Let’s be honest, global research on workplace trends showcase a grim reality for modern-day employee retention and engagement.
Take a look:
• Nearly 48 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in 2021, up 6 million from 2019.
• Only 21% of employees worldwide are engaged at work.
• Globally, one in five workers are planning to quit their jobs in 2022.
High voluntary turnover can be expensive. In fact, the cost of replacing an employee can range from one half to two times their annual salary.
While the cost can be hard to swallow…we know it’s not just about the money. When you lose an employee, you also lose their experience and the resources that were invested into their training and development.
Don’t worry, there’s good news coming!
According to data, there are ways to prevent high resignation and low engagement rates. In fact, 52% of employees who have voluntarily resigned expressed that their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can attract and retain employees at your organization.
Understanding toxic workplace culture
First, we need to understand the number one reason people resign from their positions – toxic workplace culture.
What is toxic workplace culture, though?
By definition, toxic can mean poisonous, harsh, malicious, or harmful. Toxicity in the workplace can be transmissible, easily spreading throughout your entire company – weakening employee morale and engagement along the way.
Upon analysis of 1.4 million Glassdoor reviews from about 600 major companies, researchers found employees primarily describe toxic workplaces in five different ways:
• Non-inclusive
• Disrespectful
• Unethical
• Cutthroat
• Abusive
Let’s get into how we can recognize and move past these toxic workplace behaviors.
Invest in employee experience, combat toxic work culture
When looking to combat toxic workplace culture, start with analyzing employee experience. Employee experience is a broad term, but essentially it’s defined as everything an employee sees and encounters during their tenure at a company.
Improving employee experience has been found to:
• Increase productivity by 21%
• Increase business profitability by about 22%
• Decrease absenteeism by 37%
Here are some of the ways you can invest in employee experience to combat a toxic work culture:
1. Be inclusive
A recent survey showed 80% of employees considered inclusion an essential factor in choosing an employer.
As an HR manager or business leader, it’s crucial to make sure your workplace is inclusive. To start on the right track, ask your team for feedback!
Try incorporating an anonymous survey. Build the statements and allow your team to rate each one on a scale of 1-10 (1 meaning they strongly disagree, 10 meaning they strongly agree).
AIHR provided examples of statements you can include in surveys like this:
• “This company offers an environment where I can openly express ideas, opinions, and beliefs.”
• “This company does not tolerate jokes or teasing about race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, and gender.”
• “I feel comfortable talking with management and my colleagues about my background and cultural experiences.”
• “This company is committed to meeting the needs of employees who seek accommodations.”
2. Be respectful
When 20,000 employees across the globe were asked to rank positive leadership traits in order of importance, respect ended up at the top of the list.
Here are some ways you can foster a respectful work environment as a business leader or HR manager:
• Practice active listening. When a colleague has something to share, make a conscious effort to hear, understand, and retain the information.
• Promote open communication. When transparency and open communication are encouraged, employees may feel more inclined to share their thoughts.
• Don’t tolerate harassment. Never brush off a harassment concern. If you are told about or witness harassment, make sure to follow through.
3. Be ethical
If you haven’t already, it’s time to define ethical standards at your organization and stick to them. A code of ethics may not only help you retain existing employees, but it can also play a part in attracting new ones!
In your code of ethics, take a stand against workplace harassment, such as:
• Discrimination
• Sexual harassment
• Intimidation
• Bullying
4. Be caring
Show your team you care about their holistic wellbeing in these ways:
• Encourage them to get active. Getting active is essential to the health and physical wellbeing of your team. As an organization, finding ways to promote physical activity from within is essential.
• Acknowledge when they’ve done a good job. Sometimes a simple compliment is enough to keep your team going and boost their mental wellbeing.
• Find ways to promote social connection. Team building activities help your employees build better relationships with each other. There’s even research that points out the correlation between team building activities and higher workplace satisfaction.
There you have it! While employee engagement and retention may be looking grim lately, as an organization, try out our tips to take a stand against it.
If you want to add an extra layer of employee wellbeing to your company, take a look at what we have to offer here at teroGO (you won’t regret it).
P.S. We specialize in helping organizations show employees they care about their holistic wellbeing.
Written by Kelly Baker, Content Marketing at teroGO
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