One of the most difficult challenges facing businesses today is employee retention. Employees are leaving their current companies for better opportunities in record numbers. This turnover can cause headaches in the day-to-day operations of any business. Other employees need to pick up the extra workload while new hires are interviewed, onboarded, and trained. Turnover is also a huge cost to businesses, as each new employee can cost more than $4,000! Retaining your best employees is essential to running a smooth and successful operation. Adhering to some of the following best practices can help your business retain its’ employees.
Employee Retention Practices
Investing the time to create an employee retainment program for your business can improve your retainment metrics considerably. Retaining your best employees for a long period of time will directly correlate with your success. Some areas to consider surrounding employee retainment include:
- Creating a strong onboarding process
- Offering competitive wages and benefits
- Building strong company communication
- Providing internal growth opportunities
- Establishing a great work life balance
- Maintaining supportive management
- Engaging, recognizing, and providing feedback to your employees
- Creating an inclusive culture
Creating a strong onboarding process
They say first impressions are everything. The first impression a new hire receives from your company comes in the form of your onboarding process. An organized and efficient onboarding process sets a strong tone for your new employees from the start. Furthermore, using an electronic and integrated onboarding software that gives employees mobile access to new hire paperwork, benefits enrollment, and more can help streamline this process. Even training new employees on the company history, culture, and how they can contribute and thrive in the company is a great way to empower and engage them. Do not skip this critical first step as it will help set up your new hires for success from day one. All of this can lead to a happy employee that is more likely to stay with your company.
Offering competitive wages and benefits
Who doesn’t want to be paid a high wage and receive great benefits? Considered one of the most important steps in not only attracting new hires, but retaining long tenured employees is offering a competitive wage and strong benefits package. Your company must position itself in a way that not only competes with its’ competitors, but can stand out above the rest. You may not be able to pay a higher wage than every other company in your market, but a fair wage balanced with strong benefits and unique perks can potentially make your company more attractive than others. Benefits to consider offering your employees can be a strong PTO package, heath and dental insurance options, retirement benefits, and other items such as gym memberships, wellness offerings, or hobby stipends. Similarly, yearly wage increases and bonuses can be a great way to boost employee morale and retainment.
Building strong company communication
Communication is key. Employees need to know when things like when company polices are changing or if a new benefit is being offered. The lack of communication within an organization will lead to frustrated employees and low engagement. People appreciate honesty and transparency. Promoting timely and positive communication among the workplace will give your employees a boost of engagement. In addition, regular dialogue between employees and their direct managers results in correctly gauging employee satisfaction leading to higher retainment.
Providing internal growth opportunities
Allowing your employees the opportunity to grow within your organization can provide your company with an important tool needed to retain your best employees. Generally, motivated employees look for advancement and promotions. Providing clear paths to advancement within your company can generate a stronger work ethic from those employees that are looking for growth. Promoting from within is beneficial for your business as you have a better understanding of the skills that your employee will bring to their new role. Your most career driven employees are more likely to leave your company for a promotion with another company if there is not an opportunity for advancement.
Establishing a great work life balance
In today’s society, providing a great work life balance to your employees is as important as ever. As a result, employees generally seek organizations that provide them a balance between their work and their time at home. Possible ways to improve the work life balance of your employees can include:
- The ability to work remotely
- Offering a flexible schedule
- Increasing the number of personal days
- Reducing the amount of scheduled hours
- Offering additional days off when extra hours have been worked
- Not contacting employees after work hours
These are just some examples to consider. Your employees will recognize and appreciate your willingness to accommodate their work life balance leading to keeping your employees long term.
Maintaining supportive management
Strong and supportive management directly correlates with the long term success of your employees. Your managers ability to communicate, train, and lead their employees provides them with the foundation needed to thrive within your company. For example, an employee may look for a new position outside of your company if their manager does not care about their thoughts, feelings, or success. Furthermore, having mangers that are unfit or uninterested in their role results in a trickling down effect that impacts employee engagement and morale. Make your managers aware of the influence they have on their employees and utilize this influence to improve the satisfaction of your employees.
Engaging, recognizing, and providing feedback
An effective way to improve employee morale is by engaging in workplace activities that promote teamwork and inclusion. Games, competitions, and after work events are examples of workplace activities. Recognizing the hard work and achievements of your employees through positive reinforcement and performance awards is another way to boost employee retainment. Frequent small moments of praise can go a long way for an employee. Additionally, listening to feedback about the company and workplace from an employee can empower them. Providing them feedback of your own on their performance is a powerful tool to increase employee retention.
Creating an inclusive culture
Finally, having a diverse workplace can lead to a higher retention rate, especially among women and minorities. According to a study done by Arizona State University, women and minorities are more likely to leave their corporate positions than white males. Creating a workplace that promotes inclusiveness can give you an edge over companies that do not. Generating a work culture in which people want to work, will make them stay. Women or minorities in upper level position can be attractive to potential applicants.