Employee Retention Strategies Archives

Guide to Employee Engagement and Retention in Financial Services Industry

Employee engagement is a workplace strategy to strengthen a worker’s commitment and emotional ties to the organization. It includes many initiatives regarding employees’ job roles, placement within the company, interpersonal relationships with fellow employees, and company culture. One of the most important roles of Human Resource professionals is to use employee engagement methods to boost well-being and productivity across all company levels.

Employee engagement programs aim to foster a culture wherein employees are motivated to put their best foot forward daily. The program also aims to inspire employees to contribute to the company’s overall performance by ensuring they are dedicated to its purpose, goals, and values. A highly engaged workforce is directly proportional to lower turnover, higher employee morale, and stronger business outcomes.

Employee Engagement in Finance Industry

The financial service industry forms an important part of a country’s economy and is always evolving and growing. Banks, in particular, have witnessed explosive growth and expansion over the last decade. Rising incomes have further propelled the need for financial services resulting in a great boom in advanced technology and prompt communication systems.

What fuels the finance service industry’s growth is a team of committed employees enhancing the customer experience and making the brand credible. However, the banking industry faces significant challenges in managing its talent. A survey by Gallup concludes that only 23% of employees feel engaged at work. Although the percentage has increased remarkably, not even 1 in every 4 workers is engaged, so there is definite room for improvement.

The banking sector has traditionally struggled with employee engagement. The outcome is a high staff turnover rate and absenteeism in the sector. The banking sector has been facing the highest turnover rates, at 18.6%, according to a Compdata survey.

Also read: How to Recognize the Warning Signs of Employee Disengagement

Importance of Employee Engagement in the Finance Industry

Developing and sustaining employee engagement is pivotal to every industry, especially as “the great resignation” has triggered a high competition for talent in organizations across the globe. Implementing employee engagement initiatives in the finance sector can enable employees to influence decisions, perform at their best, and drive business outcomes.

Engaging with their job, company, and colleagues makes employees feel more energized and efficient, and they go beyond what’s expected. Naturally, this nurtures their mental health at work and can positively influence colleagues and customers around them.

At the company level, employee engagement increases overall profitability. According to a Gallup analysis, highly engaged organizations observe 20% higher sales than disengaged ones.

Here are a few more benefits of an effective employee engagement program at the workplace:

Engaged employees are likelier to stick with their employer. They feel emotionally connected to the company and commit themselves to the development and success of the company’s bottom line.
Engaged employees are emotionally and professionally competent to accept new and challenging tasks.
Engaged workers feel responsible and do not hesitate to discuss company-wide issues with their peers and management.
An effective employee engagement program transforms the workplace into a vibrant and exciting workplace.
Prioritizing employee engagement helps staff create and deliver enhanced customer experiences that improve the company’s competitive position and increase brand equity.
Engaged employees are productive brand ambassadors, allowing banks to attract more talent in today’s competitive labor market.
A report on employee retention trends in financial services by PWC states that 53% of finance professionals consider changing jobs within a year of joining. A strong employee engagement program can aid employee retention strategies with the financial service industry facing a great reshuffle.

Key Employee Retention Strategies for Employee engagement in finance industry

With high turnover and high levels of absenteeism dominating the finance industry, an effective employee engagement strategy can strengthen the relationship between the employer and the employee. Here are the top 4 drivers of employee engagement to keep in mind for optimal results:

Leverage Employee’s Strengths

Employees want a job they find interesting and enjoy. Making the job role challenging can help interest employees. Job roles should be devised to leverage an employee’s strengths. Additionally, a well-drafted job description can help employees understand their organizational roles and responsibilities well. This, in turn, eliminates any ambiguity regarding the workflow.

How to achieve this:

The job description and necessary professional qualifications should be explicit throughout the application and interview.
Obtain regular feedback from the employee to understand their perceptions.
Provide opportunities for employees to put their strengths to use. Have an open communication about career advancement and progression opportunities.
Invest in training and development programs. One of the most important components of employee engagement is the opportunity for personal and professional development. In one study, 92% of the employees feel that access to learning and development opportunities would increase their job engagement. Data demonstrates that a more engaged staff provides superior customer service.

Run a Reward and Recognition Program

An effective staff reward and recognition program is a fantastic approach to giving constructive criticism and encouraging both small-scale and large-scale progress. A study found a significant link between appreciating employees’ efforts and happy workers. 83% of workers employed by a firm with a recognition program expressed satisfaction with their positions. A valuable tool for attracting and keeping the top personnel, a reward and recognition program promotes a respectful work atmosphere.

There is a very subtle difference between employee recognition and reward. Acknowledging your team’s efforts and accomplishments is known as employee recognition. However, rewards (monetary or non-monetary) may be utilized as a motivator to increase performance.

What components to choose when recognizing and rewarding employees:

Private and public recognition
A raise or promotion
A company-wide awards function
Monetary rewards or coupons
A company or team-wide email appreciating the individual
Extra time-offs
Paid vacation days for the employee’s family
Recognizing both team and individual efforts

Also read: 10 Ways to make your Employee Recognition Program a Success

Listen to Your Employees

One way to make employees feel valued is to hear their concerns, opinions, and grievances. Leaders should welcome employees’ input. Active listening helps organizations cultivate a culture where employees do not fear voicing their opinions and are open to receiving and giving feedback.

How to facilitate active listening:

Implement an open-door policy and take continuous feedback from employees.
Surveys and feedback systems are great tools for facilitating active listening. These forms can communicate collective concerns, issues, and feedback accurately and anonymously. It allows employers to be more informed about their team’s sentiments.
Avoid taking feedback personally.
Draft a plan or strategy to act on the feedback received.
Follow up and inform your employees about your plan of action.
Encourage employee feedback and communicate your appreciation.

Ensure Transparent Communication

A study reveals that organizations that readily share information with employees and encourage them to participate in company processes manage to develop a favorable reputation among employees and beyond. Transparent communication is one of the prime factors contributing to employee happiness.

Transparent communication also helps employees better cope with change. A study found that building trust based on transparent communication allows employees to better accept and cope with organizational changes. For instance, a change in the company’s management due to mergers and acquisitions might substantially affect an employee’s daily work life. Providing employees with real-time updates can help them prepare for changes to occur in the future.

How to promote transparent communication in the workplace:

Maintain a balance between expressing empathy and respecting privacy.
Use different channels of communication depending on their effectiveness and applicability.
Be clear about your values.
Avoid jargon; use words everyone can understand.
Share real-time updates.
Explain why certain information cannot be shared.

Also read: Why Does Workplace Communication Matter?

While the financial service sector has been navigating high turnover rates, prioritizing and improving employee engagement can help. Implement an employee retention strategy guide that supports employees and creates a top-performing workforce.

Wrapping Up

When done with good intent, employee engagement can cultivate a positive work culture, resulting in more devoted employees and growth for the organization. Since absenteeism and turnover are major concerns in the industry, an effective employee engagement strategy is what the finance industry needs right now.

A robust employee engagement platform can help streamline your initiatives to build trust, facilitate communication, and introduce recognition programs. Engagedly is a multi-faceted platform that aims at improving the employee experience. Our cloud-based performance management software focuses on increasing employee engagement and helps HR professionals manage employee productivity and progress efficiently. Visit our website today!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. How can a business identify actively engaged employees?

Ans. Actively engaged employees are invested in their job roles and the company. They take initiative, possess good leadership and interpersonal skills, and have a positive outlook on the company’s future and strong work ethics.

Q2. What are some of the HR metrics to measure employee engagement?

Ans. The following HR metrics can be used to measure employee engagement:

Employee satisfaction surveys
Turnover rates
Absenteeism rates
Employee net promoter scores (NPS)

Q3. What is the relation between employee engagement and KPIs?

Ans. KPIs or key performance indicators help increase employee engagement by providing accurate and insightful data to measure employee engagement levels. Additionally, it helps identify the causes of high turnover and absenteeism rates.

Subscribe To The Engagedly Newsletter

10 Best Employee Retention Strategies to Keep Your Best Talents

How do you retain top talent in your company? Organizations are constantly searching for employee retention strategies to keep their employees in today’s competitive environment.

Employee retention is a challenge for every organization. The cost of replacing employees is high, and the benefits of retaining them are even higher. If you want to keep your best workers, you must take steps to ensure they stay happy and productive.

An effective employee retention strategy is a critical competitive differentiator. It allows a business to retain its employees, which helps it operate at a higher level. Those who achieve high employee retention rates operate from a position of strength, both in meeting business goals and recruiting new employees.

Here are the Employee Retention Strategies that can Help You:

1. Provide an attractive compensation package

You must ensure a competitive and fair salary throughout the organization. Your job offer should include salary, bonus, stock options, health insurance, vacation time, etc. It would help if you made sure that these things align with what other people at your company earn.

Factors such as development opportunities, compensation benefits, rewards and recognition, and work culture play a vital role in holding back your employees. If you provide an attractive compensation package, it will entice your best employees to stick around. They know they have plenty to gain by staying with your company.

2. Offer flexible work arrangements

When someone leaves a company, there is often a gap between off-boarding and joining the next job. It creates a no income period, though the person still has to spend on gas and food while looking for alternative employment.

To avoid this problem, you should have flexible work hours or working from home. These arrangements allow your employees to continue earning money during this transition period.

3. Recognize that retention starts with recruiting

Retention begins at the very beginning, from when you prepare the job description to when you choose who to interview. It starts by identifying which aspects of culture and strategy are important to you, then finding those qualities in your candidates.

“The longer someone is with your company, the better they get at their job. You need to make sure everyone is fully engaged and partakes in the company‘s ongoing success,” says Dan Pickett, Former CEO, Nfrastructure. He followed this approach in his company and was successful in retaining above 97% of their employees, which is an impressive feat to achieve in the IT industry.

4. Encourage communication.

If you wish to retain your top performers, you need to ‌enhance your communications process. The internal communication about employee growth and development between the employees and management is pivotal for any organization. It not only attracts the top talents but also provides higher job satisfaction to its existing employees.

Effective Communication not only creates a positive work environment by building trust and relationships but also induces the employees to perform better by minimizing the errors. As the employees are well-aware of changes being made within the company, they are more adaptive to these changes because of effective communication.

5. Identify the candidates who will stay long term

How can you select candidates who are most likely to stay? You can tell if they’re qualified by looking at their resume. First, look for employees who have been at their current job for a long time.

Try to look beyond their resume to understand if they will stay. Has the employee ever worked with companies for a longer term? If yes! It shows that the employee has an intention to work long-term and has a high loyalty score. Anyone who has changed 3-4 jobs in 5 years is less likely to stay with any company.

It would help if you also looked for someone whose hobbies include playing team sports, volunteering, etc. These activities can indicate that they’re invested in a cause, team, or sport and that they’ve got the mindset to stick with things they care about.

6. Recognize their contribution

Employees who feel much appreciated are more likely to stay. According to the Society for Human Resource Management Survey, 68% of HR admitted that appreciation and recognition play a vital role in improving the retention rate for any organization. Yet, many organizations can implement successful retention programs.

Companies should devise proven recognition programs and encourage the direct managers to recognize their subordinates’ efforts.. This makes the employees feel valued at different levels.

7. Help employees to maintain work-life balance

Erratic work schedules and hectic life are common among the people working with private organizations. The flexible schedule and remote work help the employees achieve work-life balance. But, if the employees are overworked and assigned targets that are not achievable, it impacts them adversely.

The managers must check that only that much work should be assigned that the employees can handle efficiently for the specific time slot. Tasks such as unnecessary meetings and other administrative duties which are counter productive should be cut down drastically.

8. Improve organizational culture

Do you know that organizational culture is one of the key factors in retaining employees? Strong corporate culture plays a vital role in attracting new talents and keeping existing ones.

If you want to keep your best talent, you must create a positive work environment where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas, suggestions, and feedback. This way, you’ll get better results from your employees. To achieve a strong corporate culture, the organization should:

Have firm commitments to diversity and equity
Understanding and supportive leadership.
Value the employee’s voice
Carry out the clearly articulated values

9. Flexibility to employees

No one wants to work in an organization with rigid policies. Employees look for flexibility to accommodate their emergencies and other responsibilities in life, such as medical needs, family time, and other miscellaneous tasks. Organizations that give flexible work schedules or the options like compressed workweek deliver higher job satisfaction for employees.

It is considered an important employee retention strategy that encourages the employees to stay longer with their existing organization.

10. Creating Growth Pathways.

The lack of opportunities often gives employees ample reason to change their current job. Every employee looks for upward mobility in their existing companies. Due to the lack of such opportunities, employees are likely to look outside the organization. With dedicated career pathing, an organization increases employee engagement and assures them that their future is secure, with ample growth opportunities in their existing organization.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the difference between “Employee Engagement” and “Employee Retention”?

Engagement refers to the level of interest and involvement that an individual has in their job. It means how an employee feels connected to their employer and colleagues. On the contrary, retention refers to the length of service of an employee within an organization. It indicates how long an employee stays with the company after getting hired. Employee Engagement attributes to Employee Retention.

2. Why do we need to focus on Employee Retention?

Employee retention is essential for any business because if they lose their valuable employees, they will have to spend more money on hiring and training new employees. Also, when there is no employee retention strategy implemented by the organization, they might face problems in achieving their goals.

3. What are some of the most common reasons for Employee Attrition?

Pay issues – When employees don’t receive fair compensation for what they do, it can be very difficult to stick around. In a survey of 900 employees, over 35% of the employees admitted they would quit their jobs if they don’t get a raise in their salary.
Workload – Too much work without enough resources can lead to burnout and eventually quitting.
Lack of recognition – No matter how hard you try, sometimes you won’t succeed at everything you set out to accomplish. Organizations that do not recognize their employees have a higher turnover, up to 31%.

Conclusion

Many factors determine whether someone leaves their job or not. For any organization, employees are the assets. Hence, no organization can afford to lose the best of its talents. But if your organization doesn’t implement any employee retention strategy, you’ll probably lose your best talents.

Want to know how Engagedly can help you mange your remote employees better? Request us for a demo.

Request A Demo

Tag: Employee Retention Strategies