The success of a company owes a great deal to its employees. The more the employees remain motivated and aligned to the overall vision and goal of a company, greater are the chances of that company achieving success. It is not only necessary to hire employees with the requisite qualifications and experience but more important to retain them in the organisation for the longest period of time. As employees gain experience while working so does their knowledge about the processes and functions of the organisation.

It has been observed that in today’s job market employees rapidly switch jobs. Thus, when a trained and experienced employee leaves for greener pastures it is the company that suffers in the bargain. The company can be affected in the following ways:

• Need to fill in the vacuum by hiring another one followed by training
• During training of the new joinee, the process suffers as the workload falls upon the remaining ones
• As the workload increases without any concomitant increase in remuneration, a feel of fatigue and frustration creeps in
• The cost to the company in hiring a new employee is more than what was paid to the former
• No matter how much an employee is trained for a role the experience and knowledge possessed by the last one can hardly be replicated
• As the workload gets shared by the remaining set of employees, work schedules can go haywire and customer experience can suffer
• Unsatisfied clients or end customers can stop trusting the brand value. This can have a long term impact on the company

Given such dire consequences that can take place when an experienced employee leaves, it is incumbent upon the management to undertake employee retention policy. Seven such steps that form part of the policy are stated below:

Training: The training should not be only about the new employees but form an integral part of the overall work environment. The training can be related to cross skilling or aligning the employee to the goals and vision of the company. The employees should be made to feel that the training is in their best interest especially towards achieving career growth. However, the training process should be engaging and informative instead of being a drag. The trainer on his part can incorporate fun activities like interactive games into the training schedule.

Open lines of communication: Employees feel encouraged if the management engages them with periodic one on one communication. Also, while taking any decision regarding a process or work environment, employees should be made a party to the same by explaining its pros and cons. The employees should be made to feel important and included in the decision making process – if not in real sense but in perception.

Freedom to speak: This is related to the earlier step and emphasises on the importance of letting employees speak their minds. The employees should get the feeling that their voices will be heard. This is one of the best ways to stem disgruntlement from setting in.

Recognition: Employees should be encouraged and patted on the back by recognising their contribution or ideas in furthering the company’s growth. This can be done periodically but more so during the annual bash.

Sense of fairness: Employees should be made to feel that only merit and hard work will get appreciated instead of nepotism or skulduggery of any kind. The management should desist from resorting to office politics.

Ensure proper career growth to the deserving: Achievers should be moved on to the next level so that others get motivated to walk the same path.

HR issues: The HR department should have periodic interaction with the employees telling them about expectations, various incentives, career growth avenues, and schemes like insurance etc.