Recruiting, Selection & Retention: Retain Diverse Employees (PDF)

Here are numerous strategies that can be implemented in order to facilitate retention of diverse employees. Organizations can choose two or three achievable strategies to begin with and then phase in additional ones as the organization realizes progress from those implemented.

Because retention has a great deal to do with supervisors and managers as well as coworkers, there are strategies presented here over which, depending upon the organization, Human Resources may have little or no control. That is why it is important to choose strategies that ensure success. If preferred strategies are more global in nature involving organizational culture initiatives, then it's important to obtain support from executive and senior leadership. Consideration for consequences associated with non-performance may also need to be part of an organization's strategy in order to protect the integrity of initiatives, an organization's overall commitment to diversity and to ensure accountability to team members involved in retaining high-quality, diverse employees.

There is much we can do to retain the best talent and make sure diverse employees are provided opportunities for success while experiencing high levels of satisfaction. Strategies provided include but are not limited to the following:

•  Monitoring turnover rates and reasons
•  Supervisory and management retention rates of frontline employees
•  Performance evaluation tracking
•  Promotion tracking
•  Economic impact of turnover and/or chronic vacancies
•  Training and development opportunities and outcomes
•  Employee satisfaction measurements