What are Talent Retention HR Outsourcing Services & How Can it Benefit Your Company?
What if I told you that more than 80% of employees who quit could have been retained? That is where “talent retention HR outsourcing services” comes into play.
High turnover rates can be detrimental to any organization. Not only does it cost money to constantly hire, onboard and train new employees, but it can also hurt morale and productivity. Worse still, disgruntled employees can bring a case against employers, which costs extra money, time and headaches. Although there are numerous outplacement services out there in the market, wouldn't it be far better if can convince employees to stay? So what can you do to keep your employees around by HR outsourcing?
Talent Retention HR Outsourcing
One solution is to outsource talent retention to a Human Resources (HR) firm. A good HR outsourcing firm will help you identify the factors that are causing your employees to leave and develop a plan to keep them happy and engaged. This can be anything from offering better benefits to increasing communication and training.
Due to potential conflicts of interest, employees may not trust that employers have their best interests at heart, especially when they are being convinced to stay after having had a bad working experience. In these cases, it is best to hire an HR consultancy firm (like us!) which can act as a neutral mediator between the employer and employees. Impartial HR consultants or independent career coaches are much more likely to be able to persuade employees to stay, especially those with great negotiation skills who can empathize with the employees in question and figure out a great solution that benefits both the employer and employee. In many cases, employees quit either because they can't convince themselves to stay and be satisfied with life, or because they do not see the employer being able to meet their own needs. Great HR consultants and negotiators will be able to serve as a bridge between employers and employees, helping both parties understand and focus on common interests they share, with an end goal of convincing both parties that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. In other words, clever HR consultants/ negotiators can manage to convince both parties that there is a solution to keep the employee, whilst ensuring that he/she will experience an enhancement in work satisfaction due to changes that the employer commits to making.
That is why in East Meets West Negotiation, we do not only provide clients with qualified HR consultants, but we partner up wth experienced negotiators as well to deliver the best talent retention/ talent management services for our clients. Based on our experience, great HR consultants skilled at negotiation will be able to demonstrate certain characteristics that allow them to resolve employer-employee disputes efficiently, such as superior listening skills, paraphrasing skills and empathy demonstration.
If you're looking for talent retention HR outsourcing services, or in other words, looking to hire a great HR consultant/negotiator (or a combination of both) to develop great talent retention strategies for your organization, be sure to look for someone who demonstrates the following 4 characteristics:
1. they're skilled at negotiation;
Great negotiators are not simply great psychologists or therapists who convey thoughts cleary and decipher emotions accurately - they have to be practical as well and have a good understanding of what each party's best interests and bottom lines are, so that they can propose solutions acceptable for all parties. Many of us might be able to read people to a good extent, but are less effective at structuring conversations to achieve the desired result for all parties.
Extracting valuable information from various parties can be difficult, especially with employees with an intention of quitting. Figuring out each party's best interests and bottom lines in a negotiation is easier said than done. Asking the right questions at the right time is key - although one has to have the courage to ask direct questions at the right timing, good negotiators can solicit valuable information from indirect questions. Needless to say, being too intrusive about an employee's reasons behind quitting will end the hopes of reaching an acceptable solution between the employee and employer.
To emphasize, great HR consultants and negotiators must have the ability to communicate clearly enough for each side to understand what is being said - using language and concepts familiar to each party's worldviews. Employers will likely be more concerned about monetary costs of letting go employees, such as overhead costs, admin costs, recruitment costs, redundancy cost or even outplacement costs, whilst employees might be more concerned about job satisfaction, learning experiences and remuneration. Great mediators must be able to think from each party's perspective and relay proposals in a way that feels relevant to all parties.
2. they have a deep understanding of labour laws;
Empathy, research, planning, negotiation tactics and techniques are all important elements that contribute to great HR consultants/negotiators/mediators, but one must be familiar with the rules. In a talent retention setting, this means being familiar with labour laws dealing with employee termination.
To prepare for the worst and negotiate the best outcome for both the employer and employee, East Meets West Negotiation also partners with employment law solicitors. HR consultants should also have a basic understanding of the various repercussions of employee termination.
3. they're able to diffuse tense situations;
Negotiations involving potential employee resignations will be heated or tense at some point, especially in instances where the employee feels constantly disrespected or overly stressed at work. We always instruct our HR consultants and negotiators to prepare for the worst-case scenario during talent retention negotiations (i.e outright heated arguments between the employer and employee) and come up with suitable responses or suggestions when faced with such a prospect.
Years of practice may be needed even for good negotiators to stay calm and diffuse tense negotiation situations.
4. they're able to think creatively to solve problems.
Coming up with solutions to appease both the employer and employee can be very difficult, as each party has conflicting interests. To retain talents successfully, good HR consultants and negotiators can creatively rephrase certain demands and switch topics in a way that helps both parties "think outside of the box" to reach a deal. For example, when employees are overly excessive about lack of pay and remuneration, negotiators can try and nudge the employee into considering lesser workload and responsibilities with additional holidays as extra compensation.
Our Research
Assuming that employees are not leaving due to better pay elsewhere, more times than not, employees call quits due to dissatisfaction with the working culture and lack of learning and development opportunities. In many cases, a third-party HR consultancy that is brought in to oversee a company's employee engagement, performance and retention strategies can identify early signs of certain employees who may want to quit. For instance, this can be done so using a range of technological tools that track employee performance (such as a software called Zoho people), which can identify abnormal employee behaviour (such as a sudden spike in absences). Experienced HR consultants with data or technical know-how can then make sense of the data collected, explain to employers about potential signs and reasons for resignations, and develop sound talent retention and management strategies in response.
In-house talent retention strategy
Another solution is to develop an in-house retention strategy by working alongside 3rd party HR professionals. This may include creating a workable, long-term talent retention program for organizations, such as offering a combination of flexible work hours, enhancing the number of communication and feedback channels between managers and employees and positive reinforcement systems to award good work. By taking the time to develop a customizable plan that works for your company, you can keep your best employees around for the long haul.
To sum up, talent retention HR outsourcing can be a great way to reduce turnover and save money in the long run. If you're struggling to keep your employees, it's worth considering this option.
