Employee retention should be a priority for every business owner.
Honestly, keeping your employees saves you money, time, productivity, and frustration. Replacing an employee can cost anywhere between 6-9 months’ of an average salary. There’s lots of work involved in screening, interviews, hiring, and training someone new. Leaving many employers wishing that the employee who quit would have stayed.
That is one of the many reasons why employee retention is becoming a hot topic in today’s workplace. See our list of 5 tips that can assist in keeping employees.
1) Employee Onboarding and Orientation
Sometimes first impressions can put us off to a bad start, so start your employees’ new career with a solid onboarding and orientation plan. According to Ultimate Software, “33% of employees knew if they would stay at their job long term after one week or less; 63% knew within the first month.” Proper training will help your new workers understand their role and what’s expected, making them more likely to stay.
2) Work-Life Balance Flexibility
The truth is, with technology these days it’s hard to get away from the office. Help your employees balance their busy life schedule by having flexible work hours, work from home capabilities, time-off opportunities (paid and unpaid), encourage 15-minute breaks, offer reimbursement for a gym membership. The list of possibilities to increase work-life balance is endless. Your employees are more likely to stay with the company if you support work-life balance.
3) Career Development & Learning Opportunities
“Employees who get the opportunity to continually develop are twice as likely to say they will spend their career with their company” a Gallup study reports. Employees want a career path. The more opportunity you can give your employees to learn and move up in the company the better. Most don’t want to feel like their job isn’t challenging them anymore. Plus, the more your employees learn, the more they will benefit your company.
4) Employee Recognition
There isn’t a better feeling than being acknowledged for a job well done, right? Whether it’s praise from your boss, a gift card, or company swag it just feels good to be appreciated. We all know that it feels good to be recognized, but why do employees really care? If a company knows their employees, it shows that the organization cares about them. It’s that simple. We all want to work somewhere that we feel valued, part of the team, and can see we are helping to make a difference. If you don’t have an employee rewards and recognition plan in place, make one now. You will see a dramatic change in productivity and retention.
5) Communication
Last, but not least, is company communication. How does this help retain employees? If employees understand what the company is trying to do, they know how they align with the company vision. If there is a problem in the enterprise, share it. You will be amazed how many ideas are out there to help solve problems. Two minds are better than one. What if you had a whole company collaborating to address a problem? And when the company succeeds, share that too. It will make your employees feel excited about the role they played in the overall solution and like they are part of a team environment. Who would want to leave a job like that? Remember everyone wants to be a part of something, so why not make your employees feel that they are a valuable part of your company.
Above are just a few ways to help increase employee retention. Pick one, two, or all of them to implement in your business to help retain your employees.
Updated November 16, 2022. Originally published March 9, 2016.
