Published by Programme B
Are you finding it difficult to keep your employees in the current job climate? How does one go about winning the battle of employee retention? Read on for 6 proven ways to keep your employees working for you.
1. Salary And Benefits Must Be Competitive
A recent study found that for 45% of employees who quit, the top reason was their salary. This was followed by career advancement opportunities, better benefits, and lastly location.
You’d be forgiven if you thought that the easiest fix for employee retention is more money and more benefits. However, if you see this as the only option it could cost your business more than it can afford. This site offers insight into employee benefits. If you decide to go this route it is important to find the best offers to simplify, but still offer dignified benefits to employees.
2. Hire The Right Person
If you hire a quitter, don’t be surprised if and when they decide to quit. Hiring someone who is a bad fit for your business and hoping it’ll work out often ends in disaster. Studies have shown that if interviewees were better informed during the hiring process they would stick likely around longer. Make sure you are honest about what you expect of a new employee. Transparency is key in finding the right fit for staff.
3. Reduce Employee Frustration
Employees are not robots. If your employees feel like they spend most of their life working instead of living, the job becomes unpleasant.
Through employee surveys and paying attention to industry trends, you are able to find out and pinpoint what is frustrating for your employees in your industry.
Think of the pain and frustration as the main thing that needs to be alleviated. Although money can alleviate pain, in a way, there are other ways to attack the pain problem. Making employees feel as valuable as they could be paramount to being paid more.
Good workers are very often taken for granted. Be aware of employees who work hard and may not be complaining, but are quietly feeling exhausted or frustrated about the amount of work expected from them.
It is important to keep an eye out for areas that could and potentially already have inspired grumbling. Communicate with your staff to pinpoint issues. Conversation is key.
4. Have Leaders, Not Bosses
Everyone wants to be the boss, but not everyone can and wants to be a leader. It is important to remember that people will follow leaders and will easily abandon bosses who are incompetent. Anyone can be a boss, they are a dime a dozen, but a leader is far more uncommon.
Even if you aren’t a leader, you can learn to be a good boss. Below are 5 characteristics of being an effective leader that plays directly into employee engagement, something that you can practice like a boss.
- Clear direction towards the future.
- Ability to handle challenges.
- Genuine desire to offer high quality.
- A belief in the importance of people.
- Inspires confidence.
How do you be a leader and not just a boss?
Be available to your employees. Bosses often implement an “open door policy”, but don’t stick to it. It is also not enough to simply invite criticism and feedback. People often feel as though they can’t really express themselves for fear of embarrassment or punishment.
Create an open relationship with employees. You don’t have to be friends but taking the time to be friendly and engaged with your employees will pay off and will create a work-inductive and satisfying workspace.
Be steady and structured.
Treat all employees and situations equally and fairly. Employees who feel like others are being given special treatment will not stick around for the drama and chaos that this creates.
5. Keep An Eye On Your Managers
If you take anything away from this article let it be this – People leave managers, not companies.
No one wants to be messed around. When training managers, be sure to teach them how to encourage and motivate different types of people, personality traits, as well as conflict management, stress management, crisis management, etc.
6. Make Employee Engagement Possible
You need to understand what motivates people to make them want to become fully engaged rather than just punch in and out for the day. People need to feel like they are working towards a goal and not just at a dead-end job.
It is important to motivate your employees and show them that they are more than just cogs in a machine. You will increase your retention if you treat your employees well and pay attention to their needs.