3 ways HRMS can improve your employee retention

Are you concerned about employee turnover? On average, it can cost 20% of an employee’s annual salary to find and train a replacement with that cost rising for more specialized skills. Lower skilled staff replacement costs can also add up as these are often high turnover positions with replacements occurring multiple times per year. Your HRMS holds data and functionality that can improve your employee retention, here are three areas to implement.

1. Use turnover risk dashboards and reports

Many robust HRMS on the market today are delivering turnover risk dashboards and reports available right out of the box. These predictive analytics are based on historical data trends and have programmed and configurable logic that is then applied to your current employee population. The result is a highlighted list of employees who are flight risks so that your HR department can provide direction to managers on next steps.

As this data is compiled it can also highlight trends over time that may require further strategic HR action. Are certain teams full of high performing employees with no career growth options? Do certain jobs cause burnout at a certain number of years of service?

2. Proactively target high risk employees via the HRMS

In addition to manager and HR dashboards, it is also a smart idea to put opportunities directly in front of at risk employees. While many companies may use the HRMS to search for internal candidates for an open requisition, the current generation of HRMS is able to do much more with less effort. HRMS can look ahead to who will be a possible flight risk in a year, based on current data. These are the employees to target now for open reqs or jobs that are expected to become available, such as through the planned retirement of an incumbent.

Recommended Reading: HRMS Selection Guide - Select an HRMS that will support employee retention

Your HRMS should already be matching these employees and giving them options, in particular in other departments or areas where they have the skills or background but may not know of these opportunities beyond their immediate circle.

3. Build your career paths into your HRMS

Often career paths are designed by a local manager or even worse, not maintained at all. Even when a local manager has a robust plan, a greater opportunity or better fit for the employee is elsewhere in your company, unseen and unknown. Many of the factors that control retention such as increases in pay, responsibility, recognition and skills are directly related to a solid career path that provides growth and opportunity.

Your HRMS is the place to store your job or position progression. For example, there should be a chain from an accounting intern through to the Chief Financial Officer. If a piece is missing, then an employee can become frustrated with the lack of progress of direction. Your HRMS can and should accommodate this data which can provide great value when running your employee analytics alongside it.