As traditional employee retention incentives become unsustainable, organizations are looking for new ways to attract and retain the best talent. Manpower Group Solutions provides a fresh perspective on retention, using a method most commonly found in product and service development: user experience modelling. This approach places employee motivations, interests and behaviours at the heart of organizational culture.

Many companies neglect to invest in making retention a part of organizational culture, with everyone aligned to a singular set of retention-focused expectations and behaviours. Integrating a user experience retention model that starts from the moment an individual first learns about an organization, all the way through to the exit interview, takes significant time, planning and stakeholder engagement, and can be difficult to achieve among competing priorities.

According to a recently released paper by the Manpower Group titled, “Rethinking Retention: A User Experience Approach to Keeping Great People,” it says,

“Companies aren’t investing in organizationally-aligned retention strategies in the same way they do their brand and employer value proposition,” said Steve Lopez, vice president, ManpowerGroup Solutions, Consulting & Solutions. “Retention strategies that are in place tend to be one-size-fits-all, which doesn’t effectively meet employee needs. We segment our customer market – why not our employees?”

See: Keeping the Most Valuable Asset, Your Best Employee

Organizations should analyze their existing retention models using the following steps:

• Conduct a user needs survey: Evaluate your value proposition and understand your candidates and employees – where to find them, what drives them and what they want in their careers.
• Develop, test and refine content: Gather and analyze survey results to understand what people need. For example, candidates may want more corporate culture insight, while employees might be more motivated by information about development opportunities.
• Evaluate functionality: Ask people if the systems in place work for them and create engagement. Understand when, where, why and how retention is breaking down.
• Design the process: Ensure that candidates and employees can intuitively find the resources they need to enjoy doing their job well. This requires understanding when, where and how people interact with the employer brand, from digital channels and internal communication, to managers, mentors, peers and third-party sources.
• Create a visual experience: Consider how people experience your organization from the standpoint of web/social media, office and workspace, and external marketing. Ensure the visual experience aligns with the organization’s mission, vision, values and culture.

Lopez added: “Creating a culture and mindset of user-centred retention will generate deep engagement that yields the retention organizations desire.”

Employers are often quick to adopt conventional wisdom about retention. On one hand, it is widely accepted that retention is always a must-have, when this is not necessarily the case. On the other hand, employers sometimes make the case that retention is impossible to achieve in an environment where job-hopping is the norm or competition for talent is intense and costly.

Building a user experience model of retention is not always easy because of the competing forces of conventional wisdom and the short-term needs that command the attention of hiring managers, HR professionals and organizations. A user-centred approach gives hiring managers the freedom to move away from a “fill the requirement” model towards a model that strengthens the organization over the long term.

Also read: 5 Tell-Tale Signs of a Great Employee Heading Out the Door