Are you looking for companies with successful employee retention strategies to emulate? In the world of retention management, where staff satisfaction and loyalty are paramount, it can be challenging to identify the most effective employee retention programs. Imagine if you could uncover the secrets of companies with the best retention strategies. This article provides insights into companies that have mastered the art of retaining their employees, offering you a roadmap to emulate their success.
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What Exactly Is An Employee Retention Program?
Employee retention programs are practices or solutions that an organization follows to retain its employees. When planning those strategies, a company’s main intent is to minimize employee turnover, in other words, the number of employees that leave a company during a certain period. This set of strategies or strategy is unique for every organization in the sense that every organization has a unique workforce with different needs hence strategies are tailored to meet the needs and preferences of an organization's workforce to ensure it achieves the purpose of retaining employees.
Even though a small turnover rate can be healthy depending on the nature of each industry, higher percentages can be expensive both in terms of money and time. Replacing an employee can be expensive, costing approximately 6 to 9 months' salary based on the position. Losing highly performing employees can also impact team productivity and employee morale, as it requires adjustments to a department or team's daily functioning and workflows – particularly if the departing employee is a manager or higher.
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Why Does Employee Retention Matter?
Employee turnover can derail your organization’s strategy and growth plans, putting success at risk. As more people leave the company, your talent function enters triage mode. They focus on plugging in new talent rather than adequately training and developing long-term employees. This response illustrates a reactive approach to retention rather than a long-term proactive strategy.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of employee retention to your business. Happy, satisfied workers provide a stable foundation for building a talent strategy that elevates your business. With a great employee retention plan in place, you reduce:
Turnover Expenses
Replacing employees is expensive, ranging from 16% to 213% of an employee’s salary. U.S. organizations pay up to 1 trillion in turnover expenses annually. Advertising your company to future candidates, interviewing, onboarding, and training take many hours, creating a high cost for your organization.
Lost Knowledge
When seasoned employees leave, their knowledge goes with them. When employees fail to relay their institutional knowledge to their peers, their information and skills can be lost forever. This can lead to low productivity and confusion among team members left behind.
Roadblocks to Productivity
As a position remains unfilled, hours of lost productivity pile up. When other employees pick up the slack for unfilled roles, they might get burned out and overall productivity will plummet. It takes a long time to bring a new hire up to maximum productivity levels. Research says it takes a new hire one to two years to achieve the productivity levels of an existing employee.
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13 Companies With Best Employee Retention Programs
1. ConocoPhillips
According to a 2023 LinkedIn survey by Resume.io, ConocoPhillips is one of the companies with the highest retention rates with a median tuner of 10.6 years. ConocoPhillips is great at retaining their employees by having highly effective retention programs that employees value. The company offers university scholarships to attract young talent and challenging and rewarding projects worldwide for military veterans looking to transition into secure yet exciting work.
2. The same study
By Resume found Altria Group, in joint second place. The tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis company, known for brands like Marlboro, holds significant stakes in Belgian brewery AB InBev and global cannabinoid company Cronos Group. Actively moving away from smoked tobacco products, Altria provides an extensive benefits package to employees, including a profit-sharing plan, financial support for employees pursuing surrogacy or fertility treatments, and on-site amenities such as cafeterias, fitness centers, medical centers, and hair salons. They also have a strong mentorship program where new employees are paired with a mentor from day one to help with career development and planning.
3. Bunzl
Bunzl is a business supplies company established in the UK as far back as 1940, its owners having relocated from Nazi Austria. This family company can trace its business roots all the way back to the haberdashery started by Moritz Bunzl in Slovakia in 1854.
The company maintains a family feel across the 22,500 employees of its international operation by keeping its branches in regular contact with each other. It offers incentives on a personal level through a range of educational funds, financial solutions and economic opportunities such as spending accounts and reduced-price stocks and tuition assistance of up to $11,000 per year for a graduate degree.
4. Hyatt Hotel
Hyatt Hotel has over 75,000 employees in the US who have been with the company for ten years or more. The average housekeeping employee stays with Hyatt Hotel for 12 years and this is how they achieve this.
Investing in People, Growing Business
Hyatt Hotel focuses on employee development and promotion from within, sharing that its comprehensive strategy of keeping employees engaged is a pillar of the company’s overall business strategy. This strategy has seen the hotel chain grow steadily while easily avoiding problems typical of the hospitality industry, such as high employee turnover rates.
Addressing Housekeeping Retention Through Benefits and Development
Hyatt mitigates this issue by including housekeeping staff - typically the staff group with the highest turnover rates in hospitality - in their employee engagement strategy. Hyatt staff cite tangible benefits like travel discounts, free or reduced-price on-site meals at any of the hotel’s restaurants, and tuition reimbursement as just a few reasons they stay with the company.
Hyatt is a company that walks the walk when it comes to investing in their employees, even teaming up with organizations like Khan Academy to upskill their employees and allow them access to more career opportunities when they’re ready to move on from Hyatt. They offer an outstanding training program, hire and promote from their existing staff pool, and are committed to employing a diverse workforce. Hyatt’s employee retention strategy focuses on all employees, not just those in corporate or managerial roles.
5. Mutual Of Omaha
A Fortune 500 insurance company, Mutual of Omaha was founded on a simple but powerful principle: to help people in their time of need and protect those they love the most. The company uses pulse surveys to listen to their employees. A strategic employee listening strategy has empowered Mutual of Omaha to gain clarity around what is driving people to stay, what is driving them to leave, and what leaders can do to improve retention and engagement.
6. Mars, Inc.
According to research by Fortune, the turnover in the company is only around 5% in the United States and it can claim families who have had multiple generations working for the company.
It’s not just that Mars Inc. treats its employees with free M&Ms, but the colossal chocolate and snack food empire also prefers to show its appreciation to employees for living the company values. A 100% family-owned business, Mars Inc. has five principles — quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency, freedom — which are on every wall of every Mars office and manufacturing site across 73 countries. Further, Mars takes its principles seriously. Take, for example, “quality.” Around 2% of all M&Ms produce are discarded for “blemishes” or other failures in quality. This dedication and adherence to values are reflected in the loyalty it has earned from its workforce.
7. SouthWest Airlines
Southwest Airlines is a company epitomized in its employee engagement practices. The credit for this goes to the company’s practice of encouraging employees to stay inspired to do things differently. They’ve allowed autonomy like no other. Employees from various departments are free to design their own official dress. They discuss their work life. By becoming a great example of customer service by having happy, committed employees, SouthWest puts employee happiness above customer satisfaction.
Another important aspect of Southwest’s engagement practices is recognizing their employees who go the extra mile. Every week, the CEO of the company gives a shout out, where he publicly praises employees who delivered more than what was expected of them. It also gives a monthly feature recognition in SouthWest’s magazine to an employee who stood out that month.
8. World Travel Holdings
From an employee’s point of view, work from home option is hugely desirable as it supports their need for work-life balance. Data from Intuit reveals that 79 percent of full-time workers want to work from home at least part of the time. In this context, companies such as World Travel Holdings, a leading cruise company, which offer work-from-home options, boost their employee engagement efforts considerably. The number of employees working from home full-time can be as high as 70 percent.
9. Ericsson
Ericsson believes the balance of work is so important that employees are comfortable working and can perform their role optimally, but not disrupt the company’s operations.
Therefore, since 2015 this telecommunication and multinational network company has released flexible working hours which are:
- Working from home
- Working with flexible working hours
- Working part-time
10. DreamWorks Animation
The rewards for employees are not always about money. DreamWorks Animation does with award-winning opportunities to decorate workspaces and corporate festivals every time after a big project is completed. Through this award, the company expels its employees to eliminate fatigue, tighten the atmosphere while showing off their work performance to other employees.
11. Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab doesn’t just focus on the financial prospects of its clients; it divests the same concern and attention into the financial future of its workforce. The company has finance-based benefit plan for its employees as part of its employee recognition process. Most of the company’s employees also participate in the corporate bonus plan which helps them to secure their future. One of the company's most effective and unique employee retention initiatives is to allow the employees to help their peers go forward.
Employees are offered complimentary personal Charles Schwab financial consultations and support. The company also runs financial workshops, discounts, and savings on their own trading and portfolio. To strengthen the employee’s financial status, they also give them an employee stock purchase plan and comprehensive medical, dental and visual plans.
12. Salesforce
Ranked second on the List of 100 Best Companies to Work For, Salesforce offers competitive benefits to sustain high retention levels. Salesforce has developed a culture that creates an inviting and engaging workplace environment. It is a company that knows that recruiting employees who constantly push the business forward needs to make working for the company as appealing as possible. That’s why they are so intentional and committed to creating a worker-friendly culture through initiatives such as:
Volunteer Time and Matching Donations
Salesforce offers 56 hours of paid time off so that employees can invest their time volunteering in their local communities. They also offer a generous matching policy of up to $5,000 annually for employees to give back to causes that mean a lot to them; essentially, whatever employees donate will be matched by Salesforce.
Reimbursement Programs and Support for Work-Life Balance
Salesforce also focuses on wellness and providing an outstanding work/life balance. The company has a Wellness Reimbursement Program that offers staff $100/month on any wellness-improving activity they want - whether that’s yoga classes, nutrition, therapy, or something else. They also offer access to Camp Pono - a program that provides practical tools, tips, and resources for putting wellbeing into action, eating right, sleeping well, and practicing mindfulness.
13. ScrewFix
This U.K. based hardware company ensures that its employee engagement scores are always high, by allowing employees to provide feedback every fortnight, without rules or guidelines to their managers. They are encouraged to give their inputs on everything -- how things are going, the company’s culture of interaction with customers and suggestions for betterment, how they think about the working environment and the management style. Among other initiatives, one result of this activity is implementing a new customer card, which quickens the in-store process, identifying customers and enabling them to make quick purchases.
Like many other initiatives now in place, this would never have come to fruition, had the employees not been asked to give their input. Having this kind of regular, 360-degree feedback in the organization makes employees feel trusted and valued for their ideas, it also steers the conversation and creates a company culture where people feel that they make a difference. They feel that their value is more than just their role and they really contribute to the company’s growth.
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Which Sectors Struggle With Employee Retention?
Retail and Fast Food Industries
These sectors often have difficulty retaining employees due to long hours, low pay, and limited benefits. It can be challenging for companies to attract and retain top talent in these fast-paced environments.
Tech Startups
While tech startups may offer competitive compensation and benefits, their fast-paced and demanding work environments can lead to burnout and high turnover rates. Employees in these companies may struggle with work-life balance and job satisfaction.
Healthcare Industry
In the healthcare industry, employees may be drawn to opportunities that offer better pay, more flexible work arrangements, or more opportunities for career advancement. The demanding nature of healthcare work can lead to burnout and high turnover rates in some organizations.
Manufacturing Industry
Workers in the manufacturing industry often have physically demanding jobs and may face challenges such as long work hours or limited opportunities for advancement. Companies in this sector may struggle to retain employees due to the demanding nature of the work and limited growth opportunities.
Hospitality Industry
Employees in the hospitality industry often work long hours and may have to deal with challenging customers or work environments. High turnover rates in this sector can be attributed to burnout, low pay, and limited opportunities for career advancement.
While challenges persist, there are positions within the restaurant industry that counter these trends. Jobs that pay well in the restaurant industry, such as managerial roles or positions in upscale dining, often offer better pay and benefits, helping mitigate burnout and boosting retention. Highlighting these opportunities and improving pathways for career progression can significantly improve employee engagement in hospitality.
7 Innovative Employee Retention Strategies To Adopt
1. Work-Life Balance
The population no longer considers sacrificing for the company paramount. Rather, they are focused on how they can find satisfaction at their jobs but not at the expense of family life and leisure time. With this increase in interest in work-life balance, many employees will be very interested in some family-friendly employee benefits. Even employees who don’t yet have a family might be planning to start one, and those benefits will seem like a good future investment to them as well.
2. Incorporate a flexible work environment
One of the most important things you can do to retain valuable employees is to offer a flexible work environment. A flexible work environment should allow employees to dedicate their time to work and family. It also makes them more productive because it allows them to focus on what they need to do without worrying about missing appointments or taking care of other important things in their lives.
Employees who can work flexibly will be more likely to stay with your company because they do not feel forced to work and feel valued by their employer. A flexible work environment allows employees to balance family life with their professional lives more easily, making them feel more fulfilled in their roles. This will lead to lower turnover rates, saving money and increasing productivity for the business overall.
This particular retention strategy for employees is important for teams with distributed members or global hires.
3. Foster Growth and Offer Professional and Personal Development
A great business recognizes how important training is during the onboarding process of an employee, but a business with strong employee retention also recognizes the value of continuing to invest in training and upskilling employees. Upskilling your employees by investing time and resources and providing them access to additional education and training within their field not only makes them happier and more likely to stay with your company, but also makes your company stronger as a whole.
4. Interactive Performance Appraisals
Employees are used to seeing printed performance evaluations that include all their strengths and areas for improvement as well as some notes from their team leaders. Why not make it interactive to turn performance appraisals into growth guides. For example, instead of just listing all their shortcomings, link each gap to a course or certification path.
They simply click on the hyperlink to enroll or visit the just-in-time (JIT) support library. You can also include some resources to build their existing strengths, or even invite them to sign up for upcoming events to hone their skills and core competencies.
5. Build Employee Engagement
One of the most important employee retention strategies is to increase workers’ engagement with your organization. A disengaged employee may lower morale, cause productivity losses, and generally bring down your company. Make sure to give your employees a voice by making them feel listened to and showing them that their opinions matter.
6. Get recognition and rewards right
Employees who feel appreciated work harder and stay longer, but over 80% of American employees say they don’t feel recognized or rewarded. Building a culture of recognition requires frequent, specific acknowledgment.
The Brandon Hall Group found that companies that recognize employees multiple times a month are 41% more likely to see increased employee retention and 34% more likely to see increased engagement. To make consistent recognition a reality, prioritize both social recognition and monetary rewards, by using a recognition platform that lets employees — in-office, remote, and offline — accumulate and redeem points for rewards that actually matter to them.
7. Offer competitive salaries and benefits
Not only is it important to offer a competitive starting salary and benefits, but it’s also important to monitor the cost of labor and living in your area to keep offering a competitive salary. Many employees leave companies searching for better pay, so if you adjust compensation to account for inflation, cost of living and a job well done, you’ll likely reduce compensation-related turnover.
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Build A Meaningful Employee Recognition Program With Ease With Giftpack
Employee retention is a critical aspect of maintaining a productive and successful business. High turnover rates can result in decreased productivity, low morale, and increased costs in hiring and training new employees. Companies with the best employee retention programs prioritize creating a positive work environment and fostering employee satisfaction. By investing in initiatives to retain top talent, businesses can benefit from lower turnover rates, improved employee loyalty, and enhanced overall performance.
The Role of Giftpack in Employee Retention
Giftpack is pivotal in enhancing employee retention by simplifying the corporate gifting process. Our innovative approach leverages artificial intelligence to create highly customized gift options tailored to individual preferences and demographics. Giftpack helps companies show appreciation to their employees and strengthen their relationships by delivering personalized gifts through a user-friendly platform. These thoughtful gestures can boost employee morale, loyalty, and job satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher retention rates.
Enhancing Employee Loyalty Through Tailored Gifts
Personalized gifting is a powerful tool in demonstrating appreciation and recognition to employees. Giftpack's extensive catalog of over 3.5 million products enables companies to select the most fitting gifts for their employees, based on their unique interests and preferences. By considering factors such as social media activity and digital footprint, Giftpack ensures that each gift is thoughtfully curated to resonate with the recipient. This personalized approach helps foster a sense of loyalty and belonging among employees, making them feel valued and appreciated by their organization.
Global Reach and Scalability of Giftpack's Services
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