It is a well-known fact that employees are a company’s greatest asset. We all know how expensive and time consuming it can be to replace employees when they leave a company. Not only this but a high turnover rate can also be a cause of low employee morale.
When a well-regarded employee leaves, it can have an impact on their team and possibly leave them questioning how happy they are within the company. If you want to avoid losing top staff members, consider these 5 ways on how you can improve employee retention:
1. Selective Hiring:
When going through the hiring process, pay close attention to the candidate’s previous work patterns. While there is no problem switching jobs for career progression, it is important you hire someone who will want to grow with your company rather than gain experience and bring it elsewhere. As well as hiring people who fit your company culture, consider things like attitude, diligence, experience, skills and qualifications when hiring a new employee.
2. Reward Well:
As difficult as it may be to pay competitive salaries when budgets are tight, it is important to calculate the costs involved in replacing employees. Keep up-to-date on salary averages in your industry and make sure employees are being compensated correctly for performing the tasks required of them. As well as base salaries, there should be some incentives such as commissions or bonuses. This will motivate staff to meet and exceed both their goals and your expectations of them while giving them an opportunity to increase their earnings and focus on growing their career.
3. Offer Benefits:
Benefits are important drivers of loyalty. Your top employees will expect to receive health insurance, retirement benefits and life insurance, so failure to offer these benefits at a minimum may result in your employees leaving for better opportunities. It could also prevent future employees from joining, as many companies are now using benefits as an attraction to join their business. It is important to be aware of what your competitors are offering as part of their benefits programme
4. Flexible Working Conditions:
You should be as flexible with your employees as they are with you. Nowadays workers are constantly trying to juggle work/life commitments so offering flexible working hours or the opportunity to work remotely has become an important factor for employees when choosing a company to work for. As work from a laptop has become possible within companies, many employees prefer being given the choice to work remotely. It is becoming increasingly more popular, sensible and beneficial for employees to offer flexible work arrangements when possible.
5. Recognise and reward:
Recognising the accomplishments of employees is something simple but often can be forgotten. Rewarding employees, could be anything from a public thank you to giving them an award for a job well done. However you decide to reward your employees for doing a good job, giving praise to your employees for completing goals or reaching targets is one of the most effective ways to make them feel appreciated and motivated.
