What’s the secret sauce to employee retention? The answer to that question has evolved over time to match the desires and demands of the employment pool. In today’s day and age, employee retention heavily relies on the technology and resources a company provides its employees.
If the technology you’re providing employees facilitates a more productive, efficient work environment that leads to greater work-life harmony, odds are they’re sticking around. However, if your technology is outdated or more importantly if it’s not user-friendly, chances are you’re dealing with low company morale that’s pushing people out the door while keeping prospective employees at arm’s length.
The staggering statistics below certainly reinforce these claims, painting a clear picture that the technology and digital workspace a company provides its employees will either make or break their employee retention rates.
Attracting Top Talent
Step number one to recruiting and retaining top talent is giving employees the technology and workspace they need to succeed. Randstad US has conducted research revealing just how essential tech benefits are to attracting top talent, with 80% of those surveyed saying that their desire to join a company is greatly influenced by an organization’s use of the latest digital tools. Oftentimes, this simply means providing employees with the tools and technology they’re accustomed to.
According to a survey by Salesforce, 71% of IT professionals want their companies to provide them with the same level of technology that they use in their day-to-day lives. Not only does giving employees access to the technologies they’re familiar with circumvent any sort of learning curve and lead to higher levels of productivity, but it’s also a crucial determining factor for whether they want to accept an employment offer from a given company in the first place.
The First Six Months
Proactively offering employees the tech options they desire will result in offers being signed more quickly. Still, that’s only phase one. Phase two is the onboarding process, which can be thorny for companies to successfully navigate. Without the proper implementation of the digital tools and technology a company provides, this process can be quite the headache for new employees and color their perception of your company as negative from day one.
In fact, the first six months are crucial in shaping how employees view your company and their willingness to stay put or jump ship. According to a survey from Robert Half & Associates, one out of four employees will quit a new job in the first 90 days if they don’t find it satisfactory. One of the main reasons for this churn is the lack of adequate training or onboarding and unmet expectations, according to a survey from BambooHR that looked at employee retention rates within the first six months. 2018 marked the highest employee first-year turnover rate in eight years, so it’s no leap to infer that companies are slacking when it comes to properly onboarding new hires and making the technology they need to do their jobs in an efficient manner readily available.
Employee Burnout
Most people across the United States spend upwards of 40 hours a week at their workplace, so it’s pertinent that organizations take the necessary steps to provide a happy, healthy and supportive working environment for their employees. Failing to do so can result in massive organizational costs much greater than just a few disgruntled workers. In fact, 85% of employees worldwide feel disengaged at work, causing approximately $7 trillion dollars in productivity loss, according to research conducted by Gallup.
Companies might think that the technology they provide their employees is only a small factor of work-life balance and happiness, but the reality of the situation is anything but. A primary cause of employee burnout is insufficient technology, according to research from Kronos and Future Workplace. That’s because legacy or overly complex technology can stifle employee productivity, causing them to go through extra hurdles that waste their time and make their jobs unnecessarily difficult in the process.
The Cost of Replacing an Employee
So, what is the real cost of losing employees to outdated technology? Let’s start with control. As companies refuse to update their legacy technology, the power dynamics between employer and employee shift in favor of the latter. Job seekers are gravitating to companies who can fulfill their technological needs over those that don’t prioritize this essential component of digital transformation. From a recruitment standpoint, that should be a major concern and red flag when looking for areas of improvement.
From a purely monetary standpoint, companies spend as much as 33% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them. According to the Work Institute, the median U.S. salary worker makes $45K, meaning the average cost of turnover is $15K for a single employee. With an expected turnover rate of 19% by 2020, companies are in for a huge financial hit if they keep failing to meet the technology expectations of today’s talent pool.
Conclusion
We’re on the cusp of a conversion where employee experience is becoming the defining factor in an organization’s bottom line, due to the implications of productivity, engagement, collaboration and workplace flexibility. A flexible enterprise workspace that equips employees with the technologies and solutions they need to perform can offer a measure of improvement in overall employee experience. The answer to lower employee retention rates is a simple one; it’s listening to what your employees want. Whether employers choose to follow through on it is another issue entirely, but make no mistake—employees have spoken and what they want is a digital workspace that suits their every need.
