How To Retain Talent In Your Startup And Reduce Employee Turnover

Employee turnover has become a very common occurrence in companies, and this can be partly attributed to the coronavirus pandemic. This is because the Covid pandemic led to numerous changes, including work ethics and activities. This has also had a significant impact on employees, resulting in job losses and resignations. This can lead to high employee turnover in both large companies and startups.

For larger companies, employee turnovers are easier to handle and manage, but for startups, this can be very expensive and leave a dent in a startup brand identity which is why it is important for startups to know how to retain talents in order to reduce employee turnover. In this article, we provide you with detailed information on how to retain talent as a startup and reduce employee turnover.

What Is Employee Turnover?

Employee turnover can be defined as the total number of employees that leave a company during a certain period, voluntarily and involuntarily. Employee turnover has been shown to be costly, and it has a negative impact on productivity and your company's brand identity, positioning your startup as an unfit workplace.

If you wish to attract and hire talents for your startup, it's important you have a good brand identity. Employee turnover is divided into two; Voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary employee turnover can be defined as the departure of an employee of their own will.

Voluntary employee turnover is more expensive than involuntary employee turnover. Some reasons for voluntary employee turnover are negative workspace, change in career goals, resignation, and internal transfer.

Involuntary employee turnover, on the other hand, is the departure of an employee under circumstances outside their will, for example, death, sickness, relocation, layoffs, or termination of employees.

What Is Employee Retention?

Employee retention refers to the strategies and policies taken by a company or an organization to keep talented employees, reduce employee turnover, and foster a positive and motivating workspace.

It is a company’s ability to prevent or reduce the number of people that leave a company by fostering positivity and creativity in the workspace, offering excellent perks and compensation, and offering career advancement.

Employee retention is an intricate part of talent management strategies and greatly helps to reduce employee turnover. It helps keep talents in a company for a longer period of time, thereby saving cost and brand identity.

How to Retain Employees in Your Startup and Reduce Employee Turnover?

Employee turnover can be more difficult to manage in a startup than in a large and established company. In order to prevent turnover, it is critical that you implement employee retention strategies from the start, which we cover in this section.

Foster an Inclusive and Equal Environment

According to a survey by McKinsey & Company, 39 percent of people said that they had rejected a job opportunity or chosen not to pursue one because they believed there was a lack of inclusion in an organization.

Talents span across various races, religions, colors, sex, and sexuality. Create an equal growth, learning, and appreciation space and be careful not to favor one party over the other in order not to create favoritism in the workspace, and inequality in religion, gender, sexuality, color, race, age, and ideologies.

Offer Opportunities For Growth And Career Advancement

Talented employees want to work in an environment that values their growth and career advancement. If you wish to retain talented employees in your startup, you must imbibe a culture fueled by growth and innovation and show employees you care for them by offering them various opportunities to advance in their careers and the various roles they occupy in your company.

According to a study by Linkedin, 94 percent of employees mentioned that they would stay in a company that is committed to helping them learn and grow. You can do this by creating training for employees and offering learning resources, including but not limited to books, online courses, and audio.

You can also enroll them in coding bootcamps. Coding bootcamps are short but intensive training, and some of the best bootcamps are App Academy, Thinkful, and Flatiron School.

Offer Flexible And Remote Work Options

As earlier stated, Covid led to the change of working patterns, including working schedules and options. The lockdown led to the popularity of remote work and hybrid work patterns; therefore, many employees normalized this work method.

Offer remote work options or flexible work schedules to your talents who need it or whose jobs do not require them to be physically at the office to retain them and avoid losing them to companies who do.

Create a Feedback System Or Survey

Your employees are people with thoughts, values, and opinions and seeking their opinion on how you can make the workspace a better place for them. This you can do by creating a feedback system or a survey to learn about their thoughts and opinions on the workspace.

The best way to do this is by making it anonymous so employees can freely share their thoughts without fear and reservation. It is not enough for you to run surveys and create feedback systems. You need to find a way to implement the feedback from your employees and alleviate the complaints because this proves to them that you value their opinions and suggestions.

Create Excellent Employee Benefits

Retaining talents can be a hassle and if you wish to retain talents, offer your talents employee benefits. A lot of employees prefer to work and stay in companies that offer excellent employee perks and benefits.

If you lack ideas on employee benefits and perks, let the events surrounding your workspace and the world shape what you offer; for example, if some employees have dogs, you could create a dog-friendly workspace.

Also, judging by the impact the Covid had on the world, offering health insurance would go a long way, as well as flexible work schedules, maternal/paternal leaves, and paid time off, to mention a few.

Is Employee Retention Important To A Startup?

Yes, employee retention is important to a startup and to all businesses but especially to startups. When starting out, startups usually lack the funds larger companies have to recover from employee turnover.