Increase Employee Retention with Data-Driven Employee Assessment

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As an organization, how well are you retaining your current employees? In today’s business environment, top talent is becoming more valuable to organizations and as such, they have more options when it comes to their career growth. Organizations know that too, as 32% of employers say they expect employees to job-hop. If employees are not motivated, engaged or happy in their current position, they’ll be out the door before you know it. That’s why it’s crucial for employers to create strategies that measure their retention rates with data-driven employee assessment.

Taking a more analytic view of employee satisfaction, job performance, and retention can allow employers to identify many issues and trends that might have otherwise escaped notices. Data-driven employee assessments can provide a more inclusive and insightful view of performance and help businesses to better foster employee development. Better yet, it helps organizations understand their employees at an individual level. Being unable to make informed decisions leaves many companies unable to effectively deal with poor employee retention and thus loss of their talent. Below are helpful tips to increase employee retention through data.

Detailed Reporting and Comprehensive Assessments

Basing an employee review on only one or two measurable standards often leads to an incomplete picture of the situation. Consider implementing employee performance reviews on a more consistent basis, not just annual, in order to collect more usable data. In addition, HR software that tracks attendance, productivity, payment history and other aspects of employment that are often overlooked or under-reported during an assessment can be a key resource. With ACA compliance changing so rapidly, being able to spot long-term trends that may indicate future problems as early as possible allows employers to make changes and take action before it’s too late. Being able to discuss the needs and concerns an employee may be having is often critical for ensuring job satisfaction. In addition, more timely performance reviews can add transparency to an employee’s position, which can positively affect job retention.

Additionally, data-driven employee assessments can help with employee career growth and training as well as determining future promotions—which are also key aspects of employee retention. Using detailed data reporting on an individual basis can help organizations see where their talent is excelling and where improvements need to be made. This, in turn, leads the way for organizations to create individual promotion strategies for employees. As such, this can help management place their employees in positions where they see them being the most productive and more likely to stay long-term with the organization. On the flip-side, employees will feel more valued in an organization that takes the time to train and develop individual plans for their future career goals. Use detailed data reporting to show your current employees how much further they can advance within your organization.

Identifying Potential Issues Early and Accurately

Flagging morale and poor job satisfaction are rarely issues that occur overnight. Statistical information regarding past employment history can often provide several clues regarding any issues that may eventually force professionals to seek out a new employer. Although the process should start from the time of recruiting your employee, while conducting periodic assessments and interviews with existing employees is often crucial for ensuring retention does not become an issue, assessments that are based on limited information and reports that focus on only a few performance benchmarks can make it more difficult for employers to take action early on. Any issues resulting in decreased performance, poor attendance or similar issues may eventually force employees to leave a position prematurely if they are not addressed.

Furthermore, with it comes to retention rates; consider your current onboarding process. This is a critical first impression that will determine if the employee is more likely to stay or start looking for a new job. According to a recent survey, one-third of new hires quit their job after or around six months as well as 33% of employees knew whether they would stay with their company long-term after their first week. Data initiatives through feedback channels and assessments reports from the employees after the onboarding program can help give organizations better real-time data and see what areas they can improve on at a faster rate. Using big data with onboarding is an efficient way to increase employee retention and more importantly, better welcome the top talent you just acquired into your organization. At the same time, this feedback gives the new employee a voice early on in their relationship with the organization.

Overhauling an Existing Assessment Process

Taking a look at the current employee performance assessment process is often the first step towards improving overall retention. Assessments and interviews that are too limited in scope, those that lack greater flexibility and processes that are based on incomplete information may be causing more serious issues than many employers realize. Identifying any areas in need of improvement also makes it much easier to seek out and acquire the software, processes and other resources that may be needed to resolve the situation.

Furthermore, it’s important to not only collect the information but have employees and HR staff that know how to correctly analyze the information. The key is real discipline to data analytics. For instance, Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte explains,

“It demands skills in data analysis, cleaning, statistics, visualization and problem-solving. Most HR professionals do not yet have these skills, so companies have to find these people and bring them together to work on HR data.”

This maturity of analyzing data for an organization can start from being reacting to data results to becoming proactive, strategic and finally, predictive and leads to scenario planning.

Using Data-Driven Analysis to Identify Widespread Issues

While there is often little to be done to prevent a single individual from seeking employment elsewhere, correcting widespread issues can ensure that employee retention does not become a bigger concern for a team, department or even company-wide level. Software that may identify a potential issue that may be affecting multiple employees can provide businesses with the essential insight and detailed information needed to stabilize the situation before it results in greater damage. Being left in the dark about any issues that may be harming morale or decreasing worker satisfaction can quickly become a major issue.

Finding the Best Resources

Lastly, data analysis software and resources can differ considerably, and not every option may be able to provide businesses with the features and level of results they need. Finding resources that better fit the needs of a business and their staffs is never a matter that should be taken lightly. Finding products, HR software and other resources that may be better suited to the specifics needs of a business or the concerns of its staff makes it much easier to change a working environment for the better and ensure that all employees are more likely to enjoy a greater degree of job satisfaction.

As such, retention strategies should be at the top of any company’s list. With data-driven employee assessments, organizations can see issues and solve them at a faster rate, understand their employees at an individual level, create predictive models of future data and most importantly, use data analytics and resources to see what changes need to be made internally, such as onboarding and corporate training to create a better company culture as well as keep your top talent happy and successful in their jobs.