Bringing on new employees is often a time-consuming and resource-heavy task for businesses. You need to spend a lot of time advertising your position and interviewing potential candidates before selecting the best one and spending more time onboarding them. With so much committed to finding employees, it’s no wonder that it’s frustrating when they leave for another organization. To get more from your investment of time and money, it’s essential that you focus on improving your employee retention rates. Below, we offer six strategies you can use to keep employees happy and with your organization longer.
Offer Competitive Salary and Benefits
The easiest place to start is with the salary and benefits you offer. There are a lot of things you can do to improve your business’s atmosphere and make it a more enjoyable place to work, but at the end of the day, employees are primarily concerned with their earnings. If you find that many of your employees are leaving for other businesses, you might want to explore if other businesses in your industry are offering higher salaries or better benefit packages. If so, it’s time to raise what you’re offering to ensure you’re maintaining a competitive advantage and retaining the best workers.
Focus on Your Onboarding Process
Once you’ve gotten the salary and benefits out of the way, you can begin focusing on other areas of your business. Many employees leave their jobs within the first few weeks of starting. While there are plenty of factors that contribute to this statistic, one of the most common is a poor onboarding process. If your employees don’t properly learn how to function within your business, they’ll have a hard time performing to their best abilities. This leaves them stressed and unfulfilled, which is why they quickly look for another opportunity.
Spend some time going through your current onboarding process. Make sure you’re providing all the key details, and that new team members have everything they need. It’s also a good idea to follow up with new employees and ask for feedback on your onboarding process to learn if there is anything you can improve.
Recognize Accomplishments
An easy way to improve your employee retention rate is through positive reinforcement. Everyone likes to feel like their work matters and that what they do is appreciated. People who feel unappreciated are more likely to seek another work environment. Something as simple as congratulating an employee on a big accomplishment can go a long way toward keeping them around. Explore some employee recognition methods, such as parties, custom awards, or public congratulations, and start implementing them.
Provide Employee Growth Opportunities
Another thing employees look for in their jobs is a sense of growth. Many people want to progress in their careers over time. If they don’t think they can progress within your organization, or if they are not improving their skills, they are likely to look elsewhere for a job. Make sure there are growth opportunities within your organization, such as giving long-term employees more leadership responsibilities.
If you’re struggling to find larger roles for employees, at least offer them skill development or educational resources. This may lead to them eventually looking elsewhere for a job, but they will at least remain a while longer while they develop their new skills.
Prioritize A Strong Work/Life Balance
A strong work/life balance is becoming increasingly important for employees. In fact, many people will choose a job that pays less if they are able to maintain a better work/life balance because of it. As the employer, you need to prioritize a strong work/life balance, which means allowing your employees plenty of time away from work.
There are a few ways you can create a better work/life balance for your employees. One option is to let your employees work from home, eliminating the need for a daily commute. You can also offer more vacation time or sick days so that employees don’t need to come in when they don’t feel well. Finally, it should be part of your company culture that being away from work is respected and that employees aren’t interrupted by work problems while away.
Seek and Implement Feedback
Finally, it’s important to regularly seek feedback from your employees. People like to know that their opinions matter and that you’re consistently working to make your organization a better place to work. Send out a survey or set up times to meet with your employees individually, during which you ask for feedback on how you can improve things. Most importantly, you need to implement some of their suggestions. This shows you value their feedback and will encourage employees to remain at an organization that listens to them.
