What is your best strategy for retaining workers?
This question was asked during my one-on-one interview with Laurie Dalton, CHRO of gategroup North America, at the HRO Today Forum in Chicago. Through Dalton’s “People First” initiative, gategroup takes actions to ensure employees stay with the company. There is a large focus during the first 90 days to build new worker trust and loyalty.
A member from the audience shared that their approach to increase retention is offering worker flexibility. Employees are empowered to set their own schedules with fl ex time or they can opt to work from home. The organization tracks the success of the program through surveys, and results show that it has rated very well.
It’s no surprise this question was top of mind at our annual gathering of senior-level HR executives. Recent research from Glassdoor finds that 51 percent of employees are looking for a new job -a main driver for organizations to implement strategies around retention. The same study found that 75 percent of job seekers consider benefits to be very important or extremely important when considering a job opportunity. The moral of the story? Retention and organizational benefits go hand in hand.
What can companies do? CHRO of Independence Blue Cross Jeanie Heffernan provides seven perk-driven approaches that organizations may have not considered yet to engage employees to be more productive and loyal. For example, how about offering employees paid time off to get in those essential doctor appointments that no one wants to use vacation days for? Or perhaps helping employees get healthy through nutritional counseling to make those annual physicals more successful? To learn five others, see Outside-of-the-Box Benefits on page 54.
We also explore how workplace design can have an impact. With average workers spending more than 10 full years in an office over a lifetime according to Psychology Today, organizations that support employees with work-life balance amenities, like onsite dry cleaning and childcare, and the latest in virtual reality technology, earn a competitive advantage. Get more ideas in Thoughtful Design on page 56.
And I’d love you to tell me: What is your best strategy for retaining workers? Email or tweet me, and we’ll share it with our readers in our next issue.
Debbie Bolla
Editorial Director
