Understanding your people: how employee engagement can answer the “why” behind employee attrition
“For a services organisation like Kainos, our people are the greatest asset that we have, and we can’t deliver our services without our people. It’s the people that make Kainos.”
Since the emergence of the Great Resignation in 2021 and manoeuvring through a post-COVID world with hybrid workplaces, employers and HR leaders are putting talent retention at the top of their people agenda. Despite this, many organisations are still struggling to increase employee engagement, reduce absenteeism and employee turnover.
In this article, we look at why retention is an ongoing challenge for employers, how employee engagement can be an indicator of flight risk, and what initiatives our Chief People Officer at Kainos is taking to prioritise the value of the employee voice.
Why the Great Resignation is an ongoing challenge
In 2021, an estimated yearly total of 47.4 million Americans were reported to have quit their jobs. But they weren’t alone, as organisations worldwide also began reporting increasing resignations. In November 2021, the UK Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey reported “Total job-to-job moves also increased to a record high, largely driven by resignations rather than dismissals” from July to September 2021. As a result of these trending reports, the phenomenon has become known as “The Great Resignation”.
We know that during this time, pandemic lockdowns created more time for self-reflection and a greater desire for an improved work-life balance. However, although the pandemic may have been the trigger that kickstarted The Great Resignation, the deep-rooted issues causing employee dissatisfaction likely began long before.
We know this because research over the past ten years has shown a steady increase in attrition rates. However, there is no one size fits all answer to the problem. The factors which effect employee retention have become more diverse than ever. For example, some people are now in search of remote work for greater flexibility around other life commitments or are even seeking a digital nomad lifestyle. Others are experiencing Zoom fatigue, craving roles with more in-person collaboration in physical workspaces. And it’s not always just a case of switching organisation or industry, more people are changing profession entirely in a bid to find more purpose in their daily lives as well as a better work life balance.
Companies who can stay ahead of the pulse and recognise the changing sentiments of the job market will be better placed to understand what is expected of them as employers, and how they can attract and retain top talent. Our Chief People Officer at Kainos, Colette Kidd, has experienced the impact of the changing work landscape first hand. Explaining how we have learnt to adapt and thrive during the change, Colette says, “The pandemic has shown us that we don’t need to be in the office to do our work successfully. A lot of workplaces like us are now much more flexible with staff. It’s not about the 9 to 5, it’s about what best suits your needs – people are looking for different things”.
Who is responsible for employee engagement?
An engaged employee is a person who is committed to their work, their colleagues, and their ongoing development. Retaining and developing valuable talent should be top of mind for every organisation, especially during times when competition is fierce and there are more jobs than talent available. This is certainly the case for Colette, who says that the prospect of losing great talent is something that is a major concern within her role as Chief People Officer at Kainos.
“To achieve our growth ambitions at Kainos, it is critical that we attract, develop, and engage our people and in doing so retain great talent. Our People Strategy is focussed on how we make this a living reality in Kainos, and we are very proud (but not complacent) that despite the challenges brought through the pandemic and the highly competitive employment markets in which we operate, Kainos has achieved 86% staff retention (4.3% above our industry average of 81.7% according to CBI Insights)”, explains Colette.
Managers and HR leaders will often play a pivotal role in driving employee engagement and monitoring employee retention, but crucially, employees must also be willing to provide feedback about their experiences. This leads us to a commonly asked question; how can employers better understand the factors impacting employee job satisfaction, and how can they effectively address the underlying issues at hand? Substantially, this is a question of overall company culture and leadership, as it relates to the relationship of employees and their managers, to create an environment that allows people to thrive in their workplace, go the extra mile, and feel a greater sense of purpose.
Why is employee engagement important and how does it impact retention?
The consequences of low engagement and poor employee retention include more time required for new candidate searches, onboarding, and training. As well as this, the cost of replacing an employee is estimated to be between 1.5 to 2.0 times their annual salary. Customer relationships benefit from having consistent points of contact within your company. A high employee turnover makes it more likely your customer will not have a strong point of contact within your business. New faces won’t necessarily have the developed customer knowledge or background needed to deliver a high-quality service. “For a services organisation like Kainos, people are the greatest asset that we have, and we can’t deliver our services without our people. It’s the people that make Kainos”, says Colette.
Harvard Business Review has reported that engaged employees create better business outcomes through an improved sense of purpose and higher productivity, amongst many other benefits. Beyond the research, we all know first-hand how it feels to interact with someone who feels happy about what there are doing, instead of just biding their time. This is even more relevant in an industry like ours, where we strive to partner with our customers to jointly solve complex problems and ideate future solutions – a type of work that requires a lot of creative energy and dedication to create great outcomes. “What gets me up in the morning is making sure we are creating an inclusive workplace where people can come and develop their careers and are well equipped to deliver real value to our customers”, Colette explains.
Employee engagement can be a strong indicator of both job satisfaction and employee flight risk. Workday’s Peakon Employee Voice platform helps to predict early indications as “an employee’s engagement metrics will typically reveal warning signs nine months before they actually leave an organisation”.
On the flip side of this, organisations that place real importance on employee retention will also boost overall company morale and engagement. When people aren’t seeing their colleagues come and go as often, they tend to be more motivated to forge real friendships. This is worth taking into consideration, as a recent study by Gallup reported that companies with a higher ratio of employee friendships experience 36% fewer safety incidents, 7% more engaged customers, and 12% higher profit.
The changing work environment has presented new challenges and created room for innovative methods to maintaining high employee engagement remotely. “The shift from a typical location-based workforce to a more remote workforce has meant that companies must work harder to make sure they are engaging people remotely, and it’s certainly one of those differentiators that has made us stand out against other employers”, says Colette.
Become more proactive – address employee feedback frequently
The right engagement strategy can make a huge difference at reducing employee turnover, but first you must understand your people. Measuring employee engagement accurately and frequently provides oversight of the issues facing your employees today. It also fosters a company culture where people feel safe to speak up about the concerns they might have, so these can be addressed before it’s too late.
In the past, it was common practice for employers to only assess employee feedback during their exit interview, by which point it can be too late to change the mind of the person leaving the job. A better alternative that we are beginning to implement at Kainos is assessing feedback regularly through a survey engagement system. When feedback is delivered confidentially through engagement platforms like Workday Peakon Employee Voice, this enforces a culture where each employee’s view matters and they can be comfortable about being honest, without the fear of judgement.
“Find a way to assess and understand the sentiment of your people. That will allow you to learn how to create a better workplace for them. If you don’t listen, you won’t know what issues they have in their roles and how they can be supported better. Continuous listening to the voice of our people, is what Peakon will enable Kainos to achieve".
Workday Peakon Employee Voice
With so many reasons why people become disengaged, highly customisable engagement tools like Peakon present actionable insights in a clear format. This is crucial to realising the issues that correlate to increasing attrition in a timely manner.
As we continue to roll out our own implementation of Peakon at Kainos, Colette is excited for the positive impact it will have on our employee engagement levels. “I received a demo of the platform and what really impressed me was the real time data and the fact it was so customisable. The ability to include company specific questions, to assess employee sentiment against people agendas that are important to Kainos (e.g., inclusivity within our workplace) means we can immediately assess the impact initiatives are delivering and tweak and evolve what we do based on real-time feedback from our People.
I particularly loved that Peakon was putting the power not just into the managers hands, but also showing the individual how they could improve their own engagement and that was a big selling point for me. We can even link to lots of supporting modules that Peakon provides to help people improve their own self engagement, which is important as we want to empower our people to create their own career”, says Colette.
Access to the right data will help you understand the sentiment of your people
Peakon enables easy comparison of feedback from different departments, teams, and countries, providing managers and HR departments instant data reports with a click of a button. This makes it easier to assess how people feel about the same topics and identify if there is a weak spot in certain areas or across the board. Furthermore, having access to the right data can result in stronger evidence that demonstrates the need to support a new employee retention strategy, increasing the likelihood of achieving leadership buy-in.
For companies that don’t currently use engagement and survey tools or are already dealing with the challenge of managing increasing attrition, Colette offers some words of advice, “Find a way to assess and understand the sentiment of your people. That will allow you to learn how to create a better workplace for them. If you don’t listen, you won’t know what issues they have in their roles and how they can be supported better. Continuous listening to the voice of our people, is what Peakon will enable Kainos to achieve".
To find out more about how we are embracing Peakon within our organisation, contact workdayinfo@kainos.com