Employee retention. Everyone knows it’s important, but not necessarily how important.

Better employee retention drastically reduces the cost of a business, because hiring an employee is far more expensive than simply retaining one. Retaining employees also improves company culture and retains company knowledge.

But even with those things in mind, some companies struggle to keep their employees. Let’s take a look at what businesses can do to further develop their employee relationships.

Before hiring: Acquiring employees you can retain

Learn to look for employees who are passionate about the work, ready to take on the job, and interested in growing from within the organization. Learn to identify employees who are looking for a stepping stone — who aren’t interested in staying in the area or position long-term, or who may be quickly motivated to leave. Ask questions about what their ultimate goals are.

After hiring: Improving the employee experience

Talk to employees about their experience. Make it HR’s job to determine whether there are areas that could improve in terms of employee work-life balance and employee work experience. Employees will often be free with what is bothering them, whether it is long work hours or an inability to advance.

When exiting: Performing exit interviews

Why are employees leaving? Did they get an offer that the company couldn’t match? Are they simply moving? Or did they feel as though the management wasn’t listening to them? It’s important to perform complex exit interviews to determine exactly what “went wrong” in the employee’s relationship with the company. This will give you more information about what the company can improve.

Creating your employee retention plan

Employee retention isn’t just something that the business considers as an overall metric. It’s something that has to be integrated into all of an organization’s set processes. You need to create an employee retention plan. As with other strategies, it’s not going to work if you aren’t monitoring the data, analyzing the numbers, and finding new solutions.

By creating an employee retention plan, you also send the message to employees that retention is something that you’re interested in, and that you’re interested in investing more in greater levels of retention.

Employee retention strategies require a high level of intentionality. Your organization must be ready to consider employee retention a major metric — and to develop your processes focused on it. By doing so, you’ll eventually be able to reduce retention and improve overhead, performance, and company culture.