HR platforms have gone from a trend to a mainstay in the modern workplace. At the beginning of 2020, they seemed like a helpful answer to companies that were suddenly asking how they were going to remain productive and maintain high employee retention with a workforce that was stuck at home. Over two years later, not only has HR software become a staple of the remote/hybrid workforce in a landscape with 70% of companies turning to hybrid models, but it’s even found utility among on-site organizations.
These platforms come in all shapes and sizes, but the main differentiator you want to look out for is the audience they’re made for. Many are made to make the HR department’s or manager’s lives easier by forcing employees to adopt performance management tools like payroll, time sheets, and task delegation software. They may make supervision easier, but they won’t help your employees in their day-to-days, which will be frustrating for them.
Few are made for the employee. These are the ones that actually produce a return on investment, and that’s because they promote engagement – the secret ingredient of business success. That’s because…
-Per Gallup, businesses with highly engaged teams experience a 21% productivity boost.
-Businesses experienced an 81% drop in absenteeism when their teams were engaged.
-On average, highly engaged teams will experience a 30% improvement in turnover.
-With low turnover, companies like World Connection can dramatically reduce their recruiting costs.
There are certainly examples of HR software on the market that try to focus on employee engagement, to varying degrees of success. In the age of The Great Resignation, however, what’s more important than adopting an engagement platform is adopting an employee retention platform.
An employee retention platform uses its engagement tools to build a culture that promotes a healthy well-being, communication, recognition, and most importantly, low turnover. There are seven key requirements to a great employee retention platform. Let’s get started!
- A Social Workplace Community
The foundation of a great employee retention platform is to create a social workplace community for your organization. As we proceed we’ll explore each of the ways a social workplace community enables engagement, productivity, and high retention, and the way it becomes possible is through employee profiles.
Giving each team member their own profile on their platform’s intranet is an excellent way to emulate a social media site, right down to profile pictures and bios featuring hobbies and skills. The difference is that this social media isn’t a distraction from work – the distraction IS work! Think about the way Facebook became a worldwide phenomenon based on users’ ability to connect with others, share information about themselves and share news and events. The workplace needs a similar social community, and an employee retention platform can be just that.
Having an online workplace community like this is especially helpful for remote and hybrid workers who might feel left out of the company’s core culture; they can log in to work and join the same playing field as their on-site coworkers.
When an employee profile’s bio features skills, it should also enable skills matching – the ability for managers to search through skills to arrange an experienced task force and for employees to find colleagues who can assist them with advice on a particular project.
Your team members’ profiles should also feature birthdays and work anniversaries, which could be deserving of a feature on the company dashboard when the time comes around. What’s the company dashboard, you might ask? If employee profiles are the salt of this retention dish, the company dashboard is the sauce. It’s the homepage of your HR software, where everything we’re about to discuss can be featured at a glance, including birthdays, news, and events.
- Rewards and Recognition
Introducing profiles into your social workplace opens up another fantastic driver of employee retention: recognition for hard work.
Rewarding your employees for a job well done can actually be an enormous game-changer for your staff’s satisfaction and your organization’s turnover rate. If you don’t believe us, consider the facts that 75% of employees say receiving recognition makes them want to stay at their companies longer, and Gallup revealed that the #1 reason most people say they leave their jobs is because they feel they aren’t recognized or appreciated enough.
There are two ways an employee retention platform can promote recognition – peer recognition features like high fives, and integrated incentive programs. Peer recognition features take advantage of employee profiles by allowing different team members to give their colleague a sort of “virtual pat-on-the-back” with a custom message for anything from finishing a year-long project to sending an important email.
On a larger scale, you could introduce an incentive program to your workplace. This is a system that allows employees to gather and redeem points for hard work and achievements, with a rewards pool that they can spend points on. The selection of prizes can even be chosen by the team, whether it’s gift cards, technology, or even an office party.
Rewards programs are proven winners when it comes to beating turnover – studies have shown that incentive programs boost productivity by 25-44% while simultaneously solidifying engagement and retention. Putting incentives ahead of your team keeps them focused and ready to commit to the company’s strategic plan.
- One-on-ones and feedback
Communication and feedback are crucial no matter what you do professionally. If feedback within your workplace isn’t consistent and clear, it can cause misalignment, hurt productivity, and yes, increase turnover. Communication from employee to management is the subject here: there’s a 16% decrease in employee retention rates for workers who aren’t comfortable giving upwards feedback.
That ability to give feedback itself, while important, isn’t the sole factor that can defeat turnover on its own. It’s the content of what your workers are telling you. Your team’s feedback, when honest, can key you into everything that needs fixing or reassessing within your workplace. Perhaps your employees have an issue with the flexibility of their positions & work-life balance, or they feel that your performance review method isn’t as helpful as it could be. Learning about the issues your team cares about is by far the best way to tackle them, and you won’t hear about them without embracing one-on-ones.
Your employee retention platform should include a system of one-on-ones that not only allows you to schedule meetings on any recurring basis you want, but also allows you to prepare questions and log notes within the software itself. Modern workplaces are beginning to move away from the annual performance review in favor of more casual weekly meetings, which is why your retention platform should help you curate a culture of feedback by facilitating that change.
- Surveys
Another crucial type of feedback is the survey, which could give you a stronger insight into your team’s thoughts and activities than anything else on the system. You might ask about something as simple as selecting the games that will be played at game night, or about something as complex as the company’s mission statement. A great retention platform lets you customize the format the question is in (multiple choice, sliding scale, open ended) as well as its anonymity.
It’s true, though, that managers have been surveying their employees since the beginning of time – what makes it different on a platform? First, that customizability of format and anonymity is essential, and isn’t found on many survey systems, especially when they’re casually sent out through email.
That “email send” trend is the second reason an employee retention platform will change the way you survey: adoptability. When surveys are pushed upon employees through email, they often get missed or ignored, and those who do answer certainly aren’t anonymous. When surveys appear on a social workplace community your team’s already using, however, more people will be happy to answer and you’ll get a diverse set of honest responses.
- Learning Management
Employee development is one of the most underrated elements of leading an engaged team. In this context, development is defined as teaching your employees crucial information and preparing them for tasks and positions that lie ahead. Education is a higher priority for the national workforce than you might think; 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in helping them learn.
That’s why learning management systems are so important to a company’s success. Not only do they increase employee knowledge and confidence, but they actually engage teams enough to keep them working at the same place. Learning management systems are like digital classrooms that integrate with your employee retention platform to bring customizable lessons and content right to your team. Employees can take them at their own pace, and your retention platform will allow you to track their progress to see what lessons they’ve been certified in.
It’s proven to be effective! One 2017 study showed that even tiny investments in learning and development among sales companies resulted in win-rate increases as high as 46%. When your company excels at continued education, it becomes a talent destination for the top minds of any industry. Everyone wants to learn – make sure your LMS gets them there.
- The Organizational Chart
There’s one more special feature the adoption of employee profiles enables, and that’s the creation of a customizable org chart. We’ve all worked jobs that have left us feeling like we’re in our own corner, disconnected from the goings-on within the rest of the company. Don’t let that happen to any of your team members by adopting HR software that includes an org chart.
A customizable org chart is a branching tree of profiles that indicate who each employee works under and in what department. Thanks to the power of profiles, you can then click on anyone’s profile picture to learn their contact info, tasks, hobbies and whatever else they feature in their bio. It should also be moveable so management can change it up in a snap when someone’s promoted or moved.
Another advantage of org charts is the impact they have on onboarding. When a new hire logs on to their employee retention platform and sees a tree of their coworkers, supervisors and all other members of their company, they’ll feel like a part of the culture much more quickly. Faster and more effective onboarding leads to faster and more effective work.
The ability to instantly look at your company at a glance and then seek out contact info keeps an entire company more engaged, more connected and more productive.
- Integrations
Between rewards programs and learning management systems, we’ve already talked a bit about the ability for an employee retention platform to integrate. Imagine, however, if your platform could integrate with the programs you already actively use…
That’s right! A great employee retention platform will be able to integrate with messaging apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack, allowing their abilities to work alongside each other with a Single Sign-On. You might also work with performance management software like ADP that doesn’t satisfy your employee engagement desires – combine their power by integrating them together and transferring your data quickly from one platform to the other.
Save yourself some time and eliminate the headaches you’d get from inconsistencies between programs and multiple sign-ons by adopting an employee retention platform that homogenizes with the systems you already use!
We have a bit of a confession to make. After telling you to look for employee retention platforms that have “this” or “that”, we realized that there’s actually only one true retention platform with all of these features. That’s HelloTeam.
HelloTeam is an employee retention platform that’s proven to beat turnover and boost engagement for workplaces of all types. Our system has been engineered to perfectly fit today’s mix of remote, hybrid, and in-office companies without sacrificing any engagement or productivity. We’re truly an employee retention platform that’s actually built for the employee.
Our unique combination of connected goals, diverse integrations, manager-employee one-on-ones, learning, engagement surveys with instant people analytics, and real-time peer recognition empowers every employee to connect with and contribute to their culture wherever they work. This drives employee retention while making HR teams and managers more productive, giving your organization the competitive edge it needs.
The HelloTeam difference brings all these features to a social workplace intranet, which other similar platforms don’t support. Filling a workplace intranet with tools like surveys that employees want to use sets us apart from competitors that offer tools like timesheets that employees are forced to use. Your team should be happy to use their HR software. They will be with HelloTeam.With 4.8 stars out of 5 on G2.com and over 100 5-star reviews to read through, HelloTeam is a proven industry leader that can transform your workplace from the ground up. If you want to improve retention, build culture, and engage your workforce, you can schedule a demo with HelloTeam right here and finish your shopping for good!
At the beginning of 2020, they seemed like a helpful answer to companies that were suddenly asking how they were going to remain productive and maintain high employee retention with a workforce that was stuck at home. Over two years later, not only has HR software become a staple of the remote/hybrid workforce in a landscape with 70% of companies turning to hybrid models, but it’s even found utility among on-site organizations.
These platforms come in all shapes and sizes, but the main differentiator you want to look out for is the audience they’re made for. Many are made to make the HR department’s or manager’s lives easier by forcing employees to adopt performance management tools like payroll, time sheets, and task delegation software. They may make supervision easier, but they won’t help your employees in their day-to-days, which will be frustrating for them.
Few are made for the employee. These are the ones that actually produce a return on investment, and that’s because they promote engagement – the secret ingredient of business success. That’s because…
-Per Gallup, businesses with highly engaged teams experience a 21% productivity boost.
-Businesses experienced an 81% drop in absenteeism when their teams were engaged.
-On average, highly engaged teams will experience a 30% improvement in turnover.
-With low turnover, companies like World Connection can dramatically reduce their recruiting costs.
There are certainly examples of HR software on the market that try to focus on employee engagement, to varying degrees of success. In the age of The Great Resignation, however, what’s more important than adopting an engagement platform is adopting an employee retention platform.
An employee retention platform uses its engagement tools to build a culture that promotes a healthy well-being, communication, recognition, and most importantly, low turnover. There are seven key requirements to a great employee retention platform. Let’s get started!
A Social Workplace Community
The foundation of a great employee retention platform is to create a social workplace community for your organization. As we proceed we’ll explore each of the ways a social workplace community enables engagement, productivity, and high retention, and the way it becomes possible is through employee profiles.
Giving each team member their own profile on their platform’s intranet is an excellent way to emulate a social media site, right down to profile pictures and bios featuring hobbies and skills. The difference is that this social media isn’t a distraction from work – the distraction IS work! Think about the way Facebook became a worldwide phenomenon based on users’ ability to connect with others, share information about themselves and share news and events. The workplace needs a similar social community, and an employee retention platform can be just that.
Having an online workplace community like this is especially helpful for remote and hybrid workers who might feel left out of the company’s core culture; they can log in to work and join the same playing field as their on-site coworkers.
When an employee profile’s bio features skills, it should also enable skills matching – the ability for managers to search through skills to arrange an experienced task force and for employees to find colleagues who can assist them with advice on a particular project.
Your team members’ profiles should also feature birthdays and work anniversaries, which could be deserving of a feature on the company dashboard when the time comes around. What’s the company dashboard, you might ask? If employee profiles are the salt of this retention dish, the company dashboard is the sauce. It’s the homepage of your HR software, where everything we’re about to discuss can be featured at a glance, including birthdays, news, and events.
Rewards and Recognition
Introducing profiles into your social workplace opens up another fantastic driver of employee retention: recognition for hard work.
Rewarding your employees for a job well done can actually be an enormous game-changer for your staff’s satisfaction and your organization’s turnover rate. If you don’t believe us, consider the facts that 75% of employees say receiving recognition makes them want to stay at their companies longer, and Gallup revealed that the #1 reason most people say they leave their jobs is because they feel they aren’t recognized or appreciated enough.
There are two ways an employee retention platform can promote recognition – peer recognition features like high fives, and integrated incentive programs. Peer recognition features take advantage of employee profiles by allowing different team members to give their colleague a sort of “virtual pat-on-the-back” with a custom message for anything from finishing a year-long project to sending an important email.
On a larger scale, you could introduce an incentive program to your workplace. This is a system that allows employees to gather and redeem points for hard work and achievements, with a rewards pool that they can spend points on. The selection of prizes can even be chosen by the team, whether it’s gift cards, technology, or even an office party.
Rewards programs are proven winners when it comes to beating turnover – studies have shown that incentive programs boost productivity by 25-44% while simultaneously solidifying engagement and retention. Putting incentives ahead of your team keeps them focused and ready to commit to the company’s strategic plan.
One-on-ones and feedback
Communication and feedback are crucial no matter what you do professionally. If feedback within your workplace isn’t consistent and clear, it can cause misalignment, hurt productivity, and yes, increase turnover. Communication from employee to management is the subject here: there’s a 16% decrease in employee retention rates for workers who aren’t comfortable giving upwards feedback.
That ability to give feedback itself, while important, isn’t the sole factor that can defeat turnover on its own. It’s the content of what your workers are telling you. Your team’s feedback, when honest, can key you into everything that needs fixing or reassessing within your workplace. Perhaps your employees have an issue with the flexibility of their positions & work-life balance, or they feel that your performance review method isn’t as helpful as it could be. Learning about the issues your team cares about is by far the best way to tackle them, and you won’t hear about them without embracing one-on-ones.
Your employee retention platform should include a system of one-on-ones that not only allows you to schedule meetings on any recurring basis you want, but also allows you to prepare questions and log notes within the software itself. Modern workplaces are beginning to move away from the annual performance review in favor of more casual weekly meetings, which is why your retention platform should help you curate a culture of feedback by facilitating that change.
Surveys
Another crucial type of feedback is the survey, which could give you a stronger insight into your team’s thoughts and activities than anything else on the system. You might ask about something as simple as selecting the games that will be played at game night, or about something as complex as the company’s mission statement. A great retention platform lets you customize the format the question is in (multiple choice, sliding scale, open ended) as well as its anonymity.
It’s true, though, that managers have been surveying their employees since the beginning of time – what makes it different on a platform? First, that customizability of format and anonymity is essential, and isn’t found on many survey systems, especially when they’re casually sent out through email.
That “email send” trend is the second reason an employee retention platform will change the way you survey: adoptability. When surveys are pushed upon employees through email, they often get missed or ignored, and those who do answer certainly aren’t anonymous. When surveys appear on a social workplace community your team’s already using, however, more people will be happy to answer and you’ll get a diverse set of honest responses.
Learning Management
Employee development is one of the most underrated elements of leading an engaged team. In this context, development is defined as teaching your employees crucial information and preparing them for tasks and positions that lie ahead. Education is a higher priority for the national workforce than you might think; 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in helping them learn.
That’s why learning management systems are so important to a company’s success. Not only do they increase employee knowledge and confidence, but they actually engage teams enough to keep them working at the same place. Learning management systems are like digital classrooms that integrate with your employee retention platform to bring customizable lessons and content right to your team. Employees can take them at their own pace, and your retention platform will allow you to track their progress to see what lessons they’ve been certified in.
It’s proven to be effective! One 2017 study showed that even tiny investments in learning and development among sales companies resulted in win-rate increases as high as 46%. When your company excels at continued education, it becomes a talent destination for the top minds of any industry. Everyone wants to learn – make sure your LMS gets them there.
The Organizational Chart
There’s one more special feature the adoption of employee profiles enables, and that’s the creation of a customizable org chart. We’ve all worked jobs that have left us feeling like we’re in our own corner, disconnected from the goings-on within the rest of the company. Don’t let that happen to any of your team members by adopting HR software that includes an org chart.
A customizable org chart is a branching tree of profiles that indicate who each employee works under and in what department. Thanks to the power of profiles, you can then click on anyone’s profile picture to learn their contact info, tasks, hobbies and whatever else they feature in their bio. It should also be moveable so management can change it up in a snap when someone’s promoted or moved.
Another advantage of org charts is the impact they have on onboarding. When a new hire logs on to their employee retention platform and sees a tree of their coworkers, supervisors and all other members of their company, they’ll feel like a part of the culture much more quickly. Faster and more effective onboarding leads to faster and more effective work.
The ability to instantly look at your company at a glance and then seek out contact info keeps an entire company more engaged, more connected and more productive.
Integrations
Between rewards programs and learning management systems, we’ve already talked a bit about the ability for an employee retention platform to integrate. Imagine, however, if your platform could integrate with the programs you already actively use…
That’s right! A great employee retention platform will be able to integrate with messaging apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack, allowing their abilities to work alongside each other with a Single Sign-On. You might also work with performance management software like ADP that doesn’t satisfy your employee engagement desires – combine their power by integrating them together and transferring your data quickly from one platform to the other.
Save yourself some time and eliminate the headaches you’d get from inconsistencies between programs and multiple sign-ons by adopting an employee retention platform that homogenizes with the systems you already use!
We have a bit of a confession to make. After telling you to look for employee retention platforms that have “this” or “that”, we realized that there’s actually only one true retention platform with all of these features. That’s HelloTeam.
HelloTeam is an employee retention platform that’s proven to beat turnover and boost engagement for workplaces of all types. Our system has been engineered to perfectly fit today’s mix of remote, hybrid, and in-office companies without sacrificing any engagement or productivity. We’re truly an employee retention platform that’s actually built for the employee.
Our unique combination of connected goals, diverse integrations, manager-employee one-on-ones, learning, engagement surveys with instant people analytics, and real-time peer recognition empowers every employee to connect with and contribute to their culture wherever they work. This drives employee retention while making HR teams and managers more productive, giving your organization the competitive edge it needs.
The HelloTeam difference brings all these features to a social workplace intranet, which other similar platforms don’t support. Filling a workplace intranet with tools like surveys that employees want to use sets us apart from competitors that offer tools like timesheets that employees are forced to use. Your team should be happy to use their HR software. They will be with HelloTeam.With 4.8 stars out of 5 on G2.com and over 100 5-star reviews to read through, HelloTeam is a proven industry leader that can transform your workplace from the ground up. If you want to improve retention, build culture, and engage your workforce, you can schedule a demo with HelloTeam right here and finish your shopping for good!