How Pay Equity and Pay Transparency Increase Employee Retention

Workers tend to stay longer in their jobs and in the company when they are happy. There can be many factors that add to a worker’s happiness. Many would say a firm with great culture is one. Others would say a job with tons of benefits can make them happy. For others, it is receiving a fair pay that gets to them.

All these can make a worker stay in the company. For this reason, many firms today try to embrace practices that support pay equity and pay transparency. These two ideas add to how workers view their jobs and their employers.

Pay Equity

This is an idea where workers receive the same amount of pay for the same work. This is despite their race, gender, age, origin, or affiliations. This helps ensure that every worker receives fair pay. In addition, it counters any unfair pay practices in the workplace.

Pay Transparency

This is the practice of making pay data available to all. This includes data on base pay, benefits, and other bonuses. Also, it should show how firms compute a worker’s pay and how they figure out incentives. This approach can help improve the worker’s morale, trust, and loyalty.

Are Pay Equity and Pay Transparency Good for Business?

Previously, firms will reveal a worker’s pay at the end of the interview or during the job offer. Also, they do not make a worker's pay available for all to know. As well as how they figure out the amount of pay and which benefits to offer.

In addition, there have been cases where pay is not equally dispersed. This often happens to women workers vs their male counterparts. Over the years, experts refer to this as the gender pay gap.

The issues surrounding pay transparency and equity have been ongoing for years. Various groups try to create efforts to ensure workplaces embrace these practices. But the journey is not all easy.

Dismissing the challenges, many firms today know the benefits of embracing these practices. For one, they help workers feel better about themselves, their jobs, and the company. As a result, they are happier and have more eagerness to work hard.

What is Employee Retention?

This is the company’s ability to keep their workers longer. This refers to the efforts they make to prevent or lower turnover. Firms do this to ensure that they have the best workers to achieve success. Experts often present this in percentage. In addition, employee retention may vary depending on the industry.

Companies have various methods for employee retention. This may depend on the feedback they get from the workers themselves. Some may evolve around topics of compensation and benefits.

For this reason, many find pay equity and pay transparency to be promising practices. Firms and workers believe that these ideas can be beneficial. Especially when it comes to preventing employee retention.

When workers feel that they are receiving equal pay, they are happier. The same goes when their company is transparent with how they figure out each worker’s pay. Also, in this way workers know they are getting what they truly deserve.

Why Employee Retention Matters?

Aside from ensuring the company keeps its best workers, there are more reasons why retention matters. Here are some of them.

1. Reduce turnover cost.

Turnover can be a big expense for a company. This is one more reason firms want to reduce or lower employee turnover.

2. Spending less effort in hiring and training new workers.

Coupled with the cost of turnover, there is also the effort to hire and train new workers. The entire process is taxing and time-consuming.

3. Avoid loss of knowledge.

When tenured workers leave, they also bring with them their expertise. Workers develop a wider range of knowledge over the years of performing the jobs. With a high turnover, there could be a loss of knowledge in the process.

4. Prevents roadblocks to productivity.

Turnovers can cause a range of roadblocks to the workers’ productivity. This especially happens when a post stays vacant for a period.

Best Practices the Drive Retention

But like any challenge, there are some best practices that can help drive retention.

1. Enforcing fair pay and transparency practices.

One of the best ways to keep workers is to ensure the company enforces fair pay and transparency practices. Workers that see their company’s efforts toward enforcing these practices are more likely to stay.

2. Think of offering comprehensive compensation.

Firms must not assume that workers are just after high salary. They should look at offering a range of other benefits and incentives to their workers.

3. Give incentives to stay with the company.

Workers stay in the company for a reason. Which is why firms should give them a reason to stay longer. This can be in the form of incentives for spending one year or five years in the company.

4. Always strive for clear and honest communication.

It is critical that firms build an environment of trust. This starts with clear and honest communication.

It is a fact that workers come and go. But it is also true that there are those who stay. When a company has clear plans including embracing pay equity and pay transparency, they are more likely to increase employee retention.