Throughout my time working with organizations in the banking and insurance industries, I’ve seen the problem of improving workplace retention come up as a perennial issue. The challenges these organizations have faced in retaining the talent they’ve brought on board impact their teams and their businesses, not least of which is their productivity.
Addressing these challenges head-on improves so many facets of the workplace experience. From keeping specialized knowledge on your team to reducing costs, effective staff retention strategies ultimately improve a team member’s sense of job security, which in turn boosts retention and productivity again.
In my forthcoming book, “The Retention-Productivity Link,” I explore how the right staff retention strategies are key to enhancing your organization’s effectiveness. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know to understand and improve retention in the workplace.
However, in this post, I’ll examine some of the most common questions I’ve received about this link and discuss what you can do to improve your retention rates in the future.
Why Retention is a Critical Issue in 2025
It’s no secret that employee retention is critical as we approach 2025. With a skills gap continuing in important industries, losing an employee means it’s likely to take longer to find a replacement.
It’s important to remember there’s a cycle when it comes to turnover. First, a valued team member leaves, and this impacts the entire team, which will have to cover the responsibilities of the previous employee while a new hire is found.
And crucially, this could take weeks, months, or even longer. A team that suddenly has extra work thrust upon them by circumstance is likely to burn out faster, and morale is likely to plummet.
How can low morale affect your business? People start looking for greener pastures and thinking about their exits from the company, thereby perpetuating an already difficult situation.
I’ll share an example of how this can snowball. Recent research found that the average cost to hire a new employee was $4700. But if you’ve lost an already stellar employee, the total cost of replacing them is often thought to be as much as twice (or more) of that employee’s annual salary.
Add to that the issue with morale, and you’ve got a compounding loss of productivity and engagement as well. In fact, Gallup recently found that teams with low engagement suffered turnover rates that were 18% to 43% higher than highly engaged teams.
Top Retention Questions Answered by Bryan Allen
As you can see, retaining top talent in the workplace is an ongoing issue for HR leaders and managers. Whenever I discuss this issue with them, I often receive similar questions. I’ve listed a few of the most common retention questions below, along with some actionable advice to confront these challenges.
What are the most effective staff retention strategies?
In my experience, the most effective staff retention strategies are multi-pronged. They include methods to solicit feedback and insights from employees, recognition of their job performance, and opportunities for career growth.
How can I retain top talent in a competitive market?
This is where using the right retention strategies comes into play. People want to feel valued and heard. Providing an avenue for this to occur at your organization is key to retention success. That’s why you need a recognition program and a way for employees to tell you how they feel. You can do this by providing check-in surveys, using software, or even implementing stay interviews. But, and I can’t stress this enough, the most crucial aspect is being responsive to feedback.
What are the warning signs of employee turnover?
It’s great for HR leaders to think ahead about this one, as there are many warning signs. If you notice one of your employee’s job performance has declined recently or they’re calling in sick more often, it may be time for a check-in. In a remote work environment, you may not notice this as much, but you can look for clues like a decrease in communication with the team. Of course, a more obvious warning sign is complaints about their responsibilities at the company.
To head off these warning signs, you need a pathway to address them.
Key Takeaways from The Retention-Productivity Link
In my book, “The Retention-Productivity Link,” I explore some high-level themes that every organization must master to build effective staff retention strategies and create the high-performing team it dreams of.
First, they need to thoroughly understand the impact of high turnover rates on organizational success. The turnover rate at your company is like one point in a vast web of interconnected issues. Whenever employees leave, the web needs to be reconstructed. You have to find the right people with the skills to reconstruct it, but in the meantime, your team needs to find workarounds, meaning they have to work harder to achieve the same results.
The longer this situation persists, the more it will be a drag on your organization in lost productivity and rehire costs. For example, if your company is primarily in sales, a high turnover rate will negatively impact your customer relationships.
Loyal customers become loyal to your salespeople and your products, and building trust takes time. But once that trust is established, there are plenty of opportunities for upselling that won’t exist if they’re always dealing with someone new. In this way, turnover is a silent killer that will affect your bottom line.
Avoiding situations like these requires effective retention strategies, such as rewarding successes and acting on employee feedback. My book details actionable advice on implementing these strategies and backs it up with real-world case studies to show the full impact improving retention in the workplace can have on all aspects of your company.
Practical Retention Strategies You Can Implement Today
The path to improving retention in the workplace can be fraught with missteps, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. By following a retention strategy consisting of three primary pillars from my book, you’ll realize the retention goals you’re seeking.
- Conducting regular employee feedback sessions. How do you expect to know what your employees think if you don’t ask them? Make it a point to solicit their feedback and advice regularly. Simply asking them helps management and the team stay connected.
- Offering professional development and growth opportunities. At most organizations, there’s always something more to learn and a path for advancement. However, that path is often obscured unnecessarily by not making development opportunities obvious to employees or by not having them at all. A core element of your retention strategy should be workshops, online courses, or even tuition reimbursement for skills improvement.
- Recognizing and rewarding contributions. If the work you did was never acknowledged, you’d soon feel like an invisible automaton within a greater corporate entity churning out widgets—and no one wants to feel this way. That’s why a recognition and rewards system is crucial to keeping employees engaged and on your team.
These pillars form the backbone of your staff retention strategies and act as a starting point for improvements. However, if you’re looking for deeper insights into the landscape of retention and productivity in 2025, I encourage you to check out my forthcoming book and get on the waitlist.
How Retention Drives Organizational Success
In this post, we’ve explored how retention directly affects productivity and how retaining top talent in the workplace is crucial to making your business sustainable. But most businesses don’t just want sustainability; they want to follow an upward trajectory of sustainable growth.
Engaged and loyal teams that stay in their jobs long-term only become more efficient and knowledgeable as time passes, which further supports organizational growth. Think of retention as a way to limit and control setbacks inherent in a modern business environment. My point has always been that the factors driving high retention rates at successful companies are within your control; you just need sound retention strategies.
Your Next Steps for Retention Success
Putting staff retention at the forefront of your overall HR strategy will show that you’re prioritizing your workforce. Employees will notice your efforts if you implement the right strategies for improving retention in the workplace, and you’ll end up with a remarkably resilient, high-performing team.
If you’d like to learn more about the right strategies and get answers to your most pressing retention questions, you can pre-order my book, “The Retention-Productivity Link. ” In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, which is chock full of actionable insights to keep your team engaged and moving forward.
