Employee retention strategies can not only improve employee morale, they also ensure that your best workers will continue to work for you, not your competition.
Great businesses understand the importance of keeping their employees for a long time. In doing so, they don’t have to regularly spend the time and money necessary to replace employees — which could devastate their bottom lines. Here are just a few of the positives of employee retention:
- You Can’t Build a Business Without Consistency
When your business is essentially a revolving door, it’s difficult for your organization to maintain any progress. The longer employees stay at the job, the more skills they acquire. In theory, this means that the best workers are the most tenured workers (though this is obviously not always the case). Retention is great for ROI. Strengthening your business starts with retention.
- Turnover Crushes the Bottom Line
Businesses that have to consistently replace employees will find out sooner or later how high turnover impacts their bottom lines.
· You Lose Talent and Ideas
- It’s Difficult to Establish Relationships with a Changing Workforce
· Job Seekers Do Their Research
Thanks to sites like Glassdoor, it’s easier than ever to get a glimpse into what it’s like to work at an organization — even if you just found out that organization exists in the first place.
- Constantly Training New Employees Is a Waste of Resources
As the Wall Street Journal notes, a high employee turnover rate can cost “twice an employee’s salary to find and train a replacement.” Not only are there financial repercussions, a high turnover rate can also lower the knowledge base in your company and decrease performance and morale. In any case, when you lose staff members, you run the very real risk of those folks ending up working for your competition.
If you want to avoid low employee retention rates, you can do that by following these seven tip:
1. Hiring Process that works
Before you can begin to retain employees, you have to make sure that you have the right employees to begin with. Implementing a strong hiring process ensures that the employees will remain long term.
2. Competitive Benefits Package and Salary
Not only is it important to offer competitive benefits and salary, but employees need to be told and educated as to what they are. For example, if there is a 401k plan, most times employees do not take advantage of the plan, quite frequently not even knowing it exists.
3. Comfortable Work Environment and Culture
Employees want to feel safe and comfortable at work. If they are coming into an unsafe environment or culture, they eventually will not return.
4. Training
Entrepreneur recommends that “you should offer skills enhancement to all your workers.” When employees learn new skills, they are able to advance within the company. Knowing they can advance in the company transforms the job from a paycheck to career.
5. Listen to Employees
Most employees just want to be heard. One on one “stay” interviews or engagement surveys should be performed by an outside vendor so you can find out exactly why employees have remained with the company and what it would take for them to leave.
6. Annual Reviews
These one-on-one meetings allow you to set goals and define how you want these goals to be achieved. However, this discussion should also include asking them what they need to accomplish these goals. This conversation has to include what the employees are looking to get aspire to in their position and in the company.
7. Recognize Their Accomplishments
Finally, and perhaps most important, you have to recognize the accomplishments of employees. This could be a simple thank you or handwritten well-done note. Praising your employees and sometimes just saying “thank you” is all that your employees want.
For more information please email keith@csav360.com.
