Attracting great people to staff your benefits agency is a vital first step if you want to grow and thrive, but to retain them you must remain attractive long-term. In the current marketplace, where competition for top talent is fiercer than ever, retention is not a luxury or a “nice to have,” but a fundamental necessity.
As a benefits agency, your company is in a position to set an example for client businesses – both in terms of embracing new and different types of benefits customized for the workforce, but also in nurturing the kind of working environment that attracts and retains exceptional employees. If you take good care of your employees, they will take good care of your clients, creating loyalty that delivers double retention benefits.
Every successful marketer knows that it is easier and far less expensive to retain customers than to attract new ones. Happy customers buy more often, spend more, and can become invaluable assets in promoting your company and products or services to others. The same holds true for employees.
The most desirable companies understand that their employees are like customers.
Once you successfully attract top talent, you want to keep them for as long as possible. Just like loyal paying customers, great employees generate revenue that supports profitability and growth, and they can serve as magnets to attract future top talent. But there are other benefits to retention:
- Skills retention (and expansion)
- History/familiarity with the company
- Leadership development pool (and peer mentors)
- Save money and HR time, eliminating painful costs and headaches associated with high turnover and revolving door recruitment
- Building a company reputation as a great place to work
Most of the best practices you follow to attract top people in the first place also apply to retention. We hope you find this entire guide helpful, but you can use the following Table of Contents to zero in on a particular topic of special interest.