Jul 2020 10 Effective Employee Retention Strategies
As business owners, we all want our valued employees to stay long-term. The benefits of retaining employees are numerous, so it is worth spending some time to use the strategies below as a check list to ensure you are doing all you can to retain employees.
Here are 10 ways we can retain employees long term.
- Retention starts with recruiting properly
Retention starts with recruiting properly. Writing a compelling advertisement, screening applicants and choosing who to interview, asking them the right questions and planning a trial period are all essential to choosing the employees who fit your business and culture and have a propensity to stay and a passion for their trade. Their resume should show a history of working at a business for long periods, also look for other areas of commitment like someone that has played or plays team sport for a number of years or belongs to a community group or cause indicates they are invested in something they care about. - Salary and Benefits Must Be Competitive
Money does matter to your employees, it matters to all of us, so a decent wage and benefits (vehicle, phone, educational courses) should be paid to your employees based on their role, responsibilities, performance and longevity at your business. Profit Share or an incentive scheme is also worth offering to key employees. - Look for and alleviate pain points
A pain point is an area of frustration and can be tolerated by employees for some time, but eventually if the pain point is annoying enough, it may be the catalyst that forces him to give notice. An example is an owner repeatedly coming to site and undermining the Site Supervisor’s authority by running the job. This repeated action would probably frustrate the Site Supervisor enough to look for another place of employment where they trust him to do his job.
Be aware of employees’ pain points and how to remove them. - Develop Business Culture
Culture refers to the values, attitude and behaviours that determine how a company’s employees and management interact with each other and with the company’s clients.
Developing culture where all employees feel like part of your business family is critical. Develop a plan that builds business culture and has the entire team all working together toward a company vision that serves everyone. - Invest time in improving systems
At the core of any business should be a strong framework of systems and processes that are replicated. The systems and processes serve the business and employees by setting a standard that is consistently executed and produces an expected consistent result. Look objectively at your systems and processes and invite employees to contribute to improving the way things work. - Make Expectations clear
Make sure your employees know what is expected of them. Write a detailed job description for each employee so no area is vague and then communicate the details and give them a copy and make them accountable. If responsibilities change over time, communicate this clearly and amend their job description. - Keep an Eye on your Managers
Studies show that people leave managers, not companies. A poor manager will never gain the respect of his crew and causes instability, poor morale and unproductiveness.
So, while you’re taking the time to train your manager to deal with the technical aspects of their position, it’s in your best interest to include some “soft skills” as well. This means teaching your manager how to encourage, train and motivate different types of people, personality traits, slow learners and build cohesiveness within the crew or team. - Get to Know each Employee
Get to know each employee. Spend time understanding who they are and how they learn. Encourage your Managers to be patient teaching their crew skills that some will learn quickly and others take longer. Have a beer or lunch with each crew member every month or two and discuss some of their outside passions. - Regular Meetings
Conduct meetings with your key employees regularly and ensure your managers are having structured monthly meetings with their team. You are probably very busy, but effective purposeful meetings that have an agenda and don’t get drawn out are a smart investment of your time and help keep each manager to stay focused, remain accountable and receive support from you. - Give Praise
Appreciate employees. Frequently saying thank you for a job well done goes a long way. According to thousands of workers surveyed, 75% agreed that motivation and company morale would improve if managers simply thanked workers in real-time for a job well done.I know we are all very busy operating a business, but your employees are your greatest business asset, so taking some time to devise a plan to ensure you are making your business a great place to work for all employees is time well invested.