Title
Damming the attrition flood of specialized talent: a comprehensive approach
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
The average cost of losing an employee is estimated anywhere from .75 to 2X annual salary. Bottom line impacts swing toward the higher end of that range when an organization experiences attrition of specialized roles that require increased effort and investment to acquire and develop. At Unum, we found our standard employee retention program was not sufficient to retain actuarial talent, a critical business role in the insurance industry. We were experiencing attrition roughly 4X our historical rate. We convened a core team, sponsored by our Chief Actuary and HR Business Partner, that was accountable for designing, developing, and implementing a comprehensive strategy to attack our problem (“dam the flood”). Focus groups and employee surveys provided insight into attrition drivers as well as motivating factors that contributed to retention. Using that information, we took a multi-faceted and holistic approach to address the problem. Our plan included an in-depth talent assessment, creative comp/reward strategies, acknowledging advancement opportunities through meaningful career conversations, and offering more robust professional development. In this presentation we will explore: > the importance of tailored retention strategies (versus one size fits all for all employees) > a practical and comprehensive way to respond to (or ideally head off) heightened attrition – including problem identification, solution development, implementation and measurement > your successes (or failures!) with retention of specialized roles and how the group can learn from the collective experience
Date
October 2018
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
presentations
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Damming the attrition flood of specialized talent: a comprehensive approach
The average cost of losing an employee is estimated anywhere from .75 to 2X annual salary. Bottom line impacts swing toward the higher end of that range when an organization experiences attrition of specialized roles that require increased effort and investment to acquire and develop. At Unum, we found our standard employee retention program was not sufficient to retain actuarial talent, a critical business role in the insurance industry. We were experiencing attrition roughly 4X our historical rate. We convened a core team, sponsored by our Chief Actuary and HR Business Partner, that was accountable for designing, developing, and implementing a comprehensive strategy to attack our problem (“dam the flood”). Focus groups and employee surveys provided insight into attrition drivers as well as motivating factors that contributed to retention. Using that information, we took a multi-faceted and holistic approach to address the problem. Our plan included an in-depth talent assessment, creative comp/reward strategies, acknowledging advancement opportunities through meaningful career conversations, and offering more robust professional development. In this presentation we will explore: > the importance of tailored retention strategies (versus one size fits all for all employees) > a practical and comprehensive way to respond to (or ideally head off) heightened attrition – including problem identification, solution development, implementation and measurement > your successes (or failures!) with retention of specialized roles and how the group can learn from the collective experience
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology