Employee Retention Tips: How to Keep Your Workers from Quitting

By Ashley Paskill on March 26, 2019

It is no secret that employees, especially young people, are constantly looking for their next position, even after starting a new job. This can be challenging for an employer who has to train every new employee just to have them leave. The hiring process alone is daunting, time-consuming, and expensive. Hiring and onboarding new employees take valuable resources from your company, and having to do it often is overwhelming. One way to cut this down is to try to retain employees for as long as possible by eliminating toxicity in the office. While some life situations that arise in your employees’ lives may be out of your control, being proactive to control the things within your grasp can help retain employees for the long term.

employee retention

Image: Thought Catalog via https://unsplash.com/photos/PeRNNIGmoNU

Show appreciation for your employees’ accomplishments, both big and small

While employees should not be praised for simply doing their job at the expected level, if they go above and beyond or achieve something amazing with the company, they should be acknowledged. If they made a huge sale, covered a huge story that got picked up by a larger media company or helped a certain number of clients, reward them for their hard work.

Have an office-wide meeting each month where you acknowledge an employee of the month. Treat your whole team to a pizza lunch for an office-wide accomplishment. Make certificates or awards for certain achievements within the company. Tangibly acknowledging the successes of employees gives them something to work for and will make them feel appreciated for all of their hard work.

Allow your employees to have a chance to learn and grow within your company

Give your employees access to online learning resources to help them move up within the companies. Many times, employees take on new jobs because they want to grow professionally and learn new things. If your company can provide that, employees will not need to look elsewhere for their learning desires to be fulfilled.

Start a mentoring program. This will allow younger employees to connect with older employees who may have had the same position when they started out. A mentoring program can allow employees to see how to get from their current position into the position they want, especially if someone already achieved this. Having this kind of program will also allow employees to feel more connected to others in the company, which will, in turn, have them stay longer.

Infographic by Ashley Paskill

Allow your employees to have a flexible schedule to help create a work-life balance

While work is important and younger employees are known for being workaholics, it is still important for employees to be able to have a work-life balance. Allowing your employees to have an unconventional work schedule outside of the typical office hours can help them navigate their lives and be able to make plans with friends and family.

Also, give your employees paid time off so they can relax and come back to work rejuvenated. This way, employees can get paid and still take vacations or use their time to take care of themselves and their families. Having schedule flexibility is a sure way to keep employees who want structure and the same schedule week to week.

Give your employees a chance to give back to the community

For many, work is meaningful when they have a chance to make an impact on the world and help out their community. As a company, you can help facilitate this. If you work Monday through Friday, arrange for employees to serve in a soup kitchen over the weekend. Set up a company team to do a charity walk or run. Not only will these activities help the community, but they are also great team building activities.

Also, you can have employees combine their work with helping the community. For example, if you develop websites, help charitable organizations get their website up and running. Give employees work with causes they are passionate about. Being able to work directly with a cause or charity they are passionate about will allow them to find meaning and passion in their work, making them want to stay longer.

 

Develop a supportive company culture

It is important for employees to feel like they are in a supportive workplace so that they can resolve issues without feeling like a burden and succeed without feeling like others are jealous. Employees spend a significant amount of time at work, so it is important to feel like they are at home in the office.

Have a break room that is stocked with snacks and a fridge where employees can store their lunches. The break room should be separate from the rest of the office to allow employees to get away from their desks for a while. Provide coffee and donuts a couple of times a week. Make the break room cozy and decorative, like a mini getaway, even though it is still in the same building.

Participate in team-building activities. It is important for employees to be able to get along to achieve the company’s goals. If each individual is working on their own goals without regards to the company’s objectives, the business will not be successful. Once a month, plan something fun for employees to participate in, whether it is an escape room, mini golf, or bowling. Getting employees outside of the office is a great way for them to bond without the pressures of an office setting.

Have a variety of benefits and perks for your employees to take advantage of

A salary can make or break whether an employee takes a job or not, but the benefits and perks can be just as important. Many employees, especially if they want to be full-time, want health insurance. Many companies often team up with other companies and offer discounts on services or products. If you are a store, offer your employees some kind of employee discount on merchandise. Offer employees tickets to various activities and events near where the office is located.

Provide your employees with a total compensation statement to show their salary as well as the total value of the benefits they receive. This will help them see all they are receiving in terms of benefits, perks, and salary. If their salary is not as high as they might like it to be but you provide lunches and dinners regularly, this cuts down on employees’ food expenses. Seeing this information can allow an employee a detailed look at what they receive.

If you realize employees are leaving at a high rate, find out why it is happening

If you notice a pattern of a lot of employees leaving all at once out of nowhere, find out why. Talk to employees who were close to those leaving and see if they know anything. Finding out this information will allow you to see what kinds of things employees are interested in and why they are so eager to even begin searching for another job. Being proactive will allow you to make the changes necessary to ensure that you are not losing employees over things that you can control. Sometimes, things happen in people’s lives that make them need to change their careers, which is out of your hands as a manager. However, if you can change something, do so, as long as it fits in with the values of your company.

Keep your equipment up to date

Whether you run a store or an office, keeping your equipment and technology updated is crucial for allowing your employees to get their jobs done. If employees cannot do their tasks because of technical issues or if outdated technology keeps crashing, they will think that you and the other managers do not care. This is especially true in an office where technology is crucial and one error can be catastrophic.

Also, if your office uses computers that are not up to date on their security software, there are huge risks for security breaches and potential viruses. If your company is part of a national company, this can be fatal, especially if you communicate nationally. Employees will be embarrassed by this and may choose to leave.

If employees are constantly complaining about the old technology because it is causing them to make mistakes, update the equipment. Mistakes can be fatal for a company, so if your employees are constantly bringing issues to your attention listen to them and take the time to update your equipment and technology.

employee retention

Image: Sergey Zolkin via https://unsplash.com/photos/_UeY8aTI6d0

Allow for open communication between managers, employees, and peers

If an employee is having an issue with another employee but they do not feel comfortable discussing it with others, they may feel powerless and decide to leave the company. However, having an open-door policy can make an employee feel comfortable sharing their feelings or reporting an incident that may have occurred with a fellow employee or another manager. These policies outline the chain of command for who an employee should reach out to and who will resolve the issue.

Communicate through a company communication platform such as Slack or Basecamp. This will allow employees to contact each other as well as everyone to be on the same page as the managers. Having communication platforms included in the perks is a great way to allow open communication in case an issue arises. It allows employees to contact each other, even if they do not have each other’s phone numbers or email addresses.

Promote from within

Promote from within. Too many times, companies have employees that have experience with something and are capable of being promoted to the next level, but the company hires someone who is not familiar with the various workings of the company. Hiring from within allows you to minimize the time needed to train someone on company programs and technology. If an employee who would have been perfect for the promotion sees what happened, they may be likely to leave. It has happened at companies before. Allow employees to have first dibs at vacant jobs

Make sure managers and supervisors are high-quality

More often than not, one of the first things that makes an employee want to leave is a falling out with a bad supervisor or manager. Of course, nobody is able to get along with everyone all the time, but if a manager is abusing their power or is unable to put their opinions aside to work with the employee, the employee will want to quit. Also, an employee is more likely to quit if they feel intimidated by their boss for some reason.

Again, keep the lines of communication open with your employees and help them feel comfortable enough to come to you if they experience an issue with their direct manager or supervisor. This way, you can address the problem head-on and reduce the chance that the employee will leave, especially if the issue can be resolved. Knowing that they have a manager to turn to also gives them comfort that they will be supported when issues come up in the future.

Allow your employees to perform skills and tasks they are passionate about

While employees may have a specific set of tasks that go with their position, let them do some tasks outside of their position that they love doing. This will give them a chance to show off all they can do and will give them a break from the tasks their job requires. This is especially helpful if you notice that they are losing their passion or are not performing as well as they used to.

This will also allow you to see what else they are good at. If they are good at what they love doing, it could be a potential job for them if something in that position opens up. Take notes and allow them to collaborate with others who do what they love. This will give them an incentive to stay with the company, especially if you can promise them growth into a different position.

Hiring employees again and again can be costly to a company so it is absolutely crucial that companies implement employee retention strategies. While not every circumstance is avoidable, being proactive and taking charge of things that are within a company’s control is crucial.

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