard, appreciated, and connected. In turn, they give their very best every day, they’re willing to recommend it to others – and they’re also committed to staying put.

Bob Helbig is media partnerships director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based employee survey firm. Energage is The Denver Post’s partner for Top Workplaces.