Employee personas for strong employee retention

If you are reading this article, you are most likely sitting in an office. The ideal scenario: as soon as we get to work in the morning, it's like entering a second home where office chairs become our couch and colleagues become our work family. The reality is different: From a bad atmosphere among colleagues to a lack of appreciation and a schedule that leads to burnout in the long term. The consequence: high staff turnover leads to a poor reputation of the employer brand, which drives up recruiting costs. Added to this are knowledge gaps and the increased workload when employees resign and transfer tasks to a colleague. If the position remains vacant for too long, the next resignation will not be long in coming.

How high is the fluctuation rate in your company?

The net fluctuation rate reveals when and whether you need to act now. Unlike the gross fluctuation rate, it describes how many employees leave the company voluntarily or stay with the company. Important: It often makes sense to calculate the turnover rate for individual departments rather than for the company as a whole. This makes it quicker and easier to identify and optimize weak points. A net fluctuation rate of between 8 and 12 percent is considered normal. The most commonly used formula for calculating the fluctuation rate is recommended by the Confederation of German Employers' Associations. Important: The so-called BDA formula provides information on the gross fluctuation rate and therefore also includes terminations by the company. To calculate the net fluctuation rate, use the number of voluntary staff departures.

(Number of staff departures / Average headcount) x 100

Another way of determining the fluctuation rate is to determine how many employees a company hires within a certain period of time and how many employees remain with the company at the end of this period at their own request. This results in the retention rate for the calculated period. The use of this formula is useful, for example, to calculate and compare fluctuations in employee turnover within certain periods - for example, during longer-lasting change processes or fundamental changes in the labor market.

(Headcount at the end of the period / (headcount at the beginning + additions)) x 100

But how do companies break through progressive fluctuation and its consequences? How can employees stay with the company in the long term? What does an employer need to turn employees into company ambassadors? And how can companies successfully overcome existing obstacles? The answer: a strategy that encourages employees to stay. The key to this: Data-based employee personas.

Data-based employee personas as the key to a successful employee retention strategy

Understanding why employees leave is the first step on the road to successful employee retention. In order to identify suitable strategies that retain employees, it is important to understand their needs, their character and their pain points. After all, while even an eight-hour meeting marathon can't affect the work-life balance of some colleagues, meetings scheduled at short notice and the resulting overtime are a major stress factor for mothers and fathers who have to pick up their children from daycare on time. The same applies to tensions within the company. While some feel personally attacked at the slightest criticism, others can withstand the greatest resistance and stressful situations. In short, each of your employees is unique. Data-based employee personas are one of the most important tools for getting to know employees better.

What is an employee persona?

The employee persona is a fictitious but realistic profile of a typical employee of a company, a specific department and a specific position. It is based on qualitative and quantitative data from market research, employee surveys, interviews and other internal and external analyses.

It provides information about:

• Demography
• Age
• Position in the company
• Department
• Information on soft and hard skills
• Information on resilience and behavior in crisis situations
• Social role within the team
• Motivations and goals (both professional and private)
• Needs
• Challenges
• Pain points (general and work-related)
• Requirements for managers
• Requirements for the workplace in general
• Media usage behavior
• Consumer behavior

When developing employee personas, the following applies: the more relevant data is included in the persona sedcard, the more targeted HR managers can align strategies with existing employee requirements. After all, what appeals to some employees is completely irrelevant to others. It therefore makes sense to validate your own data in advance and, if necessary, supplement it with further market research.

In order to shorten the lengthy development of employee personas and thus save costs, it can make sense to call in a specialized service provider. For example, customers of the Persona Institute benefit from data-based employee personas that are based on a dataset of more than one million statistics on more than 70,000 topics and are created within just a few working days. The database covers more than 12 countries and more than 1,000 markets and industries.

10 strategies for employee retention

Employee personas, which represent at least 80% of the company's workforce, form a solid basis for decision-making when it comes to developing strategies to retain employees in the company. For 66% of decision-makers in German, Austrian and Swiss companies, a good working atmosphere is an important measure for employee retention. To ensure this, a well thought-out employee retention strategy is required. It combines measures that solve possible employee pain points according to their requirements and thus ensure a better working atmosphere overall. We have summarized 10 strategies that are worthwhile below:

1) Competitive remuneration and an open salary policy

Fair and competitive remuneration is crucial for employee retention. After all, it is likely that employees will change jobs if they expect to earn more from a competitor for the same tasks and workload. Especially in industries with high competitive pressure, it is therefore worth keeping talented employees happy with good salaries. In addition to the purely monetary aspect, salary increases and bonuses express appreciation towards the workforce . This in turn leads to greater emotional loyalty to the company.

Uniform salary structures are also important to prevent tensions within the team. This also includes the payment of bonuses. Millennials and Generation Z in particular deal with financial issues more openly and transparently - and expect the same from their employer. This means that HR teams must now actively address salary structures and introduce procedures to optimize them where necessary.

Data-based employee personas help by providing data on employees' annual income, living conditions and experience levels . In addition, standardized and regular assessments make it possible to objectively evaluate employee performance. Structured annual appraisals with a standardized agenda also give introverted employees a space to address the topic of remuneration openly and without inhibitions .

2) Enable flexible working

The fact is that a good salary is a strong but not the only lever when it comes to retaining employees. After all, the best salary is useless if there is a lack of work-life balance and the daily work does not fit in with life circumstances. This means that companies need to address several or other areas in order to satisfy employees holistically. In order to offer employees a job that suits their lives, flexible working is one of the most important advantages. Hybrid working models are just as popular with employees as working hours that are geared towards life outside the company and not the other way around. However, it is also clear that not every industry or position allows flexible working from home. A different strategy is therefore needed for hospital staff, teachers and other system-critical professions. In addition to a high staffing ratio , this includes, for example, the ability to choose shifts flexibly in order to balance work and private life. Data-based and, above all, industry-specific employee personas provide information on the biggest pain points and provide valuable information on how flexible working can also work - at least in part - in system-critical professions.

3) Promoting work-life balance

Work-life balance is about the compatibility of private and professional life. In today's meritocracy, it is one of the most important but also one of the most challenging value propositions of companies. After all, a healthy work-life balance looks different for everyone: While many employees appreciate subsidies for sports and health offers, it helps employees who are responsible for childcare or caring for relatives more if they can take special leave if necessary or receive individualized additional benefits. An allowance for childcare, a guaranteed place in the company's own childcare facility or subsidies for domestic help are a sensible measure. This example makes it clear that in order to offer suitable benefits and the right support, companies need to know the private environment of their employees. Data-based employee personas, which combine data from market research with internal employee surveys, map all areas of life in detail.

4) Allow trust

Depending on the persona, autonomy is an important criterion for employees to remain with the company in the long term. This means that instead of constant instructions as to when and how tasks are to be completed, an autonomous working day takes place in the form of many large and small projects. This means that employees decide for themselves how, when and in which steps they complete their tasks. They make more of their own decisions and take responsibility. This not only promotes the creativity and innovative spirit of companies. Management that trusts in the abilities of its employees and allows innovation creates an attractive working environment in which people can grow personally and make a contribution to the bigger picture. Important: Good leadership here means trusting but not overburdening - so it always depends on the individual employee how much autonomy is appropriate in their day-to-day work. While some employees develop their full potential with tasks that allow a lot of creative freedom, others need to be supported in the work process - for example through briefings, a chat or short meetings to answer questions quickly and record milestones.

5) Living diversity, equality and inclusion

Even though the following point should be self-evident, it is still far from being practiced in every company: we are talking about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI for short). They are a fundamental component of an open corporate culture and therefore make a significant contribution to employee satisfaction. A DEI-supported corporate culture not only includes diverse teams, but also an environment that enables all employees to work comfortably and productively. In addition to a barrier-free workplace, prayer rooms and special rooms for pregnant women and nursing mothers also contribute to this. Email signatures with pronouns and unisex toilets also contribute to diversity in companies. Furthermore, offers for employees who are currently in a challenging phase of their lives contribute significantly to positive changes in companies. Specialized expert groups and diversity officers within the company can be helpful in implementing inclusive measures. data-driven personas then help to determine the most important measures and prioritize their implementation.

6) Encourage feedback and communication

Regular feedback helps employees to meet the company's expectations and goals. But employees also want to feel heard. That's why feedback goes both ways. An open and active feedback culture fosters employee loyalty and promotes innovation on both sides in the long term. Regular feedback meetings, feedback systems and regular short surveys among employees help with this. An open-door policy, in which employees can communicate openly and directly with managers, is an important measure to ensure that people feel important and valued in the company. Data-based employee personas show how employees prefer to communicate and what they expect from managers in terms of feedback.

7) Keeping value promises

Every company has one or more value propositions that it communicates directly or indirectly. A company that promises its employees a good work-life balance , for example, must also keep this promise - for example by offering time off in lieu for overtime, an above-average number of vacation days or an allowance for various sports and leisure activities. The fact is: many employees choose a company - not just because of the job or the salary, but also because of what the company promises beyond that. Whether it's a pleasant working atmosphere, an innovative environment for personal development or the ever-popular work-life balance - buzzwords like these ensure that talented people apply for a job. In order for them to stay, companies have to keep their promises - even in challenging phases.

8) Recognize achievements

Employees often leave the company because they lack appreciation. Appreciation is not only expressed in monetary terms. It is the daily interaction with each other that determines whether employees feel valued in the company. Positive feedback - whether in a meeting, a short email or in the form of a personal conversation - promotes the bond between employees and managers. A positive feedback or compliment round at the end of a meeting can lead to more recognition between employees and thus to better team dynamics. In this context, data-based employee personas provide information on the extent to which employee satisfaction depends on regular positive feedback.

9) Expand educational opportunities and advance careers

The opportunity to develop skills, learn new competencies and build a career within the company turns ambitious talents into ambassadors for the company. Mentoring programs, internal training courses, a digital education portal or paid further training are all useful measures for promoting employees' careers in a targeted manner. Offers for personal development such as coaching or training on resilience and time management have a positive effect on employees' perception of stress and therefore their health. Opportunities for personal and professional development should therefore not be missing in any company. In this context, data-driven personas provide information about which training opportunities are suitable for whom by revealing where and how employees prefer to learn.

10) Create a personalized employee experience

Successful brands create experiences to build lasting customer loyalty. The same applies to employers: In order to retain employees, a holistic experience is required - one that, in the best case scenario, turns the workplace into a second home. The employee experience is made up of all employee retention measures, but also the working environment in general, the workplace facilities and the daily tasks . In short: if the overall package is right, employees will remain loyal to the company for a long time. Just as buyer personas provide parameters for successful customer journeys, employee personas make it possible to personalize the employee experience down to the last detail.

Data-based employee personas for successful companies

Companies that decide to use employee personas to retain employees in the long term benefit in many ways.

Data-based employee personas...

• ... ensure uniform and competitive salary structures
• ... help companies to get to know their employees better (both professionally and privately)
• ... serve as a basis for decision-making in order to select suitable measures for employee retention
• ... simplify the development of one or more strategies to retain employees in the company in the long term
• ... improve the general working atmosphere
• ... support managers and HR managers in responding individually to the needs of employees
• ... promote the innovative strength of companies by enabling employees to develop their full potential through a personalized employee experience
• ... are an effective tool for optimizing internal corporate communications
• ... reduce the fluctuation rate
• ... improve a company's reputation as an attractive employer

Are you ready for your first employee persona? Then arrange a non-binding consultation now.