Many business owners think that retention is based on compensation issues, including salary levels and other financial incentives. In reality this is only one of the factors why people leave. Often they are far more driven to leave by a lack of career opportunities and advancement; the need for more challenging work; issues with management; unclear expectations and no work life balance.
If you understand and address these issues you can more successfully retain your staff. People have a desire to feel that they are succeeding and that what they do makes a difference to the business. If they feel this, then it creates a sense of belonging to a company and being a part of the business. Here are some ways to help retain your people.
Sense of purpose
You need to make sure that your employees are connected with you, their managers and the company’s goals. It is too easy for people to become disconnected and not really understand what the over arching goals are of the company, and even their own individual role. By staying connected with your people, you will empower them to truly own their job and give them a sense of purpose within the business.
Set your staff clear, achievable goals and objectives. People are often happiest when they are in the process of achieving a goal.
Development opportunities
Employees can feel stagnant if they don’t have an opportunity to advance their knowledge and skills at work. To keep staff engaged it is vital that you provide consistent training opportunities.
People want to learn new things and advance with their careers, if they aren’t given the opportunity to do this or take on more responsibility, then they will start to look for other opportunities and may well resign.
It can be difficult to always offer someone a promotion, no matter how much they deserve it, especially in smaller businesses. Remember that development opportunities do not necessarily have to mean a vertical move, they can also be a horizontal move. So perhaps you can give someone an insight in to a different role or area of the company, which benefits both the individual and the business.
Employees may also want to share their own knowledge and impart this with other people in the company. This can provide a good opportunity for cross training and building relationships between departments.
Communication and continuous feedback
A well implemented and effective communications plan will provide you with an invaluable insight in to the morale of your staff and how they feel about the company. Communication with your people should be frequent and conducted in a number of different ways. One-to-one meetings are essential, as is frequent communication, and offering two-way communication, using nonthreatening channels so that people feel able to give feedback and suggestions. You and your managers need to be good listeners and able to take on board what your employees are telling you. You need to be giving continuous feedback to all of your employees.
If you conduct an employee engagement survey to gather information on the company and its activities, make sure that you feedback the survey findings and what actions have been taken as a result.
Recognition and reward
Years of research has overwhelmingly shown the positive effect of employee recognition and rewards at work. Some of the most effective forms of employee recognition and awards cost little or no money, for example verbal and written thank you’s for those who are doing a good job, and publically celebrating an individual's or team’s successes.
You need to recognise that people are driven by different motivators and what these motivators are. If you can demonstrate your commitment to your employees, they are much more likely to reciprocate with commitment and loyalty to your business.
Offering a competitive salary and benefits will help you to retain staff but it goes much deeper than this. Consider what sets your company apart from your competition? Perhaps you offer a better work life balance or continued professional development. Make sure you highlight this in the recruitment process and then continue to do so once people are in your employment.
We have highlighted some of the ways you can retain your people. We’d love to hear some of the techniques you have used to create a great working environment for your staff that have helped to improve retention.