2023 will be a big year for top-performing employees looking to ensure they’re getting the most for their talents. According to Gartner, U.S. total annual employee turnover may jump upwards of 20% compared to pre-pandemic numbers, suggesting it’s up to employers to ensure they meet those expectations or risk losing their top talent.
Keeping your workforce engaged is an excellent way to keep the lines of communication open and expectations on the table for both parties. Forbes has an excellent article on workplace engagement, and here are some great ways to keep your workforce energized, engaged, and feeling valued as we approach the start of 2023: ****
1. Ease Pain Points In Their Work-Life Balance****
Workers straining to balance their work and personal lives tend to value one over the other, so if they’re a top contributor to your company, you want them to view their employment with you as enabling the life outside of work they desire. If they have commitments outside of work, such as family or passion pursuits, the last thing you want is your employees to feel like working for you strains those commitments.
Adapting the needs of your business to ease work-life balance according to the individual needs of your employees is a gesture viewed as “above and beyond” traditional corporate culture. To keep their top talent, employers need to think creatively on a case-by-case basis. In this modern business climate, formerly considered “empathetic” gestures like flexible start and end office times, work-from-home, and expansive benefits coverage are no longer the exception; they are the rule.****
2. Be Ready To Counter Headhunting Offers****
Your top talent should rightfully be on the radar of your competitors and skill-adjacent companies hoping to entice your best employees. Do your due diligence to explore what options are available to you should you need to offer a counter-offer on short notice to help your top talent reconsider a lateral career move. Employers cannot rely on loyalty as a valid argument against top employees seeking better elsewhere like they could twenty years ago, especially when that loyalty is often not reciprocated by the company when push comes to shove. ****
**3. Ensure You Understand Your Employees’ Internal Goals ******
Top talent within your company may seem ideally suited for the job they have, but is it the job they want? Good employees leave when they believe they have been proving themselves for a desired future position that never comes to fruition. That conversation is much more challenging to broach from the employee’s perspective. An employer checking in on an employee’s aspirations within the company is a thoughtful, connecting conversation. In contrast, an employee expressing the desire to shift jobs internally risks coming off as ungrateful for their current opportunity. When employers open the door, employees are grateful and likely to reveal their big dreams without fear of retribution. ****
**4. Let Your Top Talent Know How Important They Are To The Company ******
Your best employees want to feel the company’s gratitude for their hard work. That doesn’t mean passing recognition at the yearly holiday party. Proper recognition comes from acknowledging in-the-moment examples of their talent at work, both privately and with other colleagues present. Cultivate a culture of gratitude and regularly share the direct positive impacts individual employees make on your company’s growth.
