Employee retention is one of the biggest issues in Human Resource management.

One constantly reads about companies trying to make themselves more attractive not just to prospective employees but their current ones as well.

It has become common for individuals who are trained to move on to other organizations for better prospects, higher pay, more comfortable working conditions etc. With the higher rates of attrition, employee retention has become a major pain point for many organizations.

It has become increasingly important for HR managers to address this issue.

Why is it important for your organization to retain employees?

Hiring is a complicated process: Hiring takes time, effort and it costs money.

Finding the right candidate can often be a time consuming process. Therefore, it important that once you higher the right person you keep that person in the organization.

It costs time and money to train a new recruit: A new recruit is usually completely raw to an organization how it functions, etc.

It takes time for managers to train and develop a new recruit. The whole process from searching for a new employee to having them 100 percent work ready can often take months.

If the company can’t retain them for a long enough periods it leads to an endless repetition of this cycle and takes away time from managers who could be better utilizing this time elsewhere.

You lose employees to competition: When an employee leaves and organization it is highly likely that they will leave for a company in the same industry and that company is likely to be your competitor.

Not only does the competitor gain a trained employee, but they also tend to take all the data, strategies, information and sometimes even clients with them to their new organization.

So it turns into a lose-lose situation for your organization.

Long-term employees are better adjusted to how your organization functions and can at times help pick up the slack: It has been noted that, long-term employees tend to perform better than new recruits and those who change jobs frequently.

Plus it saves the company a lot of time and money compared to hiring and training new employees.

Long-term employees know the ins and outs of the organization and are thus positioned to contribute more effectively.

New employees need time to adjust with their co-workers: It’s not just new employees and managers that need time to adjust, but also other employees to adjust to their new co-workers.

It takes them time to build rapport with the new recruit and start working efficiently with them.

It’s often the case for a new recruit to be compared to previous employees and judged based on past experiences.

Long-term employees are more loyal: Employees who stick to an organization for a longer span of time are more loyal towards the management and the organization.

Long-term employees are less likely to bad mouth the organization and they usually make decisions while keeping the interest of the organization in mind.

You are more likely to lose your best employees over the average ones: Your organization’s best performers are more likely to get poached than let’s say the average performers.

It is usually your top 5 percent of performers who contribute the largest chunk of revenue to the company and if they quit, your bottom line is likely to take a hit.

Overall, employee retention should be a top priority for your organization. Keeping good employees will save you time, money and headaches.