The story of the Great Resignation is told through statistics: 4.3 million people quit their jobs in January 2022, with some employers seeing 30 percent attrition in competitive jobs. But employers don’t need these numbers to prove that employee turnover is one of the greatest challenges facing organizations today.

For underrepresented employees, this kind of attrition has been an issue since well before the past few years of the pandemic and global examination of systemic racism. Often, this issue has persisted because organizations hire for diversity without developing effective plans for how to retain and advance those workers for the long term. According to a recent mthree and Wiley survey, “50 percent of respondents said they had left or wanted to quit their tech or IT job because the company culture was unwelcoming, with 68 percent of respondents believing this was because of their gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, or neurodevelopmental condition.”

Employee turnover can have a serious impact on an organization’s success, so it’s imperative that employers create effective engagement strategies for keeping their underrepresented staff members. Here are a few proven strategies to improve talent retention.

1. Elevate Career Advancement

Workers who don’t see opportunities for growth and advancement have little reason to stay in a dead-end job. Groups such as women and people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds often have been passed over for such opportunities.

Companies that provide concrete, inclusive opportunities for career development offer a valuable incentive for employees to envision a future with the organization. In fact, 94 percent of employees said they’d stay longer at a company that invested in their career, according to LinkedIn Learning’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report.

To truly invest, organizations must approach career development in various ways, including providing individual career pathing with managers, offering examples of internal promotions of diverse employees, encouraging internal mentoring and sponsorship, and promoting learning and training opportunities.

2. Build Belonging

Why would anyone stay at an organization where they don’t feel like they belong? This is the message that many employees of underrepresented groups receive when they experience behaviors such as microaggressions, bullying, and exclusion.

Creating an inclusive environment where employees feel a sense of community first takes examination of what employees actually experience at work and then build awareness of unconscious biases that might exist. Organizations have to understand what the problems are in order to fix them.

Then, begin implementing inclusive behaviors that contribute to environments of psychological safety, including creating a culture of honesty and encouraging difficult conversations; building community through employee resource groups (ERGs); and demonstrating commitment to inclusivity from senior management.

3. Create Mentoring Programs

According to a 2021 report from the Wharton School of Business, mentoring is an important part of managerial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) actions that improve workplace culture. Mentoring and sponsorship also reduce burnout and interest in leaving or changing one’s job, and they are key practices in creating:

• A positive sense of emotional connection to the organization and alignment with organizational goals

• Feelings of acceptance and comfort in the workplace

• Feelings that one’s input is considered, that review and promotion processes are fair, and that difference is appreciated

• Job satisfaction

Mentoring is a tried-and-tested way to retain employees, especially those who may be underrepresented in the workforce.

4. Embrace the Hybrid Workplace

Many employees spent the past few years working from home and now don’t want to return to a full-time, in-office environment. A recent Citrix study showed 88 percent of respondents would look for a job that “offers complete flexibility in their hours and location.” Further, a Future Forum survey found 97 percent of Black knowledge workers want the future of the office to be remote or hybrid.

Organizations that want to attract the most qualified candidates and keep them need to offer flexible, effective options for remote and hybrid work. Many workers now place work-life balance and personal well-being at the top of their priority list—and if they can’t find those things with their current employer, they won’t hesitate to look elsewhere.

Organizations need to make the effort to help underrepresented employees feel seen, heard, valued, and understood while equipping them with the resources and relationships they need to thrive at work.