People at Work Series | Retaining Top Talent

Over the years, our team of consultants at OrgVitality has seen recurring patterns and themes in employee survey data and focus group discussions. Some are readily apparent; others are more nuanced and emerge only through careful analysis. All are useful to anyone working in the field of talent management. In the spirit of cooperation, we are sharing some of the most consistent themes we've seen over decades of survey work, with a new series, "People at Work." In this series, CEO Jeffrey Saltzman aims to organize these observations, although many insights cut across multiple categories.

For the third part of this series, we focus on retaining top talent:

1. Feeling valued by the organization is critically important to maintaining employee engagement and limiting turnover. Every role should be valued, regardless of position. If a role is not valued, the question becomes why that role exists.
2. While some organizations talk about merit as a key to getting ahead, many people don't think merit is the main reason for promotion; most people believe that other factors have a potentially outsized influence.
   [Read More: How Should We Measure Merit on Employee Surveys Amidst Shifting Paradigms]
3. Money is a driver of satisfaction, but for most people once their monetary needs are met, money falls off as a key driver. For people who feel underpaid and undervalued money is central. Union members are often more positive about pay and benefits as they are central to what unions fight for.
4. Feeling frustrated when trying to get your work done is a very big reason why people quit, no matter the reason for the frustration, which can arise from various issues. Typical ones include inefficient or outdated processes, staffing levels, lack of resources, poor communications, organizational conflict, poor leadership, constantly changing strategy or structure, etc.
5. People don’t pull up stakes and leave a job or where they are from on a whim. They do it because they feel they are compelled to.
6. When people do leave there is both a push (something pushing them out of the existing situation) and a pull (something attractive with the perceived alternative).
   [Read More: The Push-Me Pull-You of Turnover] 
7. Providing agency, giving people the ability to control as much of their lives and work as possible, is a very powerful tool in maintaining positive feelings towards the organization.