11 February, 2021
The Art of Employee Retention Through Data Science
A majority of firms today already have fairly robust offline rewards programs that help them navigate the needs of evolving workforces. However, in today’s competitive world, having a manual total rewards program is not enough. Lending measurability to the same is essential and something that can only be accomplished with the help of a digital platform. The C-suite wants to see returns on investment and impact of employee engagement on the bottom line. McKinsey found that ‘CEOs who insist on rigorously measuring and managing all cultural elements that drive performance more than double the odds that their strategies will be executed, and over the long term, they deliver triple the total return to shareholders that other companies deliver’. Thus, extensive reporting and analytical capabilities are critical to successfully measure the impact of any RnR program thus allowing for early interventions which boost employee engagement and retention levels. Here are some innovative parameters for measuring the same:
Employee surveys are a powerful tool to get both quantitative and qualitative data on your recognition program. It is imperative, however, to design survey questions in a way that allow for clear insight. For example- a question like ‘Did you receive recognition from your Manager in the last 7 days’ versus ‘Does your manager recognize you’ can give a direct quantitative insight on the frequency of recognition from a manager. Survey analytics, therefore, help in getting meaningful data for the intangible aspects of organizational culture.
Day-to-day employee behavioral patterns can also provide useful insight into the employee engagement levels of an organization. A Mood-o-meter functionality in an RnR software does exactly that. It captures employee sentiment on a regular basis, provides trend reports and gives an early warning for disengaged employees who pose a greater risk of attrition from the organization. Reports around attendance or absenteeism both in the WFH or WFO setup can also help measure engagement.
An employee recognition tool can provide a comprehensive view of work culture, performance and employee motivation levels. A leaderboard consisting of top recognition receivers and givers can provide an org-wide sentiment map. At the same time, it introduces a level of gamification to the process, encouraging other managers and BU heads to boost their internal recognition numbers. Enabling employee to manager recognition can help close the 360-degree feedback loop, unveiling critical satisfaction data as a result.
It is often said that “People leave people, not organizations”. No two managers are alike and hence, no two team cultures will be perfectly replicable. However, deep insights can help HR leaders bring consistency across departments by keeping leaders accountable. Reports around metrics like equal distribution of reward points across team members or how consistently points are given across a given quarter can help an organization drill down to the RnR program adoption at a granular level. By monitoring the equity of manager behavior, individual leaders can become brand champions of the organization’s values.
Reward redemption data can include the number of orders received, gift vouchers redeemed and reward points spent via an RnR software. This data can reveal the popularity of reward options when it comes to perks and benefits. Furthermore, the data can be leveraged to structure and hyper-personalize employee rewards to suit personal preferences that are just right for them or their families.
- Platform Usage Statistics
The usage statistics for an RnR platform can say it all, be it the number of logins or the average hours spent on the platform. High platform adoption means that employees find the tool to be user-friendly and actually feel connected to their peers and organization via the digital tool.
The above data parameters can provide senior leadership with a comprehensive view of the various factors involved in creating a positive employee experience. However, leaders should also focus on measuring overall retention rates before and after implementation to gauge the true success of an RnR and engagement platform, instead of merely looking at attrition percentages. Having a data-driven approach can greatly help HR folks avoid many common pitfalls and tweak their strategy for maximum impact.