In a candidate's market, employers and HR teams can't simply lean on the age-old methods of increasing compensation and equity to keep staff. According to Glassdoor, the average US employer spends about $4,000 and 24 days to hire a new employee. This is not efficient or profitable for businesses today. In order to succeed with long-term retention, leaders need to look at the big picture and understand the full employee journey— that means leaning into engagement, managerial trust, and ample growth opportunity as key pillars of a retention strategy. Below are three steps HR leaders and managers can take to ensure they're keeping employees happy, engaged and around for the long haul.

Step 1: Managers must practice consistent and active engagement

According to 2021 data from Gallup, only 20% of employees are engaged at work, globally, and actively disengaged employees report miserable work experiences and are generally poorly managed. HR leaders and managers must develop a keen understanding of individual and team experiences in order to create an authentic, safe, and engaging environment. Why? Employees who feel valued and supported in their journey have higher retention rates, and data has even shown that engaged teams are 21% more profitable for their companies.