Five steps companies can take to retain top talent

Staff are looking for more than just a paycheck, they want to feel valued and be engaged in their work. This is where leaders need to step up in 2024.

Retaining your top talent is more important than ever in 2024

The Great Resignation made numerous headlines in 2021 and 2022, followed by the ‘Silent Quitting’ phenomenon which continued into 2023. But while recent data shows this pandemic-era trend is now tapering off, there’s still a serious concern amongst CEOS about retaining top talent. 

This was evident in our research with CEOs and executives last year. When we asked what they feel impacts their customer experience the most, retaining the skills needed to keep customers satisfied was a recurring theme.

But why is it getting harder to retain talent? Well, with things like remote and hybrid work, the rising cost of living, and work-life balance priorities, employee expectations are changing and evolving.

The employer-employee relationship reset

The traditional employee-employer relationship whereby the employer has all the power is no longer the case. Although this shift was already manifesting pre-COVID, the pandemic was the tipping point for workers to re-evaluate what they really wanted out of their jobs and to make drastic changes where necessary.

The driving force behind this shift is the concerning trend in the decrease in employees who feel connected to their company’s values and purpose, In fact, the millennial labour force, who make up the largest generation in the workforce, are said to quit their jobs due to a lack of meaning in their work, rather than leaving for more money.

Meaning and purpose in a job should come from the top down. If we look at the customer experience strategies we develop for companies, a big part of what we do is assess how the employee experience is having a positive or negative impact on how an organisation’s workers interact with customers.

And what we have found, is that more than 50% of the time, the feedback we get is that leadership is responsible for employees feeling demotivated, disengaged, and unsatisfied in their positions.

Staff are looking for more than just a paycheck, they want to feel valued and be engaged in their work. This is where I believe leaders can step up in 2024.

Here are five steps companies can take to retain top talent:

• Make your employee experience as important, if not more important than your digital and innovation strategies – oftentimes, companies get caught up in digitising offerings and implementing the latest technology. While this has its place, it can’t be at the expense of employee happiness.

• Regular employee Insights – consider how often you ask your employees how they feel about the job, what could be done better, where they would like to see improvements etc.

• Customer feedback – your customers can be an effective key in uncovering the cracks in the employee experience. Make gathering customer feedback an important and consistent part of your business strategy.

• Training – this is a must if you want to hold onto your skilled workers. The research coming out of the pandemic years tells us that a top priority for employees is skills and career growth. Leaders need to empower their staff so they can grow as individuals, which in turn will provide value to the company.

• Create a purpose-led culture – surprisingly, most employees aren’t even able to articulate their company’s mission and vision. If they don’t know why they are showing up each day, it’s tempting to find another organisation that can offer them more purpose.