Overcoming the Cycle of Employee Turnover: An Actionable Roadmap for Showing Your Team You Care

Some may argue that the best talent goes to the highest bidder, but research is consistently finding that, in today’s employment environment, financial incentives are only one part of the story. There is a strong argument to be made about culture’s influence on a company’s ability retain and recruit top talent.

Consider this: Organizations are constantly thinking about how their products and services differentiate them from competitors, but how often is that same rigor applied to how they differentiate their Employee Value Propositions (EVP) in ways that encourage people to join and stay? Understanding how employees’ needs and preferences are evolving and using those inputs to thoughtfully redefine the EVP is a critical yet sometimes forgotten part of company strategy.

Even more important is the way the EVP is prioritized. The “winners” in today’s competitive talent environment are distinguishing themselves through execution. In these organizations, EVP becomes a way life that touches every aspect of an employee’s experience – a non-negotiable driver of decisions related to policies, programs, systems, and processes.

These four key actions show how best-in-class employers are living their EVP in ways that bolster retention and recruitment:

1.Keep purpose and values at the forefront of communications – A growing body of evidence, ranging from stronger employee voices on social platforms to full unionization efforts, highlights the need for companies to communicate more regularly with their people about their purpose, values, and futures – in the right ways. Adding to this chorus, both institutional investors and working professionals surveyed as part of FTI Consulting’s recently released CEO Leadership Redefined research ranked Purpose, Mission, and Values as the #1 pieces of publicly available information they seek from companies – outranking Strategy, Financial Information, and R&D plans.[i] These communications cannot be relegated to a dedicated page of the corporate website and forgotten. They do not become intrinsic when mentioned only at quarterly town halls. Consistency and storytelling are essential.

FTI’s CEO Leadership Redefined research reinforces that the most effective leaders are those who prioritize values-driven communication and directly link business results to the company’s commitment to its people and purpose. Great culture is a byproduct of defining, relentlessly communicating about, and celebrating the standards to which employees are held.

2.Focus on connection – In this remote/hybrid world, many employees report feeling disconnected and disengaged from each other, their leaders, and their organizations, which puts even an organization’s most loyal and promising talent at risk. These findings have been widely reported, and yet many companies continue to focus primarily on how much time employees are spending in the office (policy) when they should be thinking about how this time can be used to reinforce employees’ connections with each other – and with the corporate purpose (culture). Social interaction is one important element of this equation and arguably the easiest for companies to address – but this may not be the most important motivator for all employees. Other considerations include opportunities for on-the-job learning and mentorship, customer interactions and philanthropic initiatives that give work meaning, and the extent to which mutual trust, teamwork, and respect is embedded in leadership behaviors.

3.Create an environment of active listening and learning – It’s been said that leaders today cannot, and arguably should not, always be the experts in the room – particularly at large organizations with multiple business lines contributing to the P&L. Leaders do, however, need to ask the right questions to inform their business decisions and solicit the best ideas to solve their most pressing challenges. The good news is that these behaviors can be learned and modelled through formal focus groups, informal feedback moments, and any number of strategies in between. When leaders get it right, these listening behaviors cascade through the organization to develop a culture of curiosity. Curiosity, in turn, leads to better questions, more productive exchanges, and more informed decisions. And best of all, it leads to people feeling heard – a critical tool for talent retention.

4.Take the time necessary to find the right talent – The competition for talent is intense, and in moments like these, it can be tempting to hire quickly. In fact, some companies need to hire quickly to fill emergent needs. But where there is time to be more deliberate, there is also opportunity to integrate next-generation skills sets, optimize cultural fit, recruit the candidates who want to commit for the long term, and remind current employees why they were excited to join in the first place. To help achieve these goals, recruiting should:

• clearly represent the organization, the job, and overarching culture in messaging and talking points,
• surround candidates with social and digital content that brings to life who the company is and what it stands for,
• use targeted, digital advertisement strategies that better target candidates and the functional expertise most desirable for the role(s),
• provide opportunity for share of voice through the process, ensuring candidates have ample time for questions and connection with a variety of current employees (while providing deeper insights about candidates’ backgrounds, experiences, and interests),
• demonstrate ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the process.

Developing and sustaining an impactful EVP is both art and science. What works for one company will not work for another, so it is critical to let data drive decisions and include diverse perspectives in the process. Most importantly, companies must be consistent in their communications and related action plans to show employees every day that they are valuable. It’s a journey, and it is well worth the effort.

[i] Christine DiBartolo and Brent McGoldrick, CEO Leadership Redefined: Part 3 (FTI Consulting, Inc., 2022), 6.