Your talent

retention guide

www.perkbox.com
 Contents

Introduction 3

Support your people financially 4

Prioritise wellbeing 5

Recognise and reward 7

Get flexible 8

Provide a progression path 9

What to take away from this guide 10

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 Introduction
Keeping hold of top talent has always
been a challenge for businesses, but this
has only increased in recent times. For
starters, the Great Resignation (remember
when that was the biggest buzzword
instead of ‘inflation’?) caused a big shift
in employee mindsets, which still lingers
today. People are more willing than ever to
leave a job if it doesn’t meet their needs.
The global talent shortage has also
continued to rise, meaning candidates
have all the power. They’re in high
demand, and are going to get lots
of opportunities coming their way.
That in turn gives businesses a lot of
problems in terms of retaining talent.
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Plus, the issue of rising prices means
employees are on the lookout for ways
to boost their finances. Even in normal
circumstances, people will always keep
an eye on the job market. The tough
economic outlook means this could
now become even more frequent.
It’s not all doom and gloom though.
There’s lots of things you can do to
prevent a talent drain — something
we’ll uncover in this ebook.
Enjoy!
Support your people financially

Let’s start with the most obvious. The
economic conditions across the globe have
led to many people feeling the strain. Right
now, this is the main thing businesses are
looking to support their employees with.
parents, flexible working can reduce
childcare costs. Both commuting and
childcare can be a big hit on people’s
wallets, so a flexible approach to work
is something they’d really appreciate.

A competitive salary is the number one
way to help, but we’re also aware that
every business has its own financial
situation. You’ll know better than anyone
else what you can and can’t afford.
In addition to pay though, there
are other things you can do.
For example, you could provide financial
education or money management
services. These will give employees
tools and knowledge which could be
really important at a time like this. It’s
a great example of you showing you
care about them as a whole individual,
not just while they’re at work.
You can also look into making people’s
salaries go further with an employee
discount scheme. These help employees
save money on a wide range of things,
from the weekly supermarket shop, to
large and occasional purchases like tech
or holidays. This can put hundreds, if
not thousands, back into their pocket
over the course of a year — in effect,
you’re giving them a tax-free pay rise.
Again, it shows you care about your
people outside of working hours, which is
a great way to increase their loyalty to you.

We’ll go into flexible working in more

detail, but having this can help people
financially too. For starters, it can reduce
the cost of commuting by allowing
them to travel at non-peak times or
having days where they don’t need to
spend on commuting at all. For working

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Prioritise wellbeing

Over the last few years, you’ve probably business. The phrase ‘underpromise
noticed an uptick of people asking about and overdeliver’ is a good one to apply,
wellbeing in interviews. Questions such as: to stop people taking on too much.

ȩ “What’s your work-life balance like?” This should all be role-modelled by

managers, to show that wellbeing isn’t
ȩ “Do you offer mental health benefits?” something you just pay lip service to,
but something you genuinely believe
ȩ "What support is there if I in. Make sure they’re trained to spot
ever have any issues?” the signs of burnout as well — check
out our recent Blue Monday blog for
But having a strong wellbeing offering some useful tips for line managers!
isn’t just good for getting people through
the door. It’s one of the best ways to
keep them. An employee that feels happy
and healthy, and knows they’ll be well
supported, is likely to stick with you —
regardless of other job offers that come in.

It’s not just about the benefits you offer

either. It all starts with your culture.
It needs to be one where employee
wellbeing comes first. Encourage
people to set boundaries, turn off email
notifications when needed, and try to
eliminate unnecessary meetings.

Burnout was a leading cause of the

Great Resignation, so you need to
get ahead of the game and prevent
this becoming an issue in your

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Similarly, see if you can enhance your
annual leave allowances. Remember
annual leave isn’t just for when you’re
going on holiday. It’s a key part of
everyone’s toolkit to prevent burnout.
As for the benefits themselves — variety is
key. No two people are exactly the same.
Everyone will have their own individual
wellbeing challenges. Some may want to
get fitter, others may want to improve their
quality of sleep, or speak to a professional
about problems they’re having.
Work with wellbeing partners to offer a
whole suite of tools that people can use as
and when they need. This includes access
to gym classes, yoga sessions, counsellors,
meditation apps and lots more.

“Employers can implement policies that encourage a positive work

culture and prevent the things that negatively impact employee
wellbeing. You can start with something as simple as offering
flexible working schedules to allow employees to easily balance
their personal and professional lives. There are also a range of practical things,
such as wellbeing workshops, webinars and mental health resources. The key is to
be proactive about supporting employee wellbeing, rather than being reactive.”

Tyler Lowe, Founder at Loving Life Co.

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Recognise and reward

Employees want to feel like their at that store? What if they don’t drink?
work matters and that their efforts Even if you have another reward in
are appreciated by people at the top. mind, what are the chances of it being
Sometimes this can get lost, and causes meaningful to every individual?
employees to lose motivation for the
business. But if you get it right, they’ll But by letting employees pick their
feel more invested in and passionate reward, you can guarantee that they’ll
about what they do — increasing like what they receive! Plus, it gives
your chances of retaining them. them a feeling of empowerment, which
is a great boost to morale (and therefore
A strong culture of recognition and great for employee retention!).
reward definitely helps. Many businesses
tend to have some sort of social
recognition platform, but you can also
simplify things. End of week shoutouts
and quarterly/yearly awards can go a
long way to developing this culture.
It should involve both senior leaders
recognising their teams, as well as peers
being able to recognise each other.

When it comes to rewarding, it’s time

to move away from a one-size-fits-all
approach. Remember when we spoke
about wellbeing and said that everyone
has their own challenges? Well, everyone
has their own wants and needs as well.
So having a single reward for good
work — such as a shopping voucher or
a bottle of champagne — just won’t cut
it. What if the recipient doesn’t shop

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Get flexible

This is fast becoming a must-have for
people, rather than the nice-to-have
it used to be. As touched upon earlier,
a flexible approach to work can have
all sorts of benefits for employees,
and therefore help you retain them.
Of course, this means something different
to each organisation. Some may be able
to offer a work from home option quite
easily, whereas other business models
rely upon people being on-site. Find
something that works for you, while
still providing value to employees.
Before putting any policies in place, it’s
important to find out exactly what they
want. It’s easy to assume everybody
wants to work from home, but actually,
you may find that your employees like
being in the office — but would prefer
flexibility in terms of hours worked.
Many businesses that have a hybrid
working model find that this works
well for employer and employee. Not
only does it allow people to manage
their lives better, but it creates a better
balance between deep work (at home)
and collaboration (in the workplace).

Companies should think of their working environments as offering

maximum choice within a framework that sustainably manages
company goals and culture. Approach this as an iterative process
— things can change, and that's totally ok! Also, enjoy it. You're
building the future of work, after a paradigm shift in the way we approach
our roles. It's meant to be uncertain, but it's also meant to be exciting!

Molly Johnson-Jones, Co-founder and CEO at v

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Provide a progression path

The best employers don’t just offer a
job — they offer a career. If employees
don’t see opportunities for advancement,
then they’re likely to look elsewhere.
You need to show that people can
develop their careers with you.
Although managers are historically the
ones to help employees progress in
their role, HR have a big opportunity to
support here. You can give team leaders
the tools to provide employees with a
roadmap of how they can progress.
programme — real life examples are one of
the best communication tools out there.
A great way to show people can progress
is by practical actions — in other words,
your recruitment. Are vacancies always
being filled by external candidates, or
are there a healthy number of internal
hires? Nobody’s saying every role needs
to be filled internally, but the best way to
demonstrate there’s a progression path
is by actually letting people walk it!

One way is to introduce a career

growth framework, to help employees
see where their current skills lie and
what they can do to grow. This might
include peer-to-peer feedback from
colleagues, reviews with managers and
setting up a mentoring scheme with
senior members of the business.

Make Learning and Development (L&D)

a priority as well. This isn’t just about
providing a budget for people to upskill,
but communicating it well. You’d be
surprised at how often employees are
unaware of what’s available to them.
Perhaps you could get testimonials from
people who’ve benefited from your L&D

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 What to take away from this guide
Here’s a recap of the key points to take away:

Support financial wellbeing

Go beyond the salary with financial
wellbeing education and benefits

Prioritise wellbeing
Implement a culture and tools to
prevent burnout

Recognise and reward

Make celebrating a habit and empower
people to choose their rewards

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 Get flexible
Gather feedback and cater for
different needs and ways of working

Provide a progression path

Make career development a priority
and back it up with your recruitment

Hopefully this guide will help your HR strategy

and keep top talent firmly in the business.

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 Caring for, connecting
with and celebrating your
employees across the globe
Perkbox is a global benefits and rewards platform that allows
companies to care for, connect with and celebrate their
employees, no matter where they are or what they want.

Learn more
about Perkbox

We also host events, publish ebooks, write articles

and create videos that will help you build a happy,
healthy and motivated workforce.

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