How to create an experience your employees will love.

While talent attraction and engagement has always been a two-way street, there’s never been a more important time to be mindful about how you engage and retain your people.

At the end of 2022, Australia’s job vacancies were down 4.9% from August of the same year, and yet employers are still struggling to attract and retain great people in a talent-driven environment.

As a leader, what can you do to create an employee experience that makes people want to join your team and stay for the long haul?

The basics

Simply put, people stay in roles until they are given a reason to leave. Instead, give your employees a reason to stay.

If talent retention is something that keeps you awake at night or you’re simply a leader who cares about your people and wants to ensure the best possible employee experience, we’ve got you covered.

Based on thousands of conversations and interviews over the last 15 years, we’re fortunate to have an incredible amount of insight into talent motivations and what people value from their employers.

What’s important to each individual varies, but we’ve found 5 key considerations to keep in mind if you care about employee experience and retention.

Opportunities for growth

People want to grow in their roles.

Communication is key here. Leaders should always be aware of employee aspirations and career paths, looking for ways to facilitate growth. 

Can you offer new opportunities for training or upskilling? What about internal promotions and stretch assignments? These conversations should be had when each new team member starts their role and at regular intervals. 

Remuneration and benefits

While salary isn’t the number one motivator for most employees, in an era when we know people have itchy feet, money matters. 

We recommend an annual salary benchmarking exercise that ensures your people are being paid well. Other attractive benefits might include:

• Biannual performance and salary reviews

• A bonus, incentive or revenue share model, based on performance

• Competitive (above average) parental leave

Strong leadership

People leave managers, not companies. This is a popular expression and for good reason. 

Research shows that 50% of people have quit a job at some point because of a bad manager. No matter how much someone is paid or how much they love their work, people will leave if they don’t have a good relationship with leadership. 

As a leader, you need to regularly check in with your team. Be flexible, and personalise roles to play to people's strengths. Celebrate wins, and act as a mentor for your team.

Flexible working

Once upon a time, remote working, family-friendly work arrangements and flexible start/finish times were considered a benefit. We think this time is in the past. 

If you want to attract and retain great people in today’s competitive job market, flexibility is key. It’s time for talent to take control of what it means to be at work and how best to balance work with personal life. 

Flexibility isn’t just good for your employees. It can also improve productivity and enhance engagement in ways that drive the success of your organisation.

Overall employee experience

Ask people what they want, and wherever reasonable, respond to these requests. 

We’re seeing more and more organisations surveying their teams and implementing recommendations. From free coffees to birthdays off, pet-friendly offices or even early finishes on Fridays, there are so many changes you can make to build a happier team.

Some organisations are even offering extended parental leave, a budget for training and development and flexible annual leave options. These are places that see people stay long-term.

The good news

Research from Officevibe suggests more than half of employers could do something to keep their employees.  

In addition to the ideas above, regular check-ins with staff every 3 to 6 months and a stay interview are a great start. These conversations allow leaders to understand what people value about their roles and provide an opportunity to address any concerns a person may have before they have another job offer on the table.

What now?

If employee experience is on your radar, check out the Heart blog for more tips on delivering the best for your team.