The Secret to Retaining Talent? Meet Your Employees Where They Are

Your employees are your biggest asset—it’s a well-worn HR cliché, but it’s never been more appropriate. The Great Resignation and the scarcity of professional skills have led to a massive change in employee-employer relationships. As a result, it’s now more challenging than ever to retain your talent.

That’s because we’ve seen a fundamental shift in mindset, with people asking themselves deep questions on what they want from work. For many employees, compensation is no longer the primary motivator; they care as much about workplace culture, corporate values, and whether the job fits their lifestyle. They want to feel fulfilled through their work—on top of bringing home their paycheck.

The current labor market favors job candidates over employers, and how you respond will determine how successful your organization is in the coming years. The smart move is to forge partnerships with your employees by meeting them where they are. And that means rethinking your strategy to balance the needs of the business with your employees’ career goals.

What does that look like in practice? We spoke to a cross-section of our clients, including well-established businesses and much younger companies, to find some answers. Here’s how they are using Paylocity to reshape and level up their employee experience to curb the risk of turnover.

Empower Employees with a Sense of Purpose and Belonging

Today’s employees want to know their work has genuine value for the company and for society. Contributing to something bigger is crucial to help people feel fulfilled and inspired. This makes it vitally important to communicate your corporate mission, goals, and successes to your employees. But relying on email or paper makes it difficult to get these messages across, or to be sure whether employees are really internalizing them.

Paylocity, on the other hand, offers a centralized hub for companywide communications. You can keep every employee in the loop and encourage buy-in for your broader company objectives. For example, manufacturer Revere Plastics uses the platform to publish regular newsletters to 1,200 people across seven plants.

You can also foster a real sense of belonging that ensures junior staff feel welcomed and part of the team, and established staff feel right at home. At fast-growing health and wellness chain Mountainside Fitness, employees use Paylocity to message one another, post images and GIFs, and share details of upcoming events. Similarly, retailer Weigel’s announces employee birthdays and work anniversaries, and posts great customer feedback.

It all helps increase engagement and foster a shared sense of purpose. Rather than feeling disconnected, employees know they are part of something bigger. Melanie Wilson Disney, Director of Human Resources at Weigel’s sums it up: “Culture is the key to retention. Recognizing and engaging with our employees and connecting different stores to each other—those have been huge, and they all come through Paylocity.”

Celebrate Success and Acknowledge Great Work

People want to feel appreciated for the time and energy they put into their work—and without that recognition, they can quickly lose motivation. This is where peer recognition becomes so valuable: you can give everyone in the company, from leadership on down, the opportunity to celebrate the successes of their colleagues. This builds a positive and mutually supportive work environment, gives a real lift to your hardest workers, and ultimately helps boost retention.

Peer recognition is a key part of the people management strategy at Revere Plastics, where plant managers use Paylocity to send out thousands of Impressions to high-performing employees. Kristi Stuetzer, the company’s Vice President of HR, explains the approach: “It's important that everyone understands what they mean to us in the role they play and how much of a difference they make to our customers.”

Offer Flexible Pay to Relieve Financial Worries

We’re in a challenging economic climate, where your employees, especially entry-level staff, are almost certainly feeling the strain of rising bills. Offering people the flexibility to access their pay when they need it—instead of having to wait for their regular paycheck—can relieve stress and help them deal with unexpected expenses. That’s why we added On Demand Payment to the Paylocity platform—it enables your employees to access a portion of their wages before payday.

It’s made a big impact at Mountainside Fitness: between 20 and 30 percent of the workforce regularly use On Demand Payment to access funds early. Robyn Klawitter, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources, notes: “The positive impact has been astronomical and has differentiated our company in recruiting and retention.”

Likewise, Weigel’s offers hourly employees the option to access up to 50 percent of their wages before their weekly paycheck. Highlighting this in their job advertisements has helped the company achieve consistently high application rates in a job market where many competitors struggle to attract candidates. They also use Paylocity to offer four-day working weeks—a level of flexibility almost unparalleled in the retail sector.

Invest In Learning to Help Employees to Grow

Opportunities for professional development are often cited by employees as one of the most desirable benefits that a company can offer—especially for experienced staff looking to progress in their careers. It can be a win-win scenario for employees and employers alike. Employees gain new skills and competencies, which helps them feel more confident and energized in their roles, boosting morale. Meanwhile, your business benefits from higher employee performance, engagement, and satisfaction—and higher retention, too.

Revere Plastics places a premium on professional development to reduce turnover and uses Paylocity’s Learning Management System to deliver customized training programs and track the progress of learners—with excellent employee feedback. Similarly, Alaska Mill and Feed uses the platform to sharpen the skillsets of employees, with on-demand course content, including safety training, available online via Paylocity anytime, anywhere.

Gather Feedback to Understand What People Want

Enhancing your employee experience is an ongoing process. You need to keep listening to what people want and take proactive steps to optimize your approach. It’s essential to create a channel for open dialogue with your employees to gather feedback. This is another empowering process, as it gives employees the chance to influence your company’s HR strategy. You can check in with new hires and junior staff on how well they’re fitting in or ask long-term employees about where they see room for improvement.

Sending out regular surveys through Paylocity lets you capture these key insights. Both Mountainside Fitness and Revere Plastics, for instance, use the platform to measure employee satisfaction and build a deeper understanding of engagement. Revere even achieved a huge increase in response rates after implementing Paylocity—enabling the company to assess its organizational culture for the first time.

Learn More: Best Employee Retention Strategies and Techniques

Reap the Benefits with Paylocity

Whether you’re dealing with new hires or seasoned professionals, you need to offer something extra to meet their expectations. Paylocity can help you build a winning employee value proposition that attracts and retains the best talent. Take a look at Revere Plastics: their focus on connecting with employees, offering learning and development, and fostering a collaborative culture helped reduce turnover by a massive 70 percent.

To learn more on how Paylocity can help you forge stronger partnerships with your employees, just get in touch with us or check out the Alaska Mill and Feed, Mountainside Fitness, Revere Plastics or Weigel’s case studies.