Four steps to increasing employee tenure

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The days have gone when people would stay at one job through their entire career. Global studies and research show that the median number of years that wage and salary workers have worked for their current employer is currently 4.6 years.

It is a known fact that organisations, employees and customers are the ones who benefit from lengthy employee tenure; however, employees change jobs periodically to overcome boredom, stress, monotony and unfavourable working conditions.

A longer tenure is a desirable quality to have, as it considerably makes the employee trustworthy and credible. On the other hand, people with short employee tenures learn more and have a diverse experience. Both scenarios have their benefits for the organisation and their challenges that needs to be addressed to keep them motivated and engaged.

It is certain that HR leaders cannot go to each employee and work on a solution to help him or her to increase his tenure. It could be customised and personalised, but it is difficult to build effectiveness to the power of one.

The below four points are overarching as they impact an employee’s tenure and can be made relevant to each employee, apart from the specific things such as salary structures and competitive benchmarking.

Organisations need to have a way for each manager to analyse if their teams have been made to feel special by asking:

• Did you celebrate their birthday?
• Did you recognise their great work?
• Did they get a surprise bonus?
• Did the employee engage in activities with colleagues?
• Does the employee have a close friend or buddy in the company?

Organisations should make a process that these questions get answered or the leader ponders over for his or her team members.

Each manager and leader should be trained to keep the organisation strategy and initiatives aligned, while we continue to nurture and support the individual team member’s objectives.

The author is Managing Director at O.C. Tanner.