How to Retain Employees During the Pandemic

Having an effective employee retention strategy is highly important no matter what is going on in the world. However, it becomes more important and will need to be adjusted during a pandemic such as the one we are experiencing now.

Doing your best to retain employees is crucial for a host of reasons. To start with, replacing employees takes time and money and you cannot guarantee who you hire will be a good fit or as competent as the past employee.

In the pandemic environment, you may also have the hurdle of remote training and onboarding to consider. This can be more difficult than in-person training and it’s harder for the new hire to bond with current staff which alone could cause them to quit early on.

Retention programs ultimately focus on what you can do to keep current employees happy and productive. This will still include things like helping with employee growth and praising hard work. In the new climate, you’ll also need to consider things such as offering more flexibility in work schedule and where they work, sick policy updates, and office updates to make it safe to be in office.

Consider the following when creating or adjusting an employee retention plan for the pandemic environment.

1. Assess Employee Engagement

Start by assessing employee engagement as is. This will help you learn how your employees feel overall and how they are feeling about the changes put in place due to the pandemic.

An engagement survey is a good tool for this. Get each employee to complete the survey to determine how engaged they are and what can be done to improve.

Understanding employee engagement is especially important if staff are working remotely. If not in the office, it’s more difficult to see how your employees feel and pick up on in-person cues such as mood.

You can start with anonymous surveys to ensure you get honest responses and then have one on one review meetings if needed.

2. Provide More Flexibility

The pandemic has led to more flexibility in work schedules and location. As many employees have been made to work at home, they now want the flexibility of continuing to do so whether that be full or part-time.

If employees are wanting to continue working remotely, you may lose those employees if you request they come back to the office full-time. If you feel employees need to be in the office for at least part of the week, consider allowing them to work from home one or two days a week.

Although it may now be safer to go back into the office, there is lots still going on that’s different to pre-pandemic. For example, employees may still need to be caring for children if their school isn’t open. Or, they may be caring for relatives who are sick or at risk, or even be at risk themselves.

Because of this, having a one-fits-all plan could hurt employee retention. Returning to your pre-pandemic schedule with little to no flexibility could cause staff to quit by necessity as they have no option but to keep working remotely.

Returning to your pre-pandemic schedule with little to no flexibility could cause staff to quit by necessity as they have no option but to keep working remotely.

3. Offer Flexible Sick Leave

Employees will also likely be looking for more flexible sick leave. They will want this for themselves to ensure they don’t have to come in sick and risk harming co-workers. They’ll also want other workers to benefit from more flexibility on sick leave so they don’t come into work when unwell and risk infecting others.

This plan may include more paid sick days. However, a good option is allowing people to work from home if not feeling well enough to come into the office. This then keeps employees who feel a little unwell but well enough to work out of the office. This is important as many infected with Covid will only have very minimal symptoms.

If you don’t instate a sick policy like this, retention could suffer as employees won’t feel safe in the office. This is again especially true for those who are at risk or live with or care for someone that is. If their safety can’t be guaranteed, staff will look for employment elsewhere.

4. Offer a Sense of Safety and Security

As just mentioned, employees need to feel safe in the current environment. However, this doesn’t just refer to their health. They also need to feel safe in terms of job security.

This has always been a concern with employees who feel they don’t have job security more likely to leave. Employees need to feel valued and like managers are helping them reach career goals and grow.

Each employee will additionally need to feel relatively certain of their job security. This is even more important during a pandemic as layoffs are more frequent and it can be harder to find a new job.

Employees need to feel valued and like managers are helping them reach career goals and grow.

5. Communicate with Your Employees

Good communication is crucial for many reasons including for employee retention.

Managers need to be talking with employees about how they’re doing in both their work situation (for example, how they’re getting on working at home) and in their personal life if they want to discuss. They may have a new personal situation that they need to adjust their work life for.

For example, working later in the day as they have to look after children or not coming back to the office as they are at risk. Employers must do the best to come up with solutions to these problems in order to keep these employees with the company.

You’ll also want to communicate about employee performance and provide regular feedback to employees, as discussed below. Not knowing how they are performing can cause stress and burnout leading to employees looking for a new position.

Also communicate with employees about where the company is going and how things will be changing going forward. You may need to be more open about the health of the company and its financial stability to reassure employees that their job is secure.

6. Offer Career Development

Even before the pandemic, to retain employees you needed to be helping them grow their skills. Without this, they’re likely to leave for a job that helps them grow their skills and advance in their career.

This is just as important to focus on now, especially if employees are working from home. They may be missing out on learning that happens in the office through collaboration.

To see how employees could advance, set KPIs and goals for each if you don’t already. Then make sure employees are provided with more advanced tasks each time they meet the goals. You could also offer access to e-learning and get other employees to teach new skills via video chat.

Making sure to notice and thank employees for hard work is even more crucial when working remotely.

7. Provide Recognition

Your employees won’t stay long if they don’t feel appreciated. You, therefore, need to make sure to notice and thank employees for hard work and even offer other rewards for consistent good work or hard work on a certain project.

This is even more crucial when working remotely. It’s not as easy to give quick feedback and praise when your staff aren't in the office. But they need it more than ever to ensure they’re on the right track with their tasks. Not knowing if you’re performing well is one of the main causes of burnout and can contribute to employees considering looking for a new job.

As mentioned, during the pandemic employees will be slightly concerned about the health of the business and what may happen if the pandemic continues or worsens. If they’re worried about potential layoffs, even if you’ve assured them that this is unlikely, then they’ll be even more nervous if they aren’t getting feedback. If they know that you’re pleased with their work then worries about being laid off can be reduced.