Retaining Your Top Employees
How much effect do you think employee retention has on the overall productivity of an organization? Please explain your answer.
Retention has a significant effect on productivity. There are all of the things mentioned in the course (time and cost of training, customer/client satisfaction, risk of burnout by overloading remaining employees.) In addition, there is an effect on productivity that depends on how the people who do leave exit the company. If we see people leave graciously and with gratitude for what they have learned and how they have grown working for our organization, then there is still an obvious perceptible benefit to staying. That means that employees will continue to look for value in their positions which will (hopefully) continue to be offered.
When retention is low and/or top employees leave seemingly ungraciously or due to dissatisfaction, it can permeate into the remaining workforce. This can cause people to question the value in staying at their current position with their current employer. This is not a recipe for having employees motivated to stay at the top of their game.
Leanne,
Thank you for your thoughts on this Forum. I concur that for the reasons you mentioned, employee retention plays a significant part in productivity and morale. However, I would add that there are some additional areas that impact retention and productivity; a supportive and respectful culture, a good physical environment, recognition programs and frequent and open communications from top management through all levels of an organization. Are there other areas that you could identify that could have a positive impact?
Dr. Robert Roehrich
