Game On: PrismHR’s HCM Solution Helps Clients Play the ‘Long Game’ in Employee Retention

By PrismHR

Keeping the best employees is the name of the game and has been for generations. The longer they stay, the more it will benefit the organization.

That’s especially true for smaller businesses with smaller bottom lines; they simply can’t afford to lose great people. They are hard to replace, and who can fill the void?

Unless you’re lucky enough to have an in-house candidate who can jump in right away, finding a replacement takes time. One survey found the average time it takes to hire for a position is 44 days. Depending on the type of role, onboarding can take 90 days or more for a new employee to get fully up to speed. For a manager under pressure to ensure there isn’t a slip in output, that’s a stressful four months of trying to get back to where you had been before a top employee Michigan J. Frogged their way out the door.

Do your small and medium-sized business (SMB) clients have that kind of time to spare?

Hiring is even more challenging nowadays. The unemployment rate is 4.1% at this writing, and has been hovering around 4% since the end of 2021. We even saw an unemployment rate as low as 3.4% in April 2023, which was the lowest in half a century.

The talent pool is simply smaller these days, even though some are predicting the pendulum will start swinging back in the employer’s favor (subscription required) in 2025. Although Gen Z still has flexibility and perks in mind, so they might have something to say about rigid policies.

A Real Keeper

In the past, some companies have turned to out-of-the-box ideas to help ensure new employees are in it for the long haul.

Zappos, Amazon and Trainual to name a few have offered to pay new employees thousands of dollars to quit the company after a short period of time—if they aren’t satisfied with the job or don’t feel like it’s a good fit.

It’s an interesting tactic credited to the late Tony Hsieh, who instituted the policy at Zappos, the online shoe retailer, in the 2000s. It certainly gets the media’s attention when these ideas surface, but there are other tactics your clients can use to help retention.

Achievers, which is an employee recognition tool, lists 15 strategies headlined by employee engagement, including pulse surveys and HR chatbots to help companies keep up with how engaged their employees really are.

Recognition and rewards is the No. 2. reason listed. Achievers cites Brandon Hall Group research that found that employees who are recognized multiple times per month are 41% more likely to stay put. Another tactic that was high on the list was professional development and getting employees the training they need to continue their career growth. Of course, having an outlet for them to move up in the company is important to retention, too, otherwise you might be training them to just move on.

It goes without saying, but compensation and benefit offerings will always be a part of retention strategies. While money isn’t the only thing, it will always be an important thing for employees.

What to Do?

Turn to tech!

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) article “7 Workforce Trends That Will Shape HR in 2025,” (subscription may be necessary), No. 3 on the list is “People Analytics Shaping the Future.” As the article explains, “People analytics can reveal a variety of insights. Combing through employee engagement survey data, for example, can help companies determine employee morale or recurring reasons for departure or turnover.”

If only there was a way to give your clients the ability to monitor things like that on their own. Oh, there is.

PrismHR’s HCM solution was rolled out in 2024. It’s an all-in-one HCM platform that includes advanced reporting tools, including data visualization and dashboards, that help your clients and worksite managers Report Center to help your clients and worksite managers better understand their workforce and monitor developing trends.

With PrismHR HCM, your clients can dive into retention-related topics like:

  • Turnover on the rise? Compare salaries across departments. Is someone else in a different department paying more for a similar job description?

  • Employee burnout present? Take a look at overtime stats. While overtime affects a company’s bottom line, too much of it could also be a sign that an employee is working longer hours just to keep up.

  • How long have they worked at the company? Look at tenure. If someone has put in five years with a company without a promotion, it might be time to look at their career path.

That’s just for starters.

Mikey Shulman, a finance lecturer at the MIT Solan School of Management, once said, “Since most of the world’s data, including most real-time data, is unstructured, an ability to analyze and act on it presents a big opportunity.”

We couldn’t agree more.

The “game” is changing. As your clients grow and graduate from a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) or Payroll Service Bureau full-service model to an in-house, self-service model you can help your clients play the “long game” in terms of retention and recruiting with PrismHR’s HCM solution.

Game on!