Focusing on successful staff retention strategies

HR buzzwords were rolling deep in 2022 as phenomenons like ‘The Great Resignation’ and ‘Quiet Quitting’ took the internet by storm and people retention strategies were top of mind for HR teams across Aotearoa.

Recently, three HR leaders discussed their retention strategies at the HRD National HR Summit held at the Hilton Auckland: Matthew Cullum, GM, colleague strategy – people and culture at BNZ, Anna Ferguson, chief people officer at Vista Group and Kylie Elsom, vice president, people and culture ANZ & Japan at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Callum explained one of the initiatives that had seen great success at BNZ was a shift to a more team performance-based recognition system.

“An individual feeling uncomfortable about being called out, that becomes less of an issue because you’re calling out the work,” said Cullum.

“The other thing is, it’s focused more on the behaviour side of things,” he continued. “We work on the basis that if the right behaviours are exhibited, then you will get the right outcomes – that’s the direction we have gone in and it really has shifted, ultimately, the organisation to what is important.”

While BNZ still awards individuals, it has changed at least half of the awards presented as part of its recognition system to team awards, said Cullum.

“I can actually see a time when this program moves entirely away from the individual because there are other ways of recognising that, but really use it to bring teams together across the company.

Celebrating achievement at Vista Group

Ferguson refers to Vista Group as a “25-year-old start-up” and works hard to retain that level of informality present in the startup environment.

“When it comes to our teams and achieving milestones, we have a very strong culture of celebration,” said Ferguson.

When the company reached a significant milestone in their transformation last year, they threw parties in every office around the world to celebrate.

“It’s quite symbolic,” said Ferguson. “We had special plaques made in every office with every individual’s name who worked on that program, and everyone had t-shirts made. We make it very much about you want to be part of that, you want to feel that sense of achievement.”

Feedback from exit interviews leads to changes

Elsom explained that feedback garnered from exit interviews lead Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) led the company to put more emphasis on the individual.

“I think people being individually valued is so important. One of the things that came out of our exit surveys was people were saying that they didn’t have anyone invested in their career,” she said.

The company responded by developing a course called “Create you Career” – a tool that employees can use to build and develop their own career and learn how to have conversations with their managers so they can drive it by taking that information and using it to develop the employee.

“Our performance framework is built on quarterly goals with monthly check-ins. It’s not your normal one-on-one, this is about the employee – what is happening in their career, what are they going to do next, how are they feeling – so it keeps coming back to the power of conversation,” said Elsom.