- David Leslie
- October 18, 2023
The workforce management landscape has always been a toughie, and it’s getting more challenging by the year, but one thing remains constant: talent is the lifeblood of every organisation. This axiom holds especially true for those in the Facility Management (FM), Hospitality, and Front of House organisations.
With that being said, we, here at Datore, believe that the best recruitment policy for the next 24 months is not recruitment at all, but proactive retention of the golden talent already within your organisation.
The challenges facing these sectors are multifaceted. Increased competition for great people, the global pandemic’s impact on work dynamics, and the rise of remote work have all significantly altered the recruitment landscape.
In this blog, I want to look at the concept of proactive employee retention and the role that good analytics & insights can play in ensuring organisations retain their valuable workforce.
The Evolving Workforce Landscape
The FM, Hospitality, and Front of House sectors have always been dynamic, but recent years have seen a huge acceleration of change. The competition for skilled employees is fiercer than ever. With the world becoming a smaller place seemingly every month, talent now has far more choices than ever before. This is creating a scenario where organisations must not only attract top talent but also ensure they are fully bought in and stick around the long haul.
So, What Exactly is Proactive Employee Retention?
Proactive retention, in its essence, is a strategy that enables organisations to build profiles and identify employees who might be at risk of leaving before they actually do so. It’s about being ahead of the curve, taking preventive actions, and creating an environment where employees are engaged, feel valued and are most likely to stay.
Imagine you identify that one of your direct reports could be at risk of leaving, but rather than wait for the inevitable ‘please don’t go’ conversation when notices are handed in, you’re able to reach out 8 weeks before things get to boiling point with genuine care and concern to plan around how their employee experience can be bettered – magic!
And… at the heart of proactive retention lies my beloved data analytics leading to actionable insights 🤓
The Power of Analytics in Employee Retention
In the realm of proactive retention, data is the foundation upon which strategies are built. Organisations harness data to create profiles of employees who may be contemplating a departure. But what kind of data is needed for something like this?
Building Employee Profiles to Increase Staff Retention
To build comprehensive employee profiles, a variety of data sources can and should be tapped into (typically from across HR and L&D). Performance metrics, engagement levels, absenteeism, onboarding data, reporting line, tenure, training history and external market data can all play pivotal roles in understanding an employee’s potential flight risk. By combining any or all these elements, organisations can start to create a holistic picture of the workforce past and present to improve talent retention.
Identifying Flight Risks to Improve Employee Retention
One of the key benefits of analytics is that organisations can identify the key leading indicators as to when someone could be at risk of leaving the business.
Let’s say that based on the last 3 years of leavers data, the most common factors across the dataset are:
- Under 12 months tenure
- Wasn’t officially onboarded
- Less that 50% of prescribed L&D activities completed
- 6 days absence in a 3-month period
- Scored below 3/5 in latest manager assessment
There’s your basic profile. We can now adjust slightly; with a view to catching people before they reach the point of leaving, apply those filters to the current workforce and build a list of the individuals most at risk of leaving – nice!
Proactive Outreach and Customised Interventions
Identifying flight risks is only the beginning. Once these individuals are recognised, it’s vital to take proactive measures. This usually involves reaching out to the employees, offering support, and or crafting customised interventions to address their specific concerns. From there building ongoing outreach to ensure those employees remain engaged is a great step (and btw, those same analytics can help to customise these interventions and significantly impact efficacy over a vanilla outreach program).
Improved Staff Retention - Case Studies and Success Stories
The last 2 big projects I’ve worked on have both tackled this use case super early in their journey with us, and it’s no surprise, look at these numbers:
Organisation 1 had a workforce of 2000, an average salary of £31k (rounded), and an estimated cost to recruit of £14k.
We connected to the data, build the analytics and found 226 that fitted the leavers profile perfectly and another 75 that were getting close.
Their estimation is that they ‘saved’ at least 30% on that potential leaver list, and their YoY numbers also support this.
64 employees actively saved at £14k each to replace – that’s nearly a million quid 👀
The Future of Talent Management
AS we look into our crystal balls and make our predictions about the future of talent management in the FM, hospitality, and Front of House sectors, one thing is clear: proactive retention is no longer a mere option; it’s an imperative. Data-driven strategies have long been transforming the way the largest companies in the world operate and retention/recruitment are firmly on their lists – it needs to be on yours too!
Datore are bringing those same capabilities to organisations of all sizes, skill levels and, importantly, budgets.
Proactive retention is not merely a response to employee turnover; it’s a forward-thinking strategy rooted in analytics and actionable insights. To succeed in these competitive landscapes organisations must embrace data-driven approaches to retain their most valuable talent. As we step into 2024, for me, the message is clear: proactive retention is the recruitment policy of the future, and those who embrace it will thrive in the evolving world of work.
Our Analytics as a Service offering comes to the party with everything you need to move from ‘what on earth is proactive retention’ to putting in those first outreach calls to ‘at-risk’ employees – without breaking stride. We provide the technology, the people and the methodology to have you catching people before they fall for a low, fixed, monthly cost.
Would you like your best talent to stick around longer? Let's chat!
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