5 Keys to Employee Retention
It is a competitive recruitment market and projected to get even
tougher. Therefore, not only do businesses have to attract the right
employees, they also have to concentrate on keeping the ones they have.
This article will present you with 5 keys to employee retention that go
beyond your pay package.
Key #1: Know Your Employees
Your starting point is to know what your people are looking for — don’t blindly follow other companies’ best practices. Gather feedback by enhancing your employee feedback processes. The information you gather will assist in understanding what your people want and need. Then you can concentrate on maintaining what you do well and improving what you don’t do so well. This targets your efforts to areas with the highest potential return on retention.
There are a number of ways to gather upward feedback. One is to hold small, open forums, conducted by the owner or senior manager, where you ask for employee input on being an effective employer. Ask, What motivates you to stay with our company? What would lure you away? Which of our benefits are most meaningful to you? What could we do differently?
Another method is to conduct exit interviews to find out why people are leaving. Quite often, an exiting employee is more willing to provide open and truthful input than current employees. Ask, What could we have done to keep you with our company? What suggestions do you have to improve how we deal with our people? Look for trends and suggestions that you could implement and match it to what you have heard from other employees.
A third method is to conduct employee surveys, then DO SOMETHING about the results. Don’t try to ask too many questions. If your survey is too long and provides you with too much feedback, you’ll have a hard time fulfilling all the needs identified. This will disillusion employees and make them feel like you weren’t serious.
Get to know your individual employees by walking around, asking questions, and going for lunch or coffee. Don’t have time you say? What does this say to your employees? My manager doesn’t care about me as a person – I’m just a worker. Take care you aren’t sending the wrong message – be available and personable.
Examine your employee demographics. Do single mothers work for you? Offer flex–time, job shares, or subsidized day care. What about working around school schedules? Younger employees may prefer technical freebies like iPods. If you have family oriented staff don’t forget the employees’ families when planning events, celebrate their children’s accomplishments, and consider contributing to their children’s education.
When you find something that isn’t important to your employees STOP spending money on it. Instead spend these dollars on something that is important.
Key #2: Create an Employee Centered Environment
Send a clear message that your employees are important. Do this by creating an open and flexible workplace that contributes to work-life balance. Today’s employees want time to enjoy life beyond work so employers who can offer flexible work arrangements will be positively viewed. Innovative benefits that support employee health and wellness will also be welcomed. But again, don’t just blindly apply these practices – find out which are more important to your employees. Whatever you choose to offer must fit within your operational needs but don’t be too rigid – it could cost you the loss of good employees.
Consider a flexible hour policy that establishes core hours but otherwise the employee’s hours are flexible within an eight hour day. For example, each employee must work from 10 am to 3 pm, but can choose to start anytime between 7 am and 10 am. They can also choose to end earlier or later dependent upon their personal situations.
Another option is to offer flexible work schedules that allow more time off. For example, the employee works four ten-hour days per week instead of 5 eight-hour days; the employee works longer days to get every second Friday off. A job share is where two employees share a job thus working a shorter work week on days of their choosing.
Benefits can be expensive for small employers. Therefore, consider letting the employee choose what they need from a variety of benefits. In addition to the standard health and pension benefits, a hygiene factor for all businesses, add childcare or eldercare support; allow employees to use their personal sick days for family care needs; allow employees to purchase additional vacation days; allow one “sanity day” per quarter; subsidize public transport or moving expenses; offer rent subsidies; subsidize or provide gym or fitness memberships.
Key #3: Reward & Recognize Top Performers
While each employee should receive a fair, competitive compensation and benefits package, you must find ways to recognize and reward your top performers. Fortunately, this recognition can be something other than pay.
As simple as it sounds, say “thank you”. Provide immediate, specific acknowledgement of work well done and make it personal. Let the employee know why it was of value to the team and the company. Also recognize the achievement at a staff meeting.
Show your top performers you value their opinions by asking for input on decisions, work processes, and business direction. Involve them in company projects. This makes employees feel respected and valued.
Read more | www.go2rh.ca
Key #1: Know Your Employees
Your starting point is to know what your people are looking for — don’t blindly follow other companies’ best practices. Gather feedback by enhancing your employee feedback processes. The information you gather will assist in understanding what your people want and need. Then you can concentrate on maintaining what you do well and improving what you don’t do so well. This targets your efforts to areas with the highest potential return on retention.
There are a number of ways to gather upward feedback. One is to hold small, open forums, conducted by the owner or senior manager, where you ask for employee input on being an effective employer. Ask, What motivates you to stay with our company? What would lure you away? Which of our benefits are most meaningful to you? What could we do differently?
Another method is to conduct exit interviews to find out why people are leaving. Quite often, an exiting employee is more willing to provide open and truthful input than current employees. Ask, What could we have done to keep you with our company? What suggestions do you have to improve how we deal with our people? Look for trends and suggestions that you could implement and match it to what you have heard from other employees.
A third method is to conduct employee surveys, then DO SOMETHING about the results. Don’t try to ask too many questions. If your survey is too long and provides you with too much feedback, you’ll have a hard time fulfilling all the needs identified. This will disillusion employees and make them feel like you weren’t serious.
Get to know your individual employees by walking around, asking questions, and going for lunch or coffee. Don’t have time you say? What does this say to your employees? My manager doesn’t care about me as a person – I’m just a worker. Take care you aren’t sending the wrong message – be available and personable.
Examine your employee demographics. Do single mothers work for you? Offer flex–time, job shares, or subsidized day care. What about working around school schedules? Younger employees may prefer technical freebies like iPods. If you have family oriented staff don’t forget the employees’ families when planning events, celebrate their children’s accomplishments, and consider contributing to their children’s education.
When you find something that isn’t important to your employees STOP spending money on it. Instead spend these dollars on something that is important.
Key #2: Create an Employee Centered Environment
Send a clear message that your employees are important. Do this by creating an open and flexible workplace that contributes to work-life balance. Today’s employees want time to enjoy life beyond work so employers who can offer flexible work arrangements will be positively viewed. Innovative benefits that support employee health and wellness will also be welcomed. But again, don’t just blindly apply these practices – find out which are more important to your employees. Whatever you choose to offer must fit within your operational needs but don’t be too rigid – it could cost you the loss of good employees.
Consider a flexible hour policy that establishes core hours but otherwise the employee’s hours are flexible within an eight hour day. For example, each employee must work from 10 am to 3 pm, but can choose to start anytime between 7 am and 10 am. They can also choose to end earlier or later dependent upon their personal situations.
Another option is to offer flexible work schedules that allow more time off. For example, the employee works four ten-hour days per week instead of 5 eight-hour days; the employee works longer days to get every second Friday off. A job share is where two employees share a job thus working a shorter work week on days of their choosing.
Benefits can be expensive for small employers. Therefore, consider letting the employee choose what they need from a variety of benefits. In addition to the standard health and pension benefits, a hygiene factor for all businesses, add childcare or eldercare support; allow employees to use their personal sick days for family care needs; allow employees to purchase additional vacation days; allow one “sanity day” per quarter; subsidize public transport or moving expenses; offer rent subsidies; subsidize or provide gym or fitness memberships.
Key #3: Reward & Recognize Top Performers
While each employee should receive a fair, competitive compensation and benefits package, you must find ways to recognize and reward your top performers. Fortunately, this recognition can be something other than pay.
As simple as it sounds, say “thank you”. Provide immediate, specific acknowledgement of work well done and make it personal. Let the employee know why it was of value to the team and the company. Also recognize the achievement at a staff meeting.
Show your top performers you value their opinions by asking for input on decisions, work processes, and business direction. Involve them in company projects. This makes employees feel respected and valued.
Read more | www.go2rh.ca