Employee Retention In A Post-Pandemic Workplace

What can companies do to reduce employee turnover?

It’s not as simple as better snacks in the break room, more bean bag chairs, a weekly dry cleaning service, or company swag.

If it were that easy, we wouldn’t be witnessing this much workplace churn. The truth is, in a world where many companies are implementing remote or hybrid work policies, the perks that employees covet – and the factors that keep employees engaged – are shifting.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal spoke to a group of management experts to learn ways for companies to reinvent their compensation and management practices in order to improve employees’ tenures. 

Below are some key themes to consider.

Emphasis On Soft Skills

Making people feel part of a team takes on added importance in a work environment where people don’t often see their coworkers face-to-face.

Consequently, transactional managers are going to struggle when dealing with remote workers compared to their counterparts who excel at building rapport with their colleagues and direct reports.

Upskilling Experienced Employees

Employee development and upskilling is a popular way for companies to engage their staff and grow their capabilities.

This makes sense for inexperienced hires, but don’t discount the value in providing these same resources to employees in the later stages of their careers. Mature workers also crave new challenges and often get pigeon-holed in their roles. Offering them continuous learning opportunities could unlock their potential, and smart companies with this type of “gray-collar” strategy will reap the rewards.

All-Company Holidays

Open vacation policies and even more traditional PTO plans don’t actually prevent employees from receiving emails while they’re gone. Rather, employees just have a pile of messages in their inbox awaiting them upon their return to work.

Nothing relaxing about that. 

With employee burnout rising as the lines between work and home blur, people want to be able to shut it down on holiday without the anxiety of missing critical work alerts.

A great way for companies to give employees this peace of mind is by designating specific periods of time where all staff take time off simultaneously. These structured vacations can go a long way.

In-Person Events

The best way for employees to learn about company culture (and adapt to it) is not through orientation or reading a company HR handbook. It’s actually by witnessing workplace norms and learning what is tolerated, rewarded, and celebrated.

These opportunities are less frequent when employees visit the office sporadically. As a result, the onus is on leaders to organize more company-sponsored events. It makes sense that these all-hands get-togethers help lower employee attrition rates. 

Interested in other ways to improve employee retention? Read this post about employee mentorship.