Are you struggling to keep your employees engaged, supported, and happy at work? Keep reading to find out our top strategies for employee retention.
If you’re not retaining your best employees, you could be making a costly mistake. Retained employees are more loyal, more productive, and less likely to leave for another job. The result is increased productivity and lower costs.
But how can you ensure that your employees stay with you? Here are some tips for retaining your best staff members.
To ensure you nurture and maintain your top talent, employee retention should be a top priority for every small business. With the help of the following nine employee retention strategies, including open feedback channels and a culture of recognition, you can make a difference with positive real-world results.
Why Is Employee Retention Important?
A healthy work environment matters!
It is no secret that employee retention is important to a business. The idea of retaining employees and ensuring their happiness can seem like an added burden for businesses, but the truth is, it’s not only beneficial for them – it’s also beneficial for you.
Employee retention helps businesses grow.
It may seem obvious, but retaining employees help your business grow. When you retain valuable workers, they continue doing what they do best while they stay with your company. This means less time spent training new people on the job and more time focused on expanding or growing your business.
If you want to retain knowledge and expertise in your industry, you need to keep employees happy!
Retaining talent takes patience; if you rush things, it will likely backfire later down the line when those same talented individuals begin looking elsewhere because they don’t feel valued by their employer!
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways businesses can ensure loyalty towards them. Employee appreciation programs such as quarterly bonuses based on performance metrics (such as sales figures) which show how much each person contributes towards helping increase revenue overall, is just one example.
Employee Retention Starts With Understanding What Your Employees Want
You’re probably already aware of the importance of employee retention. Without happy, engaged employees, your business is not likely to be successful. But what’s the best way to keep your workers engaged?
A good place to start is by understanding what they want. When it comes to employee retention, there are a couple of things you should pay attention to:
- Employee satisfaction surveys can help you understand what your employees need and want from their jobs – but only if you have a reliable process in place for collecting feedback and turning it into actionable insights.
- Employee feedback can help identify problems or opportunities before they become serious issues, which makes it easier for managers at all levels of an organisation or company to see where improvements need to be made so everyone works together toward common goals such as improving customer service.
- Establishing clear expectations on employee jobs and overall careers early in their position.
- Regular meetings, 1:1s, or catch-ups are a great way to gauge the mood and attitudes of team members towards work and fellow colleagues; allowing any discontent, disagreement or misunderstandings to be aired, discussed, and resolved as soon as possible.
Recruit The Right Employees For Your Business
When you set out to find the right employees, you need to be sure that they are a good fit for your small business. Whether it’s a small start-up or an established company with hundreds of employees, there are certain qualities you should look for in your potential hires.
The first thing is whether they would be comfortable within your company culture. This is important because if an employee doesn’t fit into the existing culture, they may not last long at all.
You want to make sure that both sides are on board before making any final decisions about hiring someone new.
Next up is whether they can perform their job responsibilities effectively and achieve results quickly enough if needed.
If there aren’t any immediate problems with this part of the process (like some companies requiring certain degrees), then move ahead with confidence!
Everyone must understand their role within this portion so no one feels left behind when trying out new things at work every day – even though those things might seem intimidating initially.
Every business’ recruitment process is different but you may find psychometric tests are a good way to establish if a candidate will fit in well.
Offer Competitive Salaries And Benefits
Compensation is a key driver of employee retention. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, pay is the top reason why employees leave their jobs, with more than half (53%) of workers citing it as their primary reason.
Offering a competitive salary and additional benefits is a priority for retaining quality talent.
To ensure compensation is competitive, employers should compare salaries against other employers in the same industry and city.
They should also consider an employee’s experience, education and skills when determining salary levels.
In addition to salary levels, employers can set up performance-based bonuses that reward good performers while leaving room for improvement in low performers’ cases.
Onboard Your Employees Effectively
Onboarding is a two-way process, and it must be documented. It’s also crucial that you make sure your employees know what is expected of them.
You should ensure that your new hires will have access to onboarding materials, such as their employment contracts, policies and procedures manual and HR information.
Furthermore, having a timeline for when these should be given out will help ensure that everyone has the same information at roughly the same time.
Make sure to keep track of who received what documents and when by using an electronic system like an HRIS (Human Resources Information System).
This can assist with reporting on employee turnover, as well as provide data on whether training is completed or not completed according to the company’s onboarding process standards.
Here are our top HR software picks:
Promote Professional Development Opportunities To Help Employees Grow Their Skills
Provide training to develop employee skills by offering professional development opportunities throughout their career.
Investing in your employees’ development is a great way to keep them engaged and inspired at work.
Although it might seem like you’re giving an employee more responsibility, it will help individuals stay motivated and inspired by providing a chance for professional growth that they may not have otherwise had the opportunity to experience.
Mentoring programs or training seminars to help employees grow into their roles is a great place to start professional development.
Recognise Employees For Their Hard Work And Accomplishments
Recognition is one of the most important aspects of employee retention. It can come in a variety of forms, but it’s usually monetary or non-monetary. It can be public or private, given by managers or peers and even directly from your small business.
The best way to recognise employees for their hard work and accomplishments is to show them they’re valued as an employee.
Unsure how to recognise your employees? Consider these awards:
- Praise
- Rewards e.g. bonuses or promotions
- Recognition ceremonies where employees are honoured for their efforts
- Referral programs
- Fun gifts
All these methods show employees that they’re appreciated at work so they’re more likely to stick around longer than others who don’t receive any kind of recognition during their time with your business.
Cultivate A Culture That Employers Want To Be Part Of
A company’s culture is a reflection of its values and beliefs. It can be defined in many ways, but typically it’s a shared set of values, beliefs, and norms that define how people treat each other and the environment they work in.
If you want employees to stay with your small business for longer than just one or two years, then fostering an environment that employees want to be part of is important for retaining them long-term.
Employees who feel like they belong at their workplace are more likely to remain loyal because they enjoy working there—not necessarily because it pays well or has great benefits, though those are also important!
Positive, inclusive company culture is crucial for employee engagement and retention.
Unsure how to nail your company culture? Try these ways to improve your working environment:
- Be transparent
- Support your community and employee causes
- Welcome employee feedback
- Tack action on employee opinions
- Encourage team outings and teamwork engagement
- Invest in benefits and business perks
Offer Appropriate Opportunities For Career Progression
If your small business is big enough to have a human resources department, you’re in luck. They can help you find ways to keep employees happy and content.
If not, then it’s up to the manager on the ground level (that’s you) to make sure that each of your employees is given opportunities for career progression and growth.
You need to remember that people are motivated by their own personal goals as much as they are by extrinsic factors like money or status symbols.
So, if an employee feels as though they are not being properly recognised for hard work or learning new skills at work, then it might be time for a change in job title or responsibilities. Not only will this create a positive impact within your small business but improve morale and job satisfaction. A win-win!
Prioritise Employee Wellbeing
It’s no secret that employee well-being is important for productivity and retention.
When an employee feels valued and appreciated, they’re more likely to stay with your small business, which in turn, keeps them engaged and productive.
How does that impact your small business?
- Improves job satisfaction
- Reduces stress and burnout
- Boosts productivity
- Creates a sense of community and identity among employees
- Reduces turnover rates (and therefore training costs)
- Increases engagement levels across the board
Following these best practices will help you recruit and retain the best talent for your business.
Remember that making sure people feel genuinely valued is key. Learn how to propel your small business to the next level with the help of My New Venture.
