Mastering Employee Retention
Our recent guest, Chason Hecht, is an advocate and innovator of employee retention strategies. He is the founder and CEO of Retensa, whose mission is to create workplaces where every employee is engaged by what they do and inspired by who they work for.
Retensa has been helping companies predict, prevent, and resolve employee issues for 20 years — which is something Chason learned the importance of early on in life.
He grew up in a family business with more than 100 employees and no Human Resources department — and employees never seemed to quit. After working other jobs with high employee turnover, it became very clear to him that no matter what service or product an organization had, employee retention was dependent on the company culture and the talent they hired.
Employee turnover has a substantial social, operational, and financial impact. According to Gallup, “The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary.”
Retensa has mastered the science behind employee retention throughout the years and says finding employees who “fit” is the first step.
It begins with setting a vision and ensuring that the organization is hiring to that vision. Over time, that vision and culture manifest themselves in the organization and it becomes much more obvious when someone doesn’t fit. Naturally, as the company grows, existing employees work to preserve the culture that they value and appreciate.
Another powerful element in his strategy is simply asking questions. Asking employees why they joined, why they stay, and why they would leave are easy ways to gain insight into their experience at work.
“This trifecta is the world’s simplest interview. These three questions can open up pretty significant conversations,” he said. “If employees can tell you what they need and you can provide it for them… then why would they leave? Why wouldn’t they do their best?”
In Chason’s decades of experience, he’s found that the number one reason employees stay at their jobs is because of their peers.
His team has been working remotely for nearly 15 years. Cultivating a positive remote work environment is a struggle for many businesses, but Chason believes that the best way to engage remote employees is to get them out of their home. “Get them into a place where they’re collaborating and connecting with others. We are still human…all the data indicates we still value human experience and interactions with others,” he said. “It’s a universal trait across every industry in every country.”
At WBN, we’ve also found that our clients who get the most out of our virtual assistants are those that embrace them and do everything possible to make them part of their team, whether they’re in the office or not.
Overall, employee retention can save organizations time and money, and increase productivity. A good first step in implementing employee retention strategies is to verify that the culture your organization has defined is something that everyone else recognizes you to be.
