Business

5 Tactical Employee Retention Strategies for SBOs

Published

3 years ago

May 13, 2023

In today’s competitive job market, employee retention has become a top priority for organizations of all sizes. But what are the most tactical and practical ways to increase employee retention? Let’s dig a little deeper.

Try These Employee Retention Strategies

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it typically costs a company six to nine months of an employee’s salary to replace that employee. For perspective, that means it costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $45,000 in recruiting, training, and hiring costs to find and onboard an employee making $60,000 per year.

“Some employees find better paying jobs while others go back to school. Sometimes it’s their choice and other times they follow a spouse who’s been transferred to another state,” Enrich explains. “Whatever the reason, it has been well documented that employee turnover is costly and disruptive.”

Thankfully, there are plenty of tools and strategies at an employer’s disposal for increasing employee retention. Here are a few:

Offer Better Salary and Benefits

Why do most employees leave? Robert Half’s data says 38 percent of employees move on to another job due to “inadequate salary and benefits.”

Thus, one of the most effective (and obvious) employee retention strategies is to offer a competitive compensation and benefits package. This includes not only a fair salary, but also perks like health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.

By providing these benefits, you can show your employees that you value their work and are committed to their well-being.

Give Employees a Clear Path Forward

Make sure you’re providing clear opportunities for career growth and development. This can take many forms, including training programs, mentorship opportunities, and career advancement paths. When you invest in your employees’ professional development, you help them feel valued and motivated to continue growing within your organization.

Lead By Example

Offering benefits and development opportunities is only part of the equation. The role that managers and leaders play in employee retention cannot be overstated. In fact, a recent study found that 75% of employees who voluntarily left their place of employment did so because of their direct superiors.

To create a positive and nurturing work environment, it’s important for managers to communicate openly and frequently with their team members. This includes offering regular and consistent feedback for a job well done. It’s also key for those in management and leadership positions to lead by example and communicate a strong commitment to the company’s mission and values.

Invest in Culture

As a business owner, you can support employee retention by fostering a sense of community and belonging within the workplace. This can be accomplished through various team-building activities, volunteer opportunities, and fun, inviting social events.

By creating a strong sense of camaraderie and shared purpose, employees are more likely to feel connected to their colleagues and invested in the success of the organization.

Tailor Your Approach

Of course, not all employee retention strategies will work for every organization. It’s important to tailor your approach based on the unique needs and preferences of your team members. This may include conducting regular employee surveys to gather feedback on what is working and what could be improved.

You should also be proactive in addressing potential retention issues before they become major problems. This can include identifying employees who may be at risk of leaving and taking steps to address their concerns or provide additional support.

For Best Results, Know Your Employees

If you’re a small business owner, you know how difficult it can be to retain top talent. With larger organizations offering more resources and benefits, it can feel like an uphill battle to keep employees engaged and committed for the long term. But as you can see, there are a number of employee retention strategies that you can implement to help keep your team members happy and motivated.

Ultimately, the key to successful employee retention is creating a workplace culture that values and supports its team members. By offering more competitive compensation and benefits packages, providing opportunities for career growth and development, and fostering a positive and supportive work environment, you can improve retention rates, bolster the bottom line, and build a strong and committed team.

Business

Ipsos Helps Brands Understand How They Get Customer Experience Wrong & Why It’s Costing Them Millions

Published

4 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Matthew Wiles

For brands looking to succeed in the modern business ecosystem, the customer experience (CX) is not something companies can afford to ignore. CX is a direct driver of revenue, loyalty, and growth for organizations.

Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research firms, helps brands understand that failing to focus on the customer experience can lead to lost sales, which in turn can translate to not only millions in lost revenue but also lost trust and credibility in the market.

How brands still get CX wrong

“The customer decision and desire to do business with brands directly affect the bottom line,” says Brad Christian, Chief Commercial Officer at Ipsos – Experience Practice.

Customer experience may sound like a simple concept, but many brands still get it wrong. CX goes beyond surveys and feedback. Leaders who fail to connect feedback in a meaningful way to goals such as retention, repeat visits or purchases, advocacy, and operational performance fail to deliver on their service promises. The emotional and functional disconnect can spell trouble for brands. The most polished advertising campaigns cannot make up for a frustrating customer interaction or a promise that a business cannot fulfill.

According to Ipsos’s internal research, many customers today see service as too automated and impersonal. More than half report that their experience is worse than promised.

These findings don’t just result in disappointed buyers. They result in lost customers, negative feedback, and a long-term impact on the business as a whole.

“Brands have to manage the entire customer experience across each and every touchpoint,” explains Christian.

Poor CX can be expensive

Executives can often underestimate how expensive a history of poor CX can be. Global losses can reach into the billions while leaders wonder what went wrong. In an age of rapid social media communication, a single negative interaction can spell disaster for a company, leading to reduced customer spending or the entire loss of its most loyal customers.

Those losses are not just reflected in lost revenue, however. Customer acquisition and marketing dollars can also be lost as companies continue to spend money trying to retain their customer base, often skipping right over the experience part of retention.

Poor customer experience can be a deep operating problem that creates a domino effect, decimating businesses from the inside out. These poor experiences can impact not only present and future customer acquisition but also business leaders and employees.

CX matters more in today’s business landscape

The customer experience has always mattered, but it may matter more to brands trying to make it in a modern, ultra-competitive, digitally-driven business landscape. Good experiences encourage repeat purchases, boost loyalty, and increase the likelihood that customers will go online and recommend a brand to others.

“Customer experience isn’t an isolated function,” says Christian. “It’s ‌part of a larger system that ensures that brands measure and manage customer experience data and then act on that data to drive action where customer experience gaps exist.”

Brands also have to seek to understand today’s customers, who expect experiences that are seamless, authentic, and relevant. As more and more companies hop on the automation train, they will want to reassure their customers that the human element that many people consider important still exists.

At Ipsos, six drivers of strong customer relationships form the bedrock of the company’s CX platform, something that they refer to as the “Forces of CX”: certainty, fair treatment, control, status, belonging, and enjoyment.

Customers want to feel that if they have an issue with a brand, it will be handled and that their concerns will be understood. They don’t want the customer experience to feel like a battleground; they want it to feel fair and human.

“Customer experience isn’t just a nicer experience,” says Christian. “It ties directly to specific financial outcomes, whether that be increased sales, greater market share, or stronger brand loyalty.”

How Ipsos helps businesses deliver customer experiences that matter

Ipsos turns customer feedback into reliable, actionable, decision-ready information. The company goes beyond simple satisfaction metrics and implements voice-of-the-customer programs, journey analytics, relationship feedback, and quality research.

“Brands don’t just need data,” Christian says. “They need measurements as to how they are delivering on their brand promise and predictive modeling to tie financial performance measures to those measures to help them determine where to invest to maximize the customer experience and understand what financial impact those investments might deliver for the business.”

Ipsos measures the interactions that matter ‌most and shows brands how each interaction can affect retention, share of spend, and efficiency. For brands that are trying to reduce the guesswork behind CX, Ipsos helps them move beyond cosmetic fixes to achieve real, meaningful change.

Customer expectations can shift on a dime, influenced by society, social media, and even changing trends. Ipsos helps brands meet those rapidly changing customer expectations with hard evidence and comprehensive metrics.

Today’s brands need to understand how to get the customer experience right. Ipsos has the insights needed to drive home the deep importance of CX in today’s marketplace.