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Create an Employee Retention Strategy that Really Stands Out

Organisations that are fairly progressive in their talent management and employee engagement practices have traditionally focused on leveraging career paths to demonstrate strong career prospects to their employees, particularly the ones with the most promise. This is often used in conjunction with high-potential programs to provide a path to accelerate the advancement of these individuals. Such accelerated programs may include management trainee programs, overseas postings, mentorship programs, and inclusion within high-visibility project teams to work on coveted projects.

Whilst these programs can be very effective in encouraging employee retention, some other organisations are thinking out of the box in order to retain individualistic employees who may be seeking more than the usual array of enticing rewards. Some organisations that invest in strategic planning sponsor employees for their post-graduate studies and provide time-off for them to study, and apart from a secure job, these employees can look forward to taking on more responsibilities or taking on a more challenging role when they complete their studies.

Do You Understand Your Employees & Their Aspirations?

On the other hand, there are organisations that recognise that some employees, particularly the millennials, want to be able to take a career break to pursue other interests e.g. non-for-profit work, and it pays to be able to put in place policies that allow or even encourage them to take a different path, albeit for a specific period of time.

Employees are now looking to work for companies that recognise that they have all have different career aspirations. They want to be able to plot that path and not be constrained to a specific field or location, just because they were hired into that particular business or country. Career mobilityresonates with many of these young entrants and if they know they will be given choices e.g. different career tracks - the commitment to stay with the company will grow and that's when you have genuine employee engagement.

Embrace Your Entrepreneurial Employees!

Younger employees are also increasingly entrepreneurial and seek to be able to do start-up work, even within an established organisation. Companies that encourage innovation and risk-taking (within measure), and encourage a culture of safe experimentation, as paradoxical as it may sound, will definitely be stronger in employee retention than those organizations that ignore the needs of its younger workforce.

Provide Real Choices

The freedom to have more choices (within parameters) inspires high-performing employees and helps them to stay excited and engaged as they learn about other aspects of the business. The challenge then lies with an organization to seek to understand the aspirations of their younger employees (particularly the promising ones), and to ensure the appropriate interventions/enablers take place at the right time.

It pays to invest in a talent management strategy that resonates with your people.

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