Your employees are the building blocks of your business. No matter how big or small, your company needs the best possible people to support your idea, share your vision and work by your side to achieve greatness.
Without a quality team of people, you won’t be able to reach far from the starting point and there will be no chance of development. This is why you need to go to great lengths to recruit and hire enthusiastic, knowledgeable and dedicated people and make them a part of your team.
Still, finding talented young rising stars isn’t often the trickiest part. It seems that the hardest task is to keep them. In other words, if they’re not satisfied with what you put on the table, they might walk away and leave. You need to prevent this, and we’re here to help you out.
Here are seven useful employee retention tips.
1. Your strategy
Employee retention is a strategy for keeping your employees happy and productive. It requires adopting an ideology you’ve shaped yourself based on your experience and data you’ve collected. It’s about building your own principles and sticking to them.
It goes without saying that employees need to be nurtured if you want them to flourish. Making sure they are content benefits both sides.
Consider all areas of their employment and think about the issues they may be facing. Better yet, talk to them and see what they have to say. Analyze all the problems, and plan how to remove them permanently.
Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take in order to increase employee retention.
2. Guidance
The place to start is in your own shoes. We need to analyze your role in your employee retention strategy and go from there.
You are the person in charge. That means you get to have the final say in all the big decisions, assign tasks, put together teams and coordinate the entire machinery.
However, it doesn’t mean you are in charge of your employees’ lives.
Just because you’re somebody’s superior, doesn’t mean you get to cross certain boundaries. Take a look at the qualities of a good team leader:
- respectful towards the employees
- gives guidance and advice
- supervises employees to prevent their mistakes
- open for suggestions and objections
- professional but approachable
The worst thing you can do is build an image of the cold-hearted, scary big boss. Avoid building a wall between you and your employees. Have them respect you, but feel like they can talk to you.
This is the first step towards building a healthy work atmosphere and reasonable relationships.
3. Strong team
We’ve got your backyard covered, now we move to your neighbors’.
Your employees need support and collaboration from one another which is why there has to be a strong sense of team effort and mutual goals.
You need to create a strong team of people who enjoy working together.
That means you have to up your team building game and work continuously on strengthening the bonds between team members.
Regular team-building activities could include:
- company holidays
- company parties
- workshops
- skiing, hiking, rafting…
Apart from that, you can employ team building at the workplace by:
- encouraging cross-department collaboration
- mixing up the teams
- setting up shared areas
- organizing monthly meetings
If your employees feel happy working with their colleagues and establishing firm relationships among themselves, they are more likely to stay in your company. Nothing beats looking forward to another work day.
4. Talent development
You’re a part of the war for talent. We’ve already made it clear that even though it’s hard to find a good employee, it’s even harder to make them stay.
Every talented person wants an opportunity to grow. The question is, can you give him one?
If you want to keep your talented employees, you need to give them space and the opportunities to:
- improve their skills
- learn
- develop their talents
- become the best
What can you do in order to make this happen?
For starters, you need to provide everything they need in order to properly do their job. More importantly, you need to:
- organize training programs
- provide quality mentoring
- send them to seminars
- encourage innovation
- give them guidance for their individual projects
If your employee feels that he or she is gaining more knowledge and becoming better at his job as each day goes by, they’re going to be thankful and stay faithful to your company.
5. Demanding tasks
Young, talented people who are eager to work hard, show off their best qualities and conquer the world need an opportunity to shine!
You have to challenge them every single day in order to make them fulfilled and accomplished.
The CEO of Pick Writers says “Give your employees demanding tasks which require hours of strategic-thinking, planning, and hard work. This way you’ll nurture their talents and help them grow.”
The tasks you assign need to be:
- hard to complete but not impossible
- demanding
- complex
- worth the effort
- awarding
Keep your employees on top of their game, and you’ll secure a fantastic winning team which isn’t going anywhere.
6. Belonging
Another important task ahead of you is to make your employees feel like their workplace is their second house.
We don’t mean making them spend the entire day at the office! What we have in mind is creating an atmosphere which is:
- balanced
- comfortable
- mentally relaxing
The pressure and the tension need to go away. Exchange them for work enthusiasm and eagerness.
In addition, your employees need to feel like an important link in the company’s chain. That includes:
- letting them suggest ways of improvement
- hearing their ideas and possibly applying them
- encouraging freedom of speech
Let them know their opinions matter and that you need them as a part of the team. Make them feel valued and appreciated.
7. Award system
The final aspect of your employee retention strategy is the award system you set up for all the employees.
Throwing in praise every now and then isn’t going to do the trick.
Yes, we are talking about the money. At the end of the day, money is what they’re working for. If you want to show true recognition of their hard work and efforts, make it visible in their paycheck.
You need to establish:
- a satisfying salary
- raises
- bonuses
Make sure you’ve got this covered. It’s essential you pay your employees according to their performance and award them whenever they deserve it.
Your employee retention strategy is a complex combination of various elements which lead to employee satisfaction. It isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but it’s absolutely manageable. You don’t need to be an HR specialist in order to master the skills and employ the strategies we’ve suggested. You just need to have an open mind and think of your employees as crucial elements for the success of your business.
We’ve provided the strategies and now it’s your turn to use them. Adopt these techniques and stay consistent in your mission to win the war for talent. Once you master the art of employee retention, your business can only grow along with your talented employees.
Author
Lilly Chesser
