Why We Excel in Employee Retention

Why we excel in employee retention

Hiring the right talent in only half the challenge. Keeping them happy and engaged is the other.

“Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t have to.”
- Sir Richard Branson

At Iris Software, we believe that providing an empathetic, responsive and positive work environment is as crucial as pay and perks to retaining good talent, if not more. Retaining key talent is vital to running a successful business, preserving institutional knowledge and maintaining growth. A well-thought-out employee engagement and retention strategy helps to hold onto top talent and minimize the cost of maintaining the workforce.

Our retention management process is highly data-driven, based on an analysis of trends within Iris as well as in the industry. Here is an account of some of our effective strategies to keep top talent around for the long haul.

Spotting exit trends early on

Basis daily, weekly and monthly reporting of data on both exits and resignation, we establish an early visibility into exit trends and hotspots (areas prone to attrition). This allows leadership attention to underlying issues and enables timely corrective actions. Pair this with our internal intelligence system comprising our annual non-anonymous survey – ‘Pulse’ – based on a NPS methodology and a 90% completion rate. This distinctly helps us to identify promoters, potential promoters and detractors to enable targeted and specific corrective steps at an individual and project level.

Additionally, managers are enabled to tag employees as Red, Amber or Green. The stop light reporting provides timely visibility into issues and allows for potential remedial measures.

With data gathered internally, talent management teams draw insights and patterns on rolling attrition, annualized and year-to-date attrition. Senior human capital leaders review the intelligence provided by the talent analytics team and basis stakeholder feedback, their structure, content, frequency and audiences are modified.

Cumulatively, all these telling pieces of data help track potential employee turnover.

Timely risk assessments and retention management

We follow a robust risk assessment process at various levels. The Employee Experience team is embedded within the delivery teams. A specially created rigorous connect process proactively spots and addresses early warning signs of employee dissatisfaction, grievances, disengagement and potential attrition. Risk ratings gathered internally are shared with various teams and business units to prepare action plans reviewed at a periodic frequency.

The HRBPs report into a newly created position of Director – Employee Experience, responsible for overall employee experience, engagement and employee retention. The risk assessments and overall employee experience are evaluated by senior people leaders to strategize and formulate retention plans that mitigate risks.

Strengthening People management practices

People management strategies can make all the difference between bad, mediocre, good and a great employee experience. Starting with the manager as the pivot, proactive measures and early warning steps need to originate at the managerial level. We have specialised training programs and best practices to aid managers in people management.

A comprehensive training specifically focusing on ‘Managing for Retention’ has been designed and implemented covering important stakeholders with people management responsibilities. Some of the components of the program include risk assessment, mentoring, having big-picture career conversations with employees, taking proactive action and drawing employee engagement strategies in line with aspirational levers of employees.

Aside from that, a strong collaboration between talent management and delivery leadership teams and making retention a key performance metric at various levels helps to tightly manage the process.

Replacing an employee is an expensive proposition. Employee retention has direct business and financial implications A thoughtful and proven retention strategy, strong manager-employee relations and developing an attractive workplace culture are crucial to employee retention.

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