Corporate Insights Podcast | Beyond hiring: The real work of employee retention

Hi. I'm Andrew Forrest. I'm a partner in the Weightmans' HR Rely employment team. My background is HR and employment relations. I'm a fellow of the CIPD, and I've been with Weightmans for fourteen years. Hi. I'm Ashley Powis. I am a solicitor and a principal associate in the Weightmans HR rely employment team. I've been with Weightmans for twelve years now, specialising in employment law. And today, we're going to be discussing worker retention. Following the pandemic, millions of workers from numerous sectors around the world have exercised a large scale opt out from the workplace. In the UK, it's estimated that we have circa nine point three million people economically inactive in the 16-64 age range. We now have circa one million young people aged 16-64 out of work and education, representing thirteen point four percent of this age group. This mass exodus has turned employment in the UK into a workers' market with employers struggling to recruit and to bridge skills gaps. As employees consider what's right for them, employers are increasingly having to review what makes their company an employer of choice and what they have to offer. Knowing why employees leave is of importance in developing an effective retention strategy. The key part of the leaving process is the exit interview, which can give employees insight into why their employees are leaving and where they're going. If we know what's going wrong, we can look to take corrective action. Common reasons for workers leaving, especially since the pandemic, include dissatisfaction with pay in wake of a higher cost of living, a desire for a better work life balance or flexible working opportunities, limited or no career progression, unhappy with company culture and management, better job opportunities, feeling undervalued, overworked. If you feel like your organization may be at risk of losing its top talent or you are already losing good workers, it is time to consider retention strategies. In this podcast, Ashley and I will be giving tips and strategies to boost employee job satisfaction and to help you hold on to your best workers. So firstly, let's consider the importance of good recruitment and worker engagement surveys and how they contribute to the longevity of the employment relationship. Many people can learn a specific skill or develop certain expertise, But not just anyone fits into an existing team nor shares the cultural values of your workers in your company. Hiring for the cultural fit can ensure long term worker retention because new hires integrate quicker into the team, making everyone more comfortable, enabling productivity to get back on track faster. In reverse, of course, poor recruitment can be costly in terms of time and money and in the long term lost opportunities. Workers' failing probation must always be considered as an organizational failure. Worker engagement is a metric that represents how employees feel about their organization, including how motivated they are to put an extra effort on the job and how committed they are staying with the company. By asking the right questions in a survey and analysing the results, We should be able to identify areas of concern and risk and make efforts to address them. Once workers are on board, it's vital that management creates a welcoming environment. A good manager acts not as a as a boss, but as a coach and a mentor. The key difference being that while a boss is seen, as being demanding and target orientated, a coach or mentor knows their workers are the cogs in the wheel, and this is a key importance during the onboarding and probationary period and beyond. A good employer, coach, mentor works to guide workers to the right direction by offering advice, support, and goals whilst allowing the workers to have a high degree of autonomy. This creates a culture where workers achieve, the freedom to best express their skills and talents. What new workers want to know is that they're doing well, and this gives them the confidence to flourish in their new role. A twenty nineteen Glassdoor survey found that company's culture matters significantly, not only to workers who are considering a job, seventy seven percent said they'd consider, a company's culture, but also to workers staying in jobs. Nearly two thirds of workers cited a good company culture as one of the main reasons they elect not to leave. The importance of diversity and inclusion cannot be underestimated, and it is essential for organizations that wish to thrive and survive to embrace DNI. The UK's workforce split of male against female employees is marginal, and yet manufacturing still struggles to attract female apprentices and workers. This despite exciting apprenticeships and possible promotion to senior roles. A diverse and inclusive workplace is a one that makes everyone, regardless of who they are or what they do for the business, feel equally involved in and supported in all areas of the workplace. The benefits being that there is a feeling of belonging and being valued. Workers want to see that there are opportunities to develop and progress regardless of background. A great business recognizes how important training is during the onboarding process of a worker, but a business with strong worker retention also recognizes the value of continuing to invest in training and upskilling the workforce. Upskilling your employees by investing time and resources and providing them with access to additional education and training within that field not only makes them happier and more likely to stay with the company, but also makes the company stronger. Growing your own is a good way to remain competitive in the market. There is a saying of a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. People wish to be fairly rewarded for the work they do and for the skills, knowledge, and efforts that go with the role. Once money alone is not the main motivator in the workplace, changes to the cost of living, mortgage repayment hikes, increases in rental, student debts, etcetera, they've witnessed workers and their unions taking an ever keen interest in the annual pay round. Increases in the minimum wage have also resulted in senior workers seeking pay awards to maintain differentials. To retain good workers, pay must be competitive, and it is wise to have in place regular benchmarking exercises to understand what the competition is offering in terms of salaries and wages and what pay rises competitors have been given. If you're not offering like or better wages compared to your competition, you would be more likely to lose your best workers. This is particularly the case in manufacturing skill shortage areas where engineers and maintenance workers will likely be poached. It can also lead to lower performers taking the jobs of those that are leaving, costing employers significantly more in the long term, and if more was paid to retain the best workers. You must also be remembered that hiring and training a new worker is more expensive than raising the wages of an existing worker, not to mention the massive loss in productivity, revenue, and workflow during the hiring and training process. Now there's been a significant increase in requests for flexible working since the pandemic with a great many people seeking a better work life balance. In April 2024, the employment relations flexible working act 2023 came into force. Law was passed by the previous government and aims to give employees more scope to request flexible work conditions where appropriate. Under the new rules, employees are now legally entitled to request flexible working conditions, including working hours, times, and locations. But remember, employers aren't required to grant these requests, but if they choose not to, there are several legal duties they have to adhere to. It's also important to know law is changing in this area with the government actively committed to achieving greater opportunities for flexible, flexibility in the workplace. We know many workers now wish for remote working. Remote work isn't just convenient and has been shown to make workers happier and more productive at work. With more modern technology and working entirely or even partially from home is possible in a vast array of industries. While more research needs to be done on the long term effects of remote work, initial reports show positive effects of working from home, including a reduction of nonessential meetings, increased schedule flexibility, commute elimination, fewer distractions, and greater autonomy. When your workforce enough spend its time sitting in traffic, stressing about childcare, or losing productivity due to scheduling of, children issues or lengthy meetings, They've been more productive and happier. Flexible working affords a greater access to workers who are able to comply with a more traditional nine to five. And this can't be overlooked given the ever increasing shortage of workers in the labor market. Remote work will not likely be a permanent solution for many businesses, but offering flexible work from home options may be an incentive to keep the best workers within your company for the long run. Along with offering remote working, studies also show that businesses offer more flexible work patterns, maintain significantly better worker retention. Even before the pandemic, studies showed nearly two thirds of workers found themselves more productive outside of a of a traditional office due to fewer interruptions, fewer distractions, and less commuting. Creativity can't always be turned on like a tap. So offering your work as flexible, hours encourages them to find times that'll be most efficient and productive to focus attention on work. Along with providing flex flexible scheduling, reducing the hours in the working day or working week can also increase productivity and encourage greater retention. Studies have found productivity enters a steep decline after a worker exceeds fifty hours of work per week. While we often think of workers who have first arrived and last to leave are more dedicated and product productive, that's not necessarily the case if much of productivity is lost due to fatigue, burnout, or exhaustion. Workers' rights could be strengthened with four day working week proposal as part of the government's plans to increase flexible working. This could come in the form of compressed hours, whereby workers work the same number of weekly hours over four days rather than five. Labour's make work pay, plan is designed to increase productivity and create the right conditions for businesses, to support sustained economic growth. Labour's education minister said that, compressing work hours and offering flexible working is actually good for productivity, enabling people to attain a better work life balance, spend more time with their family and friends, and encourage more people into the workplace. It's a well reported fact that the pandemic has drastically changed how some employees value work. More and more workers cite work life balance as the reason they consider new jobs or the reason they have refused opportunities. Work life balance could come by means of remote working, flexible scheduling, or reduced workdays as previously mentioned, or simpler acts such as encouraging employees not to check email or answer work questions via phone unless at work or on the job. Respecting employees' time away from work is important to maintaining a healthy working relationship with them. Labour's plan to make work pay states that we will bring in the right to switch off, so working from home does not become homes turned into 24/7 offices. Whilst this plan is currently on ice, a right to switch off would give workers the right not to have to engage with work correspondence, including emails, telephone calls, and instant messaging outside of their contracted working hours. Workers who feel appropriately recognized and rewarded by workplaces are much easier to retain long term, but studies also show those workers will work harder and be more productive. Unfortunately, a great many workers say they don't feel recognized or rewarded. There are numerous ways to recognize and reward workers, but it's important to make sure you prioritize both social recognition and monetary awards. It feels good to not only be recognized for our work, but to be publicly recognized as it helps everyone know when others are appreciated too. Financial rewards, whether in the form of straightforward cash, gift cards, or other perks such as paid time off, are among the most important and most successful rewards you can offer a worker. Make sure you are not only recognizing your workforce for results, but also for efforts. Sometimes projects are not as successful as we hoped. Numbers are not reached or deals are not closed. While this can be a disappointment, make sure your workers know that although they didn't reach the end goal, their work is still appreciated. This can help encourage them to try harder the next time and support them when they might otherwise feel down or defeated. Sometimes, of course, it's sufficient simply to say thank you and well done. By scheduling regular one to one meetings and holding consistent performance conversations with your workers, genuine relationships can be built within a team, which lays the foundation for thoughtful and meaningful feedback and recognition. One of the most important strategies for worker retention is to build up your workers' engagement within your organization. A disengaged worker may have lower morale, cause losses in productivity, and generally bring down your company together with the team spirit of other workers. This can be counted by giving workers a voice, by enabling them to feel listened to, and by showing them that their opinions and views matter. People tend to buy into organizations when they perceive their views to be welcome, and they can see they have an input into the way things are done. Try introducing opportunities for your workers to feel safe by giving candid and open feedback. It is likely that your workers may know more about the best ways to accomplish a given task than you do if they've been doing it for longer. So giving them the opportunity to communicate and collaborate on improvements to workflow and the work environment will help workers feel like they've had a hand in developing culture and ensure they remain engaged with the company. Likewise, do not force unnecessary engagement or push activities designed to build engagement without a specific goal or solution in mind. For those workers who do not wish to participate in any activities unrelated to the job you pay them to do, forced participation in social or other activities unrelated to work can be counterproductive and a reason to leave. Every workplace is different, and not every workplace requires the same types of worker engagement. One of the best ways to avoid introducing the wrong type of worker engagement is to ask workers what they'd prefer. We found that another key part of worker retention in a manufacturing environment is creating a strong emphasis on teamwork. Creating chances for collaboration, including interdepartmental collaboration, can only promote not only teamwork, but overall engagement. Strong teamwork not only encourages bonding between coworkers, but can create a better overall culture. It also drives higher overall performance. Good teamwork will help managers and workers marry strengths and weaknesses within departments and more strategically balance the workload. Try to identify the type of collaboration the workforce enjoys and what encouragement to participate. Good staff surveys can achieve this. A 2020 report, employee burnout causes and cures, found that seventy six percent of workers sometimes experience burnout on the job, and twenty eight percent stated they feel burned out often or always. Interestingly, while it's assumed burnout is caused by overwork and can be solved by taking days off or reducing work hours, Gallup's study found burnout is actually more influenced by how workers experience their workload than the literal number of hours they work. Workers who feel more engaged by their work, who are properly recognized and rewarded, and who are offered better job flexibility via reduced hours, remote working, or flexible scheduling report higher well-being. The Gallup report found the top five factors that led to burnout are, one, unfair treatment of work, two, unmanageable workload, three, unclear communication from management, four, lack of management manager support, five, unreasonable time pressures. Developing and improving an overall company culture, building better workforce engagement, and offering clear communication, consistent management, and transparency will help reduce burnout. Additionally, providing fitness, well-being offerings, and other perks can greatly help with retention. The pandemic has reminded us that both physical and mental health are paramount to a happy functional society. Taking care of a worker's health doesn't just include offering things such as flexible scheduling or remote working. You should also make sure that your workplace is clean and hygienic with health and safety protocols in place, and that you have strict rules against workers coming into work while sick. This also means providing sick pay to incentivize workers, will be required at a location to stay home, when sick. Through the employment rights bill, the government has committed to ensure the statute sick pay is strengthened for those who need it most by removing the existing requirements to serve waiting days and extending eligibility to those, earning below lower earnings limit. We hope you've enjoyed this call to action podcast. And if you have any questions arising, please do not hesitate to contact the HRLI team. Weightmans is a full service law firm, and we're a one stop shop for manufacturers. Thank you for listening.