2.12 Improving Employee Retention: Evidence, SWOT and Action Planning

Employee retention requires more than watching turnover figures. This lesson explains how HR professionals can investigate why people stay or leave, then turn evidence into practical action. You will explore retention strategies and learn how SWOT analysis can identify internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats. The lesson then covers strategic prioritisation, action planning, resource allocation and the use of KPIs to monitor progress. It introduces employee surveys, pulse checks and exit interviews as valuable sources of employee insight, with emphasis on anonymity, open questions and closing the feedback loop. You will also learn how benchmarking can reveal gaps against competitors or industry standards, and how workforce segmentation can help tailor support to different employee groups. The lesson concludes with a complete retention cycle: understanding the evidence, prioritising issues, acting, monitoring results and refining the plan over time. Read the related CMS Vocational Training guide: https://cmsvoc.co.uk/blog/swot-analysis/ Chapters 00:00 Why turnover data alone is not enough 00:48 Using SWOT analysis for retention planning 01:34 Prioritising actions, resources and KPIs 02:13 Gathering evidence through surveys and exit interviews 03:18 Benchmarking and tailoring the retention plan 04:15 Applying the full retention cycle 04:45 Key principles for ongoing retention improvement 05:14 Reflecting on the next evidence source