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TOP 10 MYTHS THAT DO THE MOST TO HAMPER EMPLOYEE RETENTION EFFORTS

Myth No. 1: The retention problem is going away.

Fact: Rather than going away, job turnover is going into overdrive. The DDI surveys show that 31 percent of employees are dissatisfied or neutral about their jobs. Also, 42 percent of the HR professionals reported higher turnover this year than last; 43 percent expect it to continue at that high level next year; and 31 percent expect turnover to increase even more.

Myth No. 2: Companies are doing everything they can to keep employees.

Fact: In the DDI survey, 98 percent of HR professionals admitted their organisations needed to do better at employee retention. In fact, only 44 percent of those HR professionals in the survey said their organisations plan to overhaul the retention strategy in the upcoming year.

Myth No. 3: Employee satisfaction equals employee retention.

Fact: The DDI survey showed that less than 10 percent of the employees said they were dissatisfied with their jobs. But more than a quarter of employees, regardless of satisfaction level, plan to look for a new job within the year.

Myth No. 4: Today’s HR departments understand employees’ needs and motivations.

Fact: The DDI surveys showed a big disparity between how HR professionals and employees viewed job retention. For example, the HR professionals ranked "finding meaning in one’s work" dead last as a reason why employees quit. But employees cited "finding meaning in one’s work" as the second most important factor in job satisfaction.

Myth No. 5: It’s all about money.

Fact: When employees ranked what was most important, money finished out of the money - it was only the fifth most important value. The most important values were, in order, the ability to balance work and outside life, the meaningfulness of work, trust among employees and the employees’ relationship with their supervisor or manager.

Myth No. 6: Employees have stopped caring about organisational trust and loyalty.

Fact: Ninety-nine percent of employees surveyed consider trust in the workplace to be important, but only 29 percent of those employees report a high level of trust within their current organisation. Only six percent of HR professionals selected lack of trust as one of the top five reasons why employees leave, again showing the gap between HR professionals and employees.

Myth No. 7: Companies have embraced new retention tactics.

Fact: The DDI survey showed that companies have adopted some new tactics, but not all. Companies have found that exit interviews, internal surveys, salary hikes or rewards and more open communications have helped fight job turnover. But more than half the organisations in the survey haven’t even tried tactics such as offering stock options, assigning coaches or mentors for employees, educating managers in retaining employees, increasing managers’ responsibility for retention or offering job sharing, rotational assignments and telecommuting.

Myth No. 8: It doesn’t cost much to hire a replacement.

Fact: HR professionals estimated the average cost of replacing a manager at $30,000. This finding is similar to U.S. Department of Labour estimates that the base cost of replacing a worker is 30 percent of that person’s annual earnings. Looking more broadly at all the costs, DDI’s research estimates the cost of a poor hiring decision for a highly skilled professional or leadership position to be $107,970.

Myth No. 9: The only real problem area is in high-tech fields.

Fact: The DDI survey shows that groups such as sales professionals and customer service and support staff are exiting the revolving door more than any other professional classification. Information technology professionals are definitely in the top five problem groups, but they are not the only area for concern.

Myth No. 10: Organisations put more effort into retaining managers than they do any other group of employees.

Fact: The DDI survey showed that 41 percent of organisations that have a formal retention strategy are using it to retain employees with specialized skills, but only 27 percent use the same strategy to try to retain managers and executives. This shows exactly why there is a looming "leadership crisis" worldwide.