Employee engagement | How to improve retention using often overlooked internal networks

The art of forming a strong internal network has been around for a long time, but is often overlooked as a simple way of improving engagement and retention.

A study from Personnel Psychology found that individuals with a stronger internal (versus external) network were more likely to stay with their employer in two years. The opposite was also true: those with a stronger external network were more likely to leave.

While much has shifted since this study and employee retention may not be the highest concern of companies experiencing drastic change right now, many organisations still face retention risks for important roles or hard-to-find skill sets. Keeping people networked internally will be key to accomplishing new business goals coming out of COVID-19 and moving forward.

You’ve probably moved people around your organisation in response to the pandemic – creating excellent internal networking opportunities. But, as Michael Watkins, author of the essential onboarding guide, ‘The First 90 Days’, points out in Harvard Business Review, most companies take a ‘sink or swim’ attitude with internal transfers.