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Employee retention strategies are invaluable, not only because they help reduce turnover but because they’re an integral part of keeping employees engaged and productive. According to Gallup, employee retention is one of the biggest challenges organizations face in 2025 — and with the new normal of remote work, employees have a wider range of potential employers to consider than ever before.
HR leaders need a mix of strategies to keep employees engaged and committed. Creating open feedback channels, fostering a culture of recognition, and implementing other key techniques can go a long way in improving retention — not just for this year, but for the long run.
As competition for top talent grows, creating an environment where employees feel valued and supported is more important than ever.
Wondering how employee retention is possible in today’s landscape? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve got the top 15 employee retention strategies to help you make meaningful changes across your organization.
What is employee retention?
Employee retention is the practice of keeping employees engaged and committed to an organization for the long run. It directly impacts business success and sustainability, making it a top priority for HR leaders and managers. At its core, retention is about fostering a work environment where employees feel valued and motivated — leading to higher productivity, stronger team morale, and long-term organizational stability.
Why employee retention matters
Employee retention needs to be top of mind for any company, as the cost of losing top talent is significant. The cost to replace an existing employee doesn’t even account for losses in valuable time, knowledge, productivity, or cultural impact. It also affects motivation, productivity, and performance at work. Before employees quit, they may become less of a team player, do the minimum amount of work, and fail to commit to long-term deadlines.
HR isn’t powerless, though — 42% of employee turnover is preventable. The key is to pinpoint the issues that may be driving employees to leave and address them before it’s too late.
The best 15 employee retention strategies
The right employee retention strategies can make a world of difference in the way your organization grows and scales. Here are 15 ways to remedy existing retention problems and prevent new retention issues from cropping up in the future.
1. Build employee engagement
Unfortunately, only one-third of employees say they’re very engaged, and with disengaged employees costing the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, retention is non-negotiable. Failing to give employees a voice only brings down engagement.
An engagement platform can help you ask the right questions and reveal how employees truly feel about their role, team, and manager. In place of long annual surveys that aren’t actionable, try regular employee satisfaction surveys to help measure employee engagement in real-time.
2. Get recognition and rewards right
Employees who feel appreciated work harder and stay longer but the reality is that many employees will leave their job if they feel underrecognized at work. Building a culture of recognition requires frequent and specific acknowledgment.
To make consistent recognition a reality, prioritize both social recognition and monetary rewards, by using an employee engagement platform that lets employees — in-office, remote, and offline — accumulate and redeem points for rewards that actually matter to them.
3. Recruit the right employees
Find ways to attract first-rate candidates who align with your culture, such as emphasizing your culture on your careers page — things like monthly massages, onsite fitness centers, or generous parental leave policies, or highlighting awards like being a “Best Places to Work”.
Find ways to attract first-rate candidates who align with your culture, such as emphasizing your culture on your careers page — things like monthly massages, onsite fitness centers, or generous parental leave policies, or highlighting awards like being a “Best Places to Work”.
Expand your talent pool by building relationships with professional groups, community college career offices, and other relevant associations. Additionally, offering professional development, flexible schedules, and remote work options can help attract and retain employees who are looking for opportunities that match their needs and values.
4. Create an exceptional onboarding experience
Help new employees by educating them on their responsibilities, giving them the agency and resources needed to complete their work, and creating an environment where they feel accepted. Introduce new hires to their teammates and set them up with a coach so that they have someone on-hand to answer questions. You should also ensure that remote employees aren’t left behind when it comes to onboarding.
Remember to find ways to integrate groups who are returning to work, including new parents, employees coming back from extended leave, or contract workers who are signing on full-time.
5. Provide avenues for professional development
Supporting professional development and continuous learning is an essential part of employee retention. Educating your employees, setting up clear career paths, and instituting coaching programs make everyone more creative, engaged, and effective at work. You can also host internal knowledge sharing sessions where employees teach one another new skills.
Ask managers to take chances on employees who have shown interest in other areas. It shows that managers care about their career trajectory and trust them to bring their expertise to other areas of the business.
6. Build a culture employees want to be a part of
Culture is paramount to attracting and retaining top talent. Employees who feel a strong sense of cultural connectedness to their company are 4x as likely to be engaged at work and 43% are less likely to be actively looking for another job. Our 2024 Engagement and Retention report from Achievers Workforce Institute (AWI) also found that employees would leave their current job for a lower-paying one at a place where they feel supported, cared for, and valued.
Developing a standout culture involves rewarding people who act on your company’s values every day. These values should be meaningful to every employee and communicated in a way that everyone can internalize and understand.
7. Offer winning incentives
There are endless ways to incentivize your employees. First, ensure that the compensation your organization offers is appropriate — it’s a major reason behind employee departures. Then think about other monetary incentives like referral programs, tuition reimbursement, and profit-sharing.
Wellness rewards, like gym memberships, can help your employees unwind and take care of themselves. Giving managers a stipend to put on fun events each month, letting employees choose what projects they work on, and providing extra paid time off to rest and recharge are also excellent motivational tools.
8. Manage to retain
The best managers act as coaches and focus on helping their people reach their full potential. They’re optimistic, assertive, recognize employee value, and provide actionable feedback. Managers who recognize employees consistently help improve employee confidence and engagement.
A culture of recognition matters and companies that use employee retention software can train managers to show appreciation frequently and meaningfully.
9. Prevent burnout by focusing on employee wellness
Many employees feel the effect of burnout. Burnout symptoms like a lack of energy, negative emotions, and feelings of isolation are tough to overcome.
The good news is that your organization can help change this. Start with building a wellness program to help improve employees’ emotional and physical health. Try giving employees more flexible hours and make sure that responsibilities and expectations are clear and appropriate. Teach managers to look for signs of burnout and reach out to people who might be struggling and encourage employees to use vacation time, take up a hobby, and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Finally, ask your employees for feedback. They probably know exactly what is causing burnout in your organization and have ideas on how to combat it.
10. Maintain open – and ongoing – communication
Authentic, honest, and transparent communication from an organization to its employees, whether they work on-site or remotely, is critical for letting them know what is happening within the organization and what the expectations are. This is especially important when there are organizational or economic changes happening. Employees want to feel supported and connected and not be caught off-guard.
In turn, employees should be encouraged to share their feedback, ideas, and concerns with their managers. Employees should feel free to share their opinions and experiences about their workload, job satisfaction, etc.
11. Offer flexibility that employees need
Flexibility benefits both employers and their employees. It shows that companies are committed to helping employees balance their professional and personal lives more effectively. Companies can offer remote and hybrid work arrangements, create versatile office environments to make it an enjoyable place to work, or adopt collaborative communication channels to keep remote and on-site teams connected.
12. Build a culture of coaching
Employees who receive regular, meaningful coaching from their manager are twice as likely to recommend their manager to others. Managers should open doors for employees to take part in new projects and skills training opportunities, help them build meaningful connections, and empower their team to work with autonomy.
It is also important that managers act as coaches, not as traditional managers, who understand employees’ strengths and weaknesses and help them identify the skills they need to succeed at work.
13. Standardize performance reviews
Standardized performance reviews can play a huge role in retaining employees. It provides a consistent and well-organized approach to evaluating employees’ performance and contributions. Practices such as regular feedback cycle or weekly one-on-one meetings can be a great start in creating an engaging workplace where employees feel heard and valued.
14. Provide employee benefits that matter
Companies that offer a comprehensive benefits package can significantly boost employee satisfaction. These benefits are non-salary compensation and include many options from rewards programs to gym membership discounts. Offering benefits that matter to employees starts with understanding your organizational goals and values.
Whether it is to promote work-life balance, incentivize desired behaviors, attract higher quality candidates, or decrease turnover, identifying the goals of your benefits program and offer a wide range of perks ensure that your company is making the most of its available budget.
15. Foster teamwork whenever possible
Managers can create opportunities for collaboration within their team and cross-functionally to promote employee engagement and connections. One way companies can boost teamwork is to encourage employee recognition. When employees show appreciation for one another, it strengthens relationships with their peers and managers.
A collaborative culture not only encourages bonding between coworkers but also drives higher productivity and employee performance.
What are the 4 pillars of employee retention?
The 4 pillars of employee retention are:
- Well-being: Supporting physical, mental, and emotional health ensures employees feel cared for, reducing burnout and improving satisfaction.
- Company culture: A positive and inclusive culture fosters a sense of belonging, making employees more likely to stay long-term.
- Training and development: Offering opportunities for skill growth and career advancement keeps employees motivated and invested in their roles.
- Rewards and recognition: Regularly celebrating achievements and providing meaningful rewards shows employees that their contributions are valued.
Each of these pillars contribute to the overall employee engagement at work. Companies that focus on improving these areas help keep employees engaged and connected to their colleagues and work environment, resulting in higher retention rates and job commitment.
Boost employee retention with an employee experience solution
Putting all 15 strategies into practice may seem overwhelming, but with the right tools, it doesn’t have to be. Achievers is an award-winning employee recognition software that helps organizations retain employees through frequent appreciation.
Rooted in workforce science, our platform is designed to make recognition intuitive and meaningful – giving you the tools you need to transform your organizational culture and keep your best people in your corner.
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