What are Employers Doing to Retain Good Employees? (employee, 2014, 401k)

[Carolina Knight]

I read an article in the supermarket trade publication Supermarket News asking if employers are doing everything they can to retain good employees.

Studies on employee retention show that pay isn’t the reason most people quit. They quit because they:
• Don’t get the tools and training they need to do the job.
• Don’t get opportunities for advancement.
• Something else about the job is hard for them to handle.

The article goes in depth on scheduling being hard to handle. If an employee has the one job to focus on, scheduling should not be a problem. Giving he or she sufficient amount of hours to work can be the challenge.

Lacking the tools and training necessary to do the job and lacking opportunities for advancement are common problems for not retaining the best employees. For am employee who needs to get ahead, he or she is going to look elsewhere to move on. At some point, employers will need employees to learn the trade to step up or move uo when needed.

The challenges of retaining good employees is not solely limited to supermarkets. All employers are struggling to keep the best employees while reducing expenses in dire economic situations.

Further reading:

• Bishop, Bill. "Are You Doing Everything You Can to Retain Good Employees?" Supermarket News. 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-09-07. <http://supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/are-you-doing-everything-you-can-retain-your-good-employees#ixzz3Cg10ATHU>

[313Weather]

Employees also quit because they dislike their direct managers. No job is worth dealing with a boss you just can't manage to click with personality-wise. Not only will it be harder for you to advance (if those opportunities are available), but it can make handling your current responsibilities a lot more difficult.

That's not necessarily a problem for the company to resolve though...

[MSchemist80]

Not much
They don't get anything more than a 2-3% raise if they are lucky. The company doesn't do much else for them except try to calculate how much they can screw them and potentially get away with. They get evaluated based on their popularity rather than their performance. They get treated like a machine allowed to do one task with no cross-training nor variation.

The funny thing is employers worry like heck how much of a flight risk a potential candidate is then they treat them like trash after hiring them guaranteeing that the worker will leave in a few years at latest.

[NJBest]

They encourage you to invest in yourself and in turn invest in you as well. They listen to your feedback and give you opportunity to move around within the organization.

Additionally they provide pensions, 401ks, vacation benefits that grow over time, and many other benefits.

The big companies, such as Google, JPMC, Coca Cola, etc, do this better than smaller companies.

I tried to leave my company earlier this year, there solution was to offer me work agreement that was more enjoyable and they gave my a sizeable raise.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by MSchemist80

Not much
They don't get anything more than a 2-3% raise if they are lucky. The company doesn't do much else for them except try to calculate how much they can screw them and potentially get away with. They get evaluated based on their popularity rather than their performance. They get treated like a machine allowed to do one task with no cross-training nor variation.

The funny thing is employers worry like heck how much of a flight risk a potential candidate is then they treat them like trash after hiring them guaranteeing that the worker will leave in a few years at latest.

Another unfair generalization that may be your experience but certainly is not the same with all employers. Our annual performance based raises are limited this year to 3.5%, but it varies according to the budget approved by the board. We do, however, have great benefits, promotional opportunities and a real work/family balance is encouraged with alternative work schedules. I just did my budget and included about $4,000 for each of my people to use for outside training or conferences of their choices, as long as it's related to their job or possible promotions or lateral transfers within the company. When I took over as manager of this group I reorganized assignments to ensure cross training and give them more variety in their work.

[weinerdog]

Are you hiring, Hemlock140?

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

Employees also quit because they dislike their direct managers. No job is worth dealing with a boss you just can't manage to click with personality-wise. Not only will it be harder for you to advance (if those opportunities are available), but it can make handling your current responsibilities a lot more difficult.

That's not necessarily a problem for the company to resolve though...

Employees are the image of their direct supervisor. If the direct supervisor teaches and works productively, effectively, and positively, his or her subordinates will catch on. If he or she is not doing a good job to keep his or her area productive, leaves his subordinates demoralized to do the tasks at hand efficiently and productively, and results lag, then he or she needs to be removed from the surroundings.

[BigDGeek]

Employers aren't doing anything to retain good people. If anything, it seems to me like they're either taking advantage of them by piling on ridiculous workloads, or they're pushing them out the door to hire Sanjay from Bangalore at 2/3 the price.

[313Weather]

As long as there remains a huge supply of unemployed workers for them to choose from, employers have no incentive to go out of their way to retain employees...

(especially in low-wage service industries)

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by weinerdog

Are you hiring, Hemlock140?

Not for my group, but we always have a few openings in some department or other. We have 1,900 employees and this year so far we have had about a dozen retirements.