How to Retain Your Workers:
Employee Retention Ideas That Will Keep Your Staff Happy
Losing employees is costly.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) studied costs. Hiring new employees can cost from 90-200% of their annual salary.
Improving your employee retention rate should be a goal.
Implementing methods to retain employees is good practice. How do you start? The following provides employee retention ideas you can customize for your business.
Impact of Losing Employees
Beyond actual dollars, there are other factors that increase losses.
Once you’ve hired a new employee, there is onboarding and training time. Your costs include the person training and the trainers.
If the job is complex, it can take new employees months or years to be productive.
High turnover tends to lower morale. Current employees become less productive. When someone leaves, remaining employees wonder why.
Highly-skilled workers are in demand. You may have provided their training only to lose them to a competitor.
Employee Retention Ideas
There are many ways to retain employees. Employees want fair pay and good benefits. If that is all you offer, employees can be lured away.
You need methods that set you apart from other employers. The methods you use depend on your industry and types of employees.
Development
Research on employment retention rates report a third of employees leave due to a lack of development opportunities. Workers want to improve skill sets and chances for growth.
Training programs need to be designed with the employee in mind. Focus on employee needs.
On-the-job learning can be as successful as training programs. You can do this using the following steps:
- Meet on a regular basis with each individual. Find out what employees need to improve performance.
- Create on-the-job learning opportunities. Have the individual work on projects with someone with the desired skills.
- Help employees set goals. Give feedback on their progress.
Employee Recognition
Acknowledge employees’ contributions. To ensure everyone receives acknowledgment you can set up a system of peer recognition.
Companies known for promoting recognition have a 31% lower turnover rate.
Types of recognition can include:
- Bonuses
- Written praise
- Verbal praise
Encourage Feedback
- Create a culture that encourages feedback.
- Elicit information during your one-on-one sessions with employees.
- Use anonymous surveys and suggestion boxes.
- Conduct exit interviews to identify situations leading to resignations.
Values
- Your company needs to identify what it values.
- Values include being customer-centric, quality oriented, or technically advanced.
- This can guide you in recruiting employees who align with your company’s values.
- Employees will feel their work is impactful if they understand the values.
- Values can reveal your employer brand.
Preparing Your Workplace
- More than half of workers would rather be happy at work then have a larger salary.
- Skilled workers are in high demand in many different industries.
- Taking time to prepare a retention strategy can save costs and good employees.
- Your employees are also your customers. You need to provide good communication. Ensure they are aligned with your company’s values.
Retaining employees can ultimately save costs and increase productivity. Use the employee retention ideas here as a place to start your plan.
