How to Take Employee Retention Surveys

Human resources functions include talent management, recruitment and retention. When employers consider the cost-per-hire, one of the solutions to reducing organizational expenditures is through retention surveys. Turnover in some industries is known to be higher than in other industries; however, it's nearly every employer's goal to reduce turnover rates. Human resources employee relations experts are generally responsible for designing employee opinion surveys, but it may be a wise strategy to enlist the expertise of employment specialists as an additional resource. The collaboration of employment specialists involved in the day-to-day aspects of attracting qualified applicants and employee relations specialists is a combination of human resources that lends itself to constructing surveys that elicit important information about retention efforts.

Instructions

1. Construct an exit interview form to use during both voluntarily and involuntary terminations. It may be difficult to glean employee opinion concerning retention efforts from employees who are involuntarily terminated; however, it's worth a try. Involuntarily terminated employees have just as valuable feedback as employees who resign from their positions. Design the exit interview with questions about reasons for termination--ask the three primary factors on which the employee based his decision to resign. These are easy questions to ask and the analysis of responses may help employment specialists and employee relations specialists in developing methods to improve retention.

2. Design an employee opinion survey with questions specifically designed to obtain information about retaining talent. Define survey parameters using department, length of tenure, experience level and occupation. Analyze results according to each of these parameters to distinguish where retention efforts are more effective. In the final analysis of survey responses, consider distributing a follow-up survey to areas with the lowest opinion about the organization's retention efforts. If possible, guarantee employees confidentiality and anonymity to ensure you obtain credible responses.

3. Incorporate questions about employee retention in the interview process. Developing a survey-like approach in the interview process will enable your company to design retention efforts on a personal level. Designing personal retention plans may be difficult for large organizations; however, asking interview questions about retention can provide valuable information about what it takes to maintain the interest of employees new to the company.

4. Announce the implementation of suggestions boxes through the employer premises. In your company newsletter publish the "question of the month" which employees can answer by depositing anonymous responses in secure suggestion boxes. Use this method to ask one pointed question about retention each month. This method virtually guarantees anonymity, which is important in gathering valuable comments and responses.

References

• Salary.com: Employee Job Satisfaction & Retention Survey
• Entrepreneur: How to Create a Winning Employee Retention Strategy
• Inc.: Hiring and Retaining Good Employees...It's Tough!
• Insurance Journal: Attracting and Retaining Employees in a Competitive World
• Belmont University, The Entrepreneurial Mind: Retaining Employees

Resources

• HR
• Society for Human Resource Management
• National Human Resources Association
• American Society for Training & Development
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission