Develop an Effective Talent Retention Plan
Keep talent from walking out the door by discovering and addressing moments that matter and turnover triggers.
- Regrettable turnover is impacting organizational productivity and leading to significant costs associated with employee departures and the recruitment required to replace them.
- Many organizations focus on increasing engagement to improve retention, but this approach doesn’t address the entire problem.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Engagement surveys mask the volatility of the employee experience and hide the reason why individual employees leave. You must also talk to employees to understand the moments that matter and engage managers to understand turnover triggers.
Impact and Result
- Build the case for creating retention plans by leveraging employee data and feedback to identify the key reasons for turnover that need to be addressed.
- Target employee segments and work with management to develop solutions to retain top talent.
Workshop: Develop an Effective Talent Retention Plan
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Focus Groups
The Purpose
Conduct focus groups.
Key Benefits Achieved
Feedback from focus groups of the predetermined employee segments
Activities
Outputs
McLean & Company facilitators conduct four 1-hour focus groups with the employee segment(s) identified during pre-work. The maximum number of focus group participants is eight.
- Focus group feedback
Module 2: Analyze Focus Group Feedback
The Purpose
McLean & Company facilitators analyze focus group feedback.
Key Benefits Achieved
Feedback from focus groups organized into themes
Activities
Outputs
McLean & Company facilitators independently analyze results of focus groups and group results by theme.
- Focus group feedback analyzed and organized by themes
Module 3: Assess Current State
The Purpose
Review the current state to identify common themes of why employees join, stay, and leave.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identify common themes of why employees join, stay, and leave the organization.
- Create an empathy map to identify needs.
Activities
Outputs
Review data to determine why employees join, stay, and leave.
- List of common themes/pain points recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook
Identify common themes.
Create an empathy map to identify needs.
Module 4: Identify Needs and Retention Initiatives
The Purpose
Identify needs and select retention initiatives.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Finalize a list of retention initiatives to address employee needs.
- Determine and record goals and respective metrics.
Activities
Outputs
Shortlist retention initiatives.
- Employee needs and shortlist of initiatives to address them
Select retention initiatives.
- Finalized list of retention initiatives
Determine goals and metrics.
- Goals and associated metrics recorded in the Retention Plan Workbook
Module 5: Prepare to Communicate and Launch
The Purpose
Create a plan to communicate and launch initiatives.
Key Benefits Achieved
Complete an action and communication plan for the retention strategy.
Activities
Outputs
Plan stakeholder communication.
- High-level action plan documented in HR Action and Communication Plan
Build a high-level action plan.
About McLean & Company
McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Analyze the cost and impact of turnover
- Call 1: Discuss turnover metrics, healthy turnover, environmental scan, benchmarks, and how to collect and analyze turnover data.
- Call 2: Review results of the turnover analysis and discuss how to prioritize employee segments.
- Call 3: Develop plan to engage stakeholders.
Guided Implementation 2: Identify reasons for regrettable turnover
- Call 1: Discuss how to gather, analyze, and identify themes and trends in employee data to understand why they join, stay, and leave.
- Call 2: Review themes from the employee data and prepare for focus groups.
- Call 3: Review focus group feedback and identify priority issues.
Guided Implementation 3: Select solutions and create an action plan
- Call 1: Discuss retention solutions and identify most appropriate options for the organization.
- Call 2: Discuss the stay interview approach and customize the Stay Interview Guide.
- Call 3: Review selected retention solutions and develop an action plan for implementation.
Contributors
- Gregory P. Smith, CEO, Chart Your Course
- Dr. Iris Ware, Chief Learning Officer, City of Detroit
- Jane Moughon, Specialist in increasing profits, reducing turnover and maximizing human potential in manufacturing companies
- Jeff Bonnell, CHRO, Info-Tech Research Group
- Linda Goldblatt, Independent Consultant
- Lisa Kaste, Former HR Director, Citco
- Michael McGuire, Talent Management and Senior HRBP Lead, Shopify
- Phillip Kotanidis, CHRO, Michael Garron Hospital
- Piyush Mathur, Head of Workforce Analytics, Johnson & Johnson
- Richard P. Finnegan, CEO, C-Suite Analytics
- Thomas W. Lee, Professor of Management, University of Washington
Develop an Effective Talent Retention Plan
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