STRATEGIES TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES

 

 It is difficult for you to get an efficient employee. At the same time, you are reluctant to admit the employee retention issues you face quite often. It becomes essential then for you to find the relevant employee retention techniques.

According to a report, employee turnover can cost from 16% to 213% of the lost pay. The cost-per-hire is estimated at $4,129, and the time to fill in a vacant role is 42 days.

You need to keep the best talents on board. There are strategies available to do it. You can do it even without hiking the employee's salary.

A recent survey by WorldatWork found that the majority of the organizations have faced retaining good professionals. The survey was conducted on 526 professionals. Half of them were not positive about employee retention by their respective companies.

You have to find why the good talents leave. The major reasons are:

1. They get more pay

2. They look for promotion

 

3, Not satisfied with pay compared to other companies

 

4. It was unfair compared to contributions they imparted to the company

 

5. Unsatisfied with the work responsibility

 

6. Heavy Workload

 

7. Work/life balance affected

 

8. Not satisfied with the supervisor

 

9. They don't get training and opportunities for development

 

10. Their abilities underutilized

 

Tactics to Retain Talent 

 

How can you solve these issues effectively? You need not worry. There are ways to tackle employee retention issues.

 

The top tactics to retain them are:

1. Pay them high than the market rate

2. Give incentives and bonus 

3. Keep the top professionals informed that they're indispensable

4. Create work from home facilities

5. Have a B team in place

6. Inform the top professionals of the future opportunities

7. Have job designs for key professionals in place

8. Provide stock options 

 

 There are many reasons for you to accept a job. There is the challenge of exploring new technological frontiers. The opportunity is a factor in engagement and satisfaction. Professionals should be made aware that their skills are unique and used.

Retention begins at the time of onboarding itself. Onboarding can include:

• Introduction to the teams, like HR and the senior leaders
• Meetings with individual colleagues to have a camaraderie
• Training in technical tools and systems related to the job
• Giving opportunity to ask questions to get clarity
• Participating in meetings to see how unrelated departments work 

 

 There should be clarity on what projects are in priority. You have to align the worker's effort on it first. Rejigger the focus as the work progresses. Weekly meetings will help to concentrate on priorities.

Be alert when work is delayed. Then schedule a calendar that details which job is due and guide the employees on quality.

Create milestones for your workers that pertain to your firm's overall strategy. The goals should be clear, measurable and reachable. You and your workers have to follow their progress.

It's important to celebrate milestones, to improve retention rates. A Harvard Review survey study of over 1 million people found that resignations usually abound close to work anniversaries. The reasons could be the end of the contract or psychological factors. A strategy should be in place to acknowledge a work anniversary as a way to improve retention.

You can acknowledge the anniversary by:

• An email announcement
• Congratulating in a town hall meeting
• Having a party 

Retention Factors

When a good professional leaves a business, it is a setback and precipitates issues for his team. There will be unfinished tasks left behind, and you have to assign them to others or do it yourself. It is a large burden. This workload may cause disruptions in sensitive projects.

There can be other downfalls, like:

• Productivity loss 
• Revenue loss
• Loss of team morale 

Losing a talent puts your objectives in peril. It puts your clients in a strange spot because your lost employee was the direct contact.

Employee exit can be a messy affair. It is best to avoid such developments from the start. To retain them, you have to understand them. Some reasons are not in your control. They include:

• position changes
• Relocation
• Resigning to start a new venture

Some may leave you for reasons you could have avoided, such as:

• Shoddy management
• Limited career prospects
• Limited work challenge
• Lack of satisfaction

There are certain factors you have to take care of post onboarding.

The employees should have a feeling of autonomy. They should know what they're doing. They should have a feeling that the job is beyond their expectations.

 Take care not to over promise and under deliver. If you don't keep the promise, the employee will feel cheated. It dents your goodwill and will make your retention tactics useless.

It can irrevocably damage your employees trust in you.It would help if you were not complacent in treating your existing employees.

Don't take your staff for granted. It is one of the traits of fast-growing companies to neglect their existing high-performing workforce favouring newer ones.

There should be fair appraisals, reasonable salary hikes, promotions, and recognition. You have to ensure that they are within the culture.

Retention Techniques

You have to keep employees happy. It is important to ensure that workers stay. It also should be ensured that they are productive. You can use the following techniques to ensure happiness:

• Train employees, ensure they are equipped. Spend resources.
• Implement health insurance, provide gym memberships, wellness holidays
• Provide regular feedback 
• Give rewards and incentives for excellence
• Set clear goals for employees to advance inside

Spend enough time and attention on your relationships. By retaining good talent, you'll have a rich bank of institutional knowledge. You can fill vacancies with loyal employees instead of unknown outsiders. When you look for outside talent, having high retention numbers can be an added advantage. The company appears attractive to good applicants.

Some industries have historically suffered from high employee supply and are accustomed to losing talent. The hotel and service industry is an example. It has a 73% turnover rate in the US. Even there, you can buck the trend. 

There are several roadblocks in achieving job optimization for key talents and the functions they do. They are given unrelated tasks quite often. It burdens them.

Use of Technology: There are ways to minimize or mitigate these tasks through the diligent use of technology. There are at least Google Chrome Extensions for Security & Productivity, like, google hangouts, Universal File Opener (UFO), LastPass, The Great Suspender, HTTPS Everywhere, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Grammarly, and Momentum.

Google Hangouts is an excellent tool to chat, call, and video conference with colleagues. The Hangouts extension gives all you're used to in a convenient package. With Chrome, you get notifications and use Hangouts even if Chrome is closed. It's by Google and is secure.

UFO is a useful tool. It enables you to work on non-Google files like Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop and then update those on Google Drive. If you're working with a client who doesn't use Google Drive., you would have to download it, make changes, then re-upload his file. If you have lots of documents, it can be confusing. In UFO, you can download the Word document and make changes like before. The difference is that your updates sync directly with the document on Google Drive. 

 

LastPass is a password management tool. It helps you secure online accounts. A master password is required to access LastPass. It then generates secure passwords for your accounts. The new passwords are auto-filled into the websites. You need not worry about memorizing them. LastPass does a great job keeping your profiles safe. You have to remember only one password.

 

You may have several tabs open on your browser at a time. The Great Suspender solves this issue by suspending it. It can slow down lower your laptop's battery life. 

 

 Grammarly checks your grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It makes sure that your messages are correct.

 

Momentum replaces Google Chrome's new tab layout with a productivity suite. It features a beautiful background photo with a customized message; momentum sets your daily goals, tracks your lists, and monitors the weather. 

 

AODocs' content management platform gives employees intuitive tools with a UI/UX. The result is employee engagement and increased efficiency.

 

AODocs can help you strengthen recruitment processes in a platform, especially for HR Content Management.

 

Google Workspace radically improves collaboration; AOBox allows teams and collaborators to access, share, and interact with files through Google Drive, even without a Google account.

 

Conclusion

 

Collaboration is the key to retention. With new integration tools like Google Workspace, individuals can benefit from a productive and personalized work lifestyle. Companies profit from collaborative, robust teams.

Human connections are essential to an organization's well-being. All people do not require the same ratio of socialization. They have different cuisines, hobbies, and living spaces. Despite the differences, we all need a sense of belonging. It is a fundamental human psyche and is not confined between 9 am - 5 pm. Employees have to be engaged to live in the workplace, to make it a living space.

Companies can achieve this collaboration through platforms like Workplace by Facebook. You'll be amazed by how it improves engagement communication and rejuvenates your ecosystem.

 

 © Ramachandran 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DATA LAKE AND WAREHOUSE:DIFFERENCES

 

Lakes form part of the Earth's water cycle. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean. It is located in a basin, surrounded by land, apart from any rivers or other outlets. Anything can enter it freely.
 
Like it, the data lake is in a mess.
 
A data lake is a place where new data can tress pass without any hurdles. Since any data can reside in a data lake, it is a fountainhead of new ideas, and you are free to experiment with data. Due to this liberalism, it suffers from an absurd structure.
 
In data warehousing, you try to match dimensions and measures into questionable components that are consistent. Here the scalability traits of the data warehouse gain meaning and depth. Warehousing makes it easier for a thirsty audience to consume this data.
 
Data lakes and warehouses are widely used for storing big data, but they are not interchangeable terms. The two types of data storage are often confused but are much more different than they are alike. The only real similarity between them is their high-level purpose of storing data.
 
There are certain key differences between a data lake and a warehouse.
 
Operation
 
While a data warehouse is used for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), a data lake performs raw data analysis.
 
OLAP includes running reports, aggregating queries, performing analysis, and creating models based on whatever you want to do. These operations are carried out after your transactions. If your client's data is stored in a denormalized format, you can fetch the data easily and bring the required report.
 
Data Lake is a storage repository that stores huge structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. At the same time, Data Warehouse is a blending of technologies and components which allows the strategic use of data. Data Lake stores all data are irrespective of the source and structure, whereas Data Warehouse stores data in quantitative metrics with their attributes.
 
The raw data in XML files, images, pdf, etc., are gathered for analysis in a data lake. You may not know how this data can be used in the future. You can freely apply analytics to get insights.
 
Low-Cost Data Lake
 
In a warehouse, the cost of data storage is high. The software used by these warehouses is expensive. The cost of maintenance is also high. Since a data warehouse contains large amounts of data in a denormalized format, it takes up a lot of disk space. In data lakes, the cost is low. You use inexpensive open-source software. Data lakes can scale to high volumes of data at a low cost.

Data warehouses use schema-on-write, while lakes employ schema-on-read. You need to know the purpose of the data before importing it into the Warehouse. In the first instance, before storing the data, it has to be transformed and provided for application in analytics and reporting. You may have to reevaluate the models later.
 
In data lakes, without the necessity of a single schema, users can store any data. They can discover the schema later while reading it. Different teams can store data in the same place without relying on IT people.
 
A data warehouse will have high-quality data. The data undergoes curation before storage; it is the absolute truth. A data lake is filled with raw data.
 
Data analysts use lakes. Large corporates with tons of data opt for the first. Business professionals use warehouses. Warehouses store sensitive data. Data Lake is a new technology, and security is still developing. The Hadoop ecosystem is aligned to the data lake.
 
Data lakes empower users to access data before it has been transformed, cleansed and structured. It allows users to get to their results more quickly compared to the traditional data warehouse. Warehouses offer insights into predefined questions for predefined data types. Any changes to the Warehouse needs more time.
 
Data Lakes use of the ELT (Extract Load Transform) process. The Warehouse uses a traditional ETL (Extract Transform Load) process. The main complaint against warehouses is the inability, or the problem faced when trying to change them. Lakes integrate different data types to answer new questions as these users are not likely to use data warehouses because they may need to go beyond their capabilities. In the Warehouse, most users in an organization are operational. These types of users only care about reports and key performance metrics.
 
Data Lake is ideal for those who want in-depth analysis, whereas Warehouse is ideal for operational users.
 
A data lake is the starting point. It is the stage at which the Warehouse structures its data. An organization that incorporates both showcases entrepreneurship and strategy.
 
Different Spheres
 
Data warehouses have been used for many years in the healthcare industry. Still, it has never been hugely successful. Data warehouses are generally not ideal because of the unstructured nature of much of the data like physicians notes, clinical data, etc. Data lakes allow for a combination of structured and unstructured data, which tends to be a better fit for healthcare companies.

In recent years, the value of big data in education reform has become enormously apparent. Data about student grades, attendance, and more can help to fail students get back on track and help predict potential issues before they occur. Flexible big data solutions have also helped educational institutions streamline billing, improve fundraising, and more.

Much of this data is vast and very raw, so many times, institutions in the education sphere benefit best from the flexibility of data lakes.

In finance and other business settings, a data warehouse is often the best storage model because it can be structured for access by the entire company rather than a data scientist.

Big data has helped the financial services industry make big strides, and data warehouses have been a big player in those strides. Such a model may drive away a finance company because it is more cost-effective but ineffective for other purposes.

In the transportation industry, especially in supply chain management, the prediction capability that comes from flexible data in a data lake can have huge benefits, namely cost-cutting benefits realized by examining data from forms within the transport pipeline.

Four Differences
 
There are four key differences between a data lake and a Warehouse:
 
1. Lake is raw, Warehouse is processed
2. In the lake, the purpose of data is not determined; it is currently in use in the Warehouse.
3. Data scientists use the lake; business professionals use the Warehouse.
4. Lake is highly accessible and quick to update; Warehouse is complex and costly to make changes.
 
 
 
 © Ramachandran 
 
 
 
 

STRATEGIES TO KEEP EMPLOYEES HAPPY

The Greek philosopher Confucius said, choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

 The work becomes a passion. You are happy.

 Employee satisfaction is the tool to measure how happy workers are with their jobs. People should feel that they have the support, tools, and resources at hand to perform their job. They should have a positive slant towards the company, its leadership and the goals.

 

Employee satisfaction is tracked with a survey. It gauges what employees feel about their work.

 

Businesses gain from keeping high levels of employee satisfaction. Happy employees are more productive. They may stay longer. It is easy to retain them.

 

This, in turn, leads to product innovation and product quality. More expertise stays.

Lower turnover rates reduce hiring costs. It saves your hiring teams time, energy and resultant lethargy.

 

Customer relationships are enhanced by employee satisfaction. The happy worker stays engaged and goes all the way to customers.

 

Revenue, productivity, and profitability are positively impacted. It will have a cascading effect on business outcomes.

How to do it?

 

1. Improve communications  

 

The best companies keep employees and provide the necessary tools to facilitate effective and transparent communication.

 

Dissatisfaction is the result of insufficient knowledge of changes and feeling ignored.

 

• Most Americans say communication is key to instilling trust with their employers.

• They feel they are not aware of company news and information.

 

The organizational structure changes frequently. Sharing updates about them is essential. Information on company strategies spreads trust across the organization. Employees feel included and involved.

 

Newsletters, chat apps, intranets and other communications platforms can send messages to everyone.

 

2. Get feedback  

 

Every company should have a strategy to collect feedback. It should be ready to implement changes based on it.

 

Employee satisfaction is based on trust and open communication channels

.

You have to get to the roots of employ experience through listening tours and surveys. They are essential to gauge the organization health.

 

You have to listen to people. They want to share their feelings. The morale of the employees can get a fillip by encouraging feedback.

 

3. Provide training   

 

Managers are important in keeping high levels of employee satisfaction. The business leaders may have raised in ranks with some skills. These skills sometimes are not enough to translate into management expertise.

 

Managers have to trust team members and delegate leadership on new projects. It will eventually lead to higher morale and less exit.

 

You train team leaders and managers on many things: handling hard conversations, providing feedback, and avoiding micromanaging – it strengthens teams and increases employee satisfaction.

Leadership classes are essential. Lessons on leadership styles and skills for developing relationships.

 

4. Recognize and reward high performers  

 

Recognize employees' accomplishments. It will add value in creating employee satisfaction.

 

You want the employees to have a sense of purpose. You need them to contribute to achieving goals. They, in turn, want acknowledgement and recognition for the unique skills that made the company succeed.

 

Sharing notes of congratulations for achieving targets or making the customer happy engages employees. They will be a model for the company and the team in retention

.

Study the motivation behind the workforce. You'll be able to devise rewards systems that appeal to them. Rewards systems must align with the mission of the company and its values.

 

There is an EveryoneSocial platform to accord a warm welcome for new employees day of onboarding.

 

5. Encourage Health  

 

Wellness is a major factor that keeps employees happy. Organizations should provide sufficient resources to increase health and wellness.

 

Sessions on mental and physical health issues contribute to well-being. HR teams can set up an ergonomic workspace at home.

 

Offer gym memberships, entertainment allowances or reimburse the amount spent for fitness classes.

 

6. Support career development  

 

Employees will be happy when they know their future at a company. Support for gaining skills for professional development is proven to raise employee satisfaction.

 

Managers should inform on growth opportunities at the company.

Employees should be encouraged to set aside time for training webinars that will help them stay knowledgeable.

 

Thus they will have less reason to seek another job for professional progress.

 

7. Invest in tools  

 

You have to ensure a secure, safe work environment. It will enhance employee satisfaction, and it should be a priority.

 

You have to adopt workplace software tools if there are technical or communication issues that are affecting teams.

 

The employee advocacy platform EveryoneSocial is a nice option for employees to be active with social media.

 

It helps them to stay informed, connect with team members, and build their brand.

 

8. A brand is a culture  

 

Respondents in a survey said that company culture is more satisfying than salary.

Today's job seekers are concerned about the culture of a company. They look at the brand when applying for jobs. A brand is a culture.

 Close collaborations at work pace improve employee satisfaction by 50%.

 

9. Inform the company mission 

 

The company mission is a clear factor in employee satisfaction.

 

Before applying, the majority will consider a company's mission; They find motivation in a mission. Above 60%  attribute the mission to why they stay in the same company.

 

A dedicated mission and company values have to be highlighted. It gives meaning to the given responsibilities.

 

If that mission aligns with the values, employees will have valid reasons for satisfaction in their jobs.

 

10. Support inclusiveness  

 

Diversity and inclusivity are the driving forces of any culture.

 

It ensures that the workplace is accessible for everyone, no matter which race and culture they belong to. If inclusivity is maintained, employees will contribute and give vent to their voices. The only race in the workplace is humanity.

 

Businesses that support diversity in hiring are poised to attract the best talent and keep them.

 

Why Employee Satisfaction Matters

 

Job satisfaction is a set of favorable or unfavorable emotions and feelings with which employees view their job.

 

The four benefits of employee satisfaction are:

 

1. Higher profits  

 

Keeping employees satisfied leads to lower costs, higher sales, and a stronger bottom line.

 

2. Higher productivity  

 

Satisfied employees can produce more and more efficiently.

 

3. Lower Exit 

 

Satisfied employees are likely to continue. It helps to hire better talent as talented professionals see the staying power as brand value.

 

4. Loyalty  

 

Employees see the growth path ahead for them and are satisfied. They feel the organization is with them, and they, in turn, support the organization's objectives.

 

Employees begin to wax eloquent about the rich culture of the organization, which helps spread the company's goodwill.

 

Transparency about a company's objectives is linked to job satisfaction.

Factors in Job Satisfaction

 

An IT employee may be working in isolation.  Researchers have wondered if employees value appraisals in such circumstances in comparison to other industries. They studied how performance appraisals were linked to satisfaction.

 

They found that honest, regular communications increased employee satisfaction and helped companies decrease the rate of attrition. At Starbucks, leadership strengths, rewards, and recognition is given to employees, increase job satisfaction and increase profits. Google does satisfy end-users like us when using its products. It also puts a lot of work into employees job satisfaction.

 

Satisfied employees took a big jump to 88% in 2016, rising from 81% in 2013.

The robust economy was one factor. Employers have been enabled to boost salaries, benefits, and perks. Candidates took advantage of new opportunities that suited their skills and interests.

 

A list that reveals some key job satisfaction aspects, cited by employees:

 

• Respect: Respectful treatment is the most important factor in job satisfaction.

• Trust: Workplace uncertainty prevailed in the years following the Great Recession. Now, employees feel that trust between themselves and top management is another important factor.

• Security: uncertainty in the workplace can cause a lot of anxiety. Companies can instill a sense of security through transparent and honest communication about the company's long term goals and health.

• Environment: Workplaces free from stress, harassment, and discriminatory practices create a healthy, positive environment.

• Career. Employees excel when they see an assured upward path, with the avenues to earn a better wage and take on higher responsibilities.

• Benefits: Good wages aren't the only factor in employee satisfaction. Competitive pay makes employees feel valued. It gives them less reason to exit and seek other jobs.

 

 Conclusion

 

Having the tools and policies in place to encourage higher employee satisfaction will impact your business's bottom line.

 

Employees can use EveryoneSocial's platform to implement many of the ideas listed above with the way it encourages an open and sharing culture at work.

 

You need not take much effort to make employees happy. They need trust, respect and a safe environment, with reasonable pay and avenues to advance. When your company charts a course to deliver these factors, it can satisfy employees; The result is a stable company with a stronger future.

© Ramachandran