Top Tools Managers Must Prioritize for Employee Retention

There are incredible costs associated with voluntary employee turnover in an organization. Therefore, it is time to invest your resources into a solution that ensures that existing employees can be retained. Many viable options are available in the market, but which employee retention tool allows employees to be retained effectively and delivers the best results? The best answer is a well designed mentorship program. 

The Great Resignation 

The pandemic shook the world to its core, carving the way for The Great Resignation in 2021. Employees worldwide made the united decision to leave behind the jobs they previously held throughout the pandemic. Multiple industries were affected, especially retail, food service, and hospitality. However, the highest resignation rates originated from mid-career professionals from the healthcare and tech industries. What were their reasons for leaving their jobs with the security they had? Some possible reasons for high resignation rates included:

• Employees felt overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.
• Employees noted feeling unchallenged in their place of work.
• Employees felt there were few to no opportunities for career advancement.

Tools and Trends to Invest in for Employee Retention in 2022

Employers were dumbfounded with the level of resignation rates their respective industries suffered, reiterating the importance of employee retention strategies to counteract the damages. Replacing one employee isn’t cheap. Imagine replacing them in double digits at a time! Based on data from the SHRM, replacing an employee costs approximately six to eight months of the employee’s salary. Losing an employee that makes roughly $60K a year could cost the employer $45K.

Companies must act now. While most are beginning to implement retention strategies, many have not. Companies need to be open-minded to see why employees are leaving their jobs. Some of the tools and trends that HR managers will potentially invest in the coming year to further encourage employee retention include remote and hybrid work, employee recognition programs, and priority with DE&I. But, the tools with the most significant impact include mentoring programs and mentoring software.

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Why Mentoring Programs are an Effective Employment Retention Tool

The primary reason many employees leave their current job is that they can no longer see any chances of growth. They don’t feel any satisfaction working the same job for the rest of their lives when they could do better somewhere else. Does this mean that there is no room for growth at your organization? No. However, due to a lack of in-person communication in the wake of the pandemic and working from home still in effect for most companies, value and satisfaction get lost in the back and forth, limiting employees’ ability to see room for growth within an organization. A mentoring program can help improve employee retention.

Understanding Mentoring in the Workplace 

It is easy to confuse workplace mentoring with employee coaching, but the two are vastly different. Workplace mentoring programs help create a relationship between the mentor and mentee so that their collective knowledge is shared and recognized by the other. A mentor chosen for the mentorship program in the workplace doesn’t need to be a professionally trained coach but rather someone who has gone through the same hurdles your new hires are currently facing. This can be someone from the senior staff at your company. 

Benefits of Mentoring in the Workplace

Mentorship programs in the workplace are beneficial for the mentees, including higher job satisfaction and fulfillment at work. But, benefits are not limited to only employees. Mentoring offers specific benefits to the mentor and the organization. Mentors benefit by passing knowledge onto others by obtaining a more senior teaching role, whereas the organization benefits when all their employees are highly motivated at their jobs. 

Take a look at some of these statistics from National Mentoring Day: 

• In 67 percent of the businesses surveyed, there were higher levels of employee productivity due to effective mentorship programs. 
• Ninety-three percent of small and medium-sized businesses accept that mentorship programs can help them succeed, whereas only 25 percent use business mentors.
• Fifty-five percent of businesses felt that mentorship programs helped increase their overall profits.
  

These statistics show that employee mentorship programs and software help mentees, mentors, and organizations obtain higher employee retention rates.

How Mentoring Software Helps Mentoring Programs

Effective mentorship programs work to improve employee retention in a workplace, and there are various ways that mentoring software can enable mentoring programs. Technology can easily connect the right mentee to the right mentor. It works a lot like it would in a dating app, where an algorithm is used to match people without manually doing so. Location is no longer an issue, as effective mentoring software can connect mentors to mentees as long as they are a strong match for mutual benefit. Additionally, organizations can easily understand how employees are benefiting through built-in reports and surveys.

If you are wondering how to get started with mentoring software for mentorship and employee retention, give our experts at MentorCloud a call to get started today!