How can assessments help you with employee retention?
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What is Employee Retention?
An organization’s ability to prevent employee turnover is termed employee retention.
So, what is employee turnover and why do organizations want to prevent it?
It is described as the total number of employees who leave an organization over a certain period of time. This number includes the ones who quit voluntarily and those who get fired, are laid off, or have their employment terminated for any reason.
Employees leaving have an impact on the company’s business objectives and is a key concern. The reasons why they leave are varied and will be discussed in the next section.
To address this issue, organizations rely on various parameters for analysis, one of them being the employee retention rate.
Why do Employees Leave?
It is only possible to strategize with an understanding of the cause of the problem. If you aim for increased staff retention and decreased employee turnover, be prepared to face some harsh truths.
Some key drivers that make employees leave are:
- A bad leader
- Lack of purpose
- Being overworked
- A toxic work culture
- Lack of career growth
- Lack of recognition and appreciation
The ways to deal with a toxic work environment as someone in a leadership position have been covered in another blog.
For each of these reasons, it is important to keep an open channel of communication across the organizational hierarchy. These issues can be detected before it is too late with employee engagement assessments.
Why is Employee Retention Necessary?
Businesses closing down due to the unavailability of the workforce during the pandemic has established the fact that the churn-and-burn approach to hiring does more harm than good.
Holding on to good employees and being a people-centric company has its competitive advantages. Let us understand why staff retention is essential for your organization.
1. Hiring takes effort
It consists of multiple steps like shortlisting a select few from the enormous talent pool, conducting a set round of interviews, followed by HR rounds to check if the candidate is a good fit for the company. Retaining good talent will save all this effort.
2. You have already invested time and money
A new joinee is like a block of clay. They have to be molded through training to fill in the role of the employee who left. When an employee leaves all of a sudden, the recruiters have to start all over again. The company does not get a return on the resources invested in the one who left.
3. You do not want your employees to join the competition
The employee who just resigned will likely join a competitor. When this happens, they can’t take data or other company property due to the policies and agreements they signed in your company, but they do carry their knowledge and strategic thinking.
4. Long-term employees are more loyal
The old-timers have also put in their time and expertise to advance the company’s goals. So, when rewarded with benefits, proper recognition, and appreciation, they become your most loyal brand ambassadors.
Benefits of Employee Retention
1. Greater efficiency: Long-term employees are well-versed in how things get done. They already possess the knowledge to boost efficiency thus saving time on training a new employee.
2. Higher productivity: Delays are inevitable when you hire a new replacement. The time spent in bringing them up-to-date on the process and familiarizing them with the new environment holds back overall productivity.
3. Improved morale: Working for an extended period in an organization cultivates a sense of belonging among employees. When reciprocated with acknowledgment, they tend to show higher dedication and morale. A high employee turnover rate can have the opposite effect.
4. Cost reduction: Recruitment and training are also considered when calculating the cost of hire. Hiring a new replacement and training them requires resources that can be avoided if the company can hold on to its talent.
How can assessments help?
Now that you recognize the detrimental effects of employee turnover, the next step is to come up with strategies that boost talent retention.
The data collected from employee assessment tools is one underrated strategy. Don’t make the mistake of overlooking its importance.
Assessments are usually considered a recruitment tool during the pre-hiring stage, however, if used properly, they can prove to be equally useful in fostering talent retention.
Observation, subjective knowledge, and experience can only take you so far. Behavioral assessments, Leadership assessments, Personality assessments, and other such tests provide a deeper understanding of factors that need to be considered to form an effective plan.
- Assessments help identify your employee’s strengths and areas where they need improvement. Use this information to create a development plan to help them grow in their roles and increase their job satisfaction.
- Assessments are a good way to show your employees that you value them and are willing to work for their growth within the organization. This reduces employee turnover.
- Assessments are fundamental in providing valuable feedback.
Mentioned below is an example of how you can utilize the behavioral assessment tests in our library to gain insights and workable data points to come up with employee retention strategies.
How to use the Personality Assessment (Big 5)
The Big 5 personality assessment and others based on it, help employers assess five key traits in employees. These traits are also abbreviated as the OCEAN tests:
I. Openness to Experience: Willingness to accept and explore new things and to actively seek and appreciate new experiences.
II. Conscientiousness: Tendency to be methodical, meticulous, and determined to achieve goals. A perfectionist.
III. Extraversion: Tendency to be energetic, socially interactive, emotionally positive, and impulsive.
IV. Agreeableness: Tendency to be concerned about fellow human beings and to value harmonious relationships.
V. Neuroticism/ Emotional stability: Tendency to remain composed in the face of conflicting situations through healthy coping mechanisms.
This test will help employers gain more insight into how well-suited an employee is to work in the organization’s environment at an individual level as well as a part of the team.
Key Takeaway
Think of implementing assessments in your employee retention strategy as investing in a precaution rather than struggling to search for a cure later.
Assessments will help you effectively profile the demands that come with each role, educate and coach managers on how they can get the best out of their team, develop specific learning and training opportunities, and predict potential conflicts.
Zapilio’s assessment library has a plethora of such tests that can be of help in retaining your best talents.
