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Tips for Retaining Staff

Tips for Retaining Staff

Hiring the top candidates is great if you can keep them in your company. We know that these tips might not work for everyone, but we have put together some advice for the best and most simple ways to retain staff.

Ideas on how to retain employees:

• Listen to and act on your employees wants and needs.
• Create an affective and suitable onboarding plan for new recruits.
• Be flexible.
• Ensure you have a fun and happy company culture.
• Allow employees the opportunity to advance and encourage them to do so.
• Use rewards and incentives to keep staff morale high.
• Make sure your employees are engaged with the business and work they are undertaking.

Listen to your employees.

It’s vital that you listen and cater for the needs of your employees. Finding and fixing an issue will boost your employee’s confidence and respect for you as their employer.

You could try employee surveys and/or have frequent meetings with employees one on one, giving them an opportunity to express their feelings in a safe and confidential environment. Also, when an employee leaves the company it’s good to get them to do an exit survey, so you can see what is working well and what could be improved.

The Onboarding Process

We cannot stress the significance of the onboarding process for new employees, as it’s within the first months of a job that people will leave if they’re unhappy. Therefore, creating a fun but beneficial onboarding process is important.

Ideas for onboarding:

• Company overview
• Run through of company values and beliefs.
• Meet the Team (possibly a team lunch)
• Run through the office layout.
• One on one meeting to ensure they are settling in well.
• Set them up with a mentor.

The aim is to make your new candidate feel comfortable in their role, within the team and their new office as quickly as possible.

Mentoring Scheme

Setting new recruits up with a mentor is a great way of helping them settle into the office, while also ensuring they have a friend to help and guide them through their first weeks and months. Having a mentor scheme is a good idea because it means your new recruit doesn’t feel like they have to rely on the senior team, which will sometimes be intimidating.

Work Routine Flexibility

Especially nowadays with COVID, it’s vital people have the flexibility to work remotely as well as in an office. Therefore, flexibility is something employees will be looking for within their company. Additionally, you need to show your employees that you care about their work-life balance, ensuring you help cater for any personal needs.

You’ll also need to ensure all of your employees are set up with whatever technology is needed (Zoom, Google Meets, Skype etc) in order for them to do their work and communicate efficiently.

Communication

Employees will quickly get frustrated with infrequent or vague communication. The best way to overcome this is through direct one on one communications, which allows people to ask questions and get to the bottom of things more quickly and efficiently. It also allows your employees to feel more included.

Remember it’s crucial that even when working from home, people still have ‘face to face’ contact, via a phone or video call. This is important for the mental health of your staff to ensure they don’t feel isolated or alone while working from home.

Encourage your employees to work together to solve and overcome issues. This allows a solid, friendly and reliable team of people working together.

The Importance of Company Culture

Try to make sure your company has a collective goal and that all of your employees know what it is. This creates a sense of togetherness if everyone is working towards the same end goal. The companies who have the highest employee retention are those who ensure all of their employees are happy and have a fun and stimulating company culture.

Your company culture should promote a healthy work-life balance. Employees will not stay if you expect them around at all hours. It’s important that during the working day you provide positive encouragement to work hard, but then out of office hours, you promote employees to take holiday and have downtime away from work.

You can create a company culture by getting employees to talk and share experiences and beliefs. Allow people to learn and grow from one another.

Provide Opportunities for Advancement.

High achievers will only stay in roles which allow then to grow and advance, so it’s imperative that you aid this and help your employees with opportunities for advancement. Give your employees the opportunity to share their working goals with you and support them to achieve these throughout their time with you.

Allowing opportunity for advancement and professional development will keep employees motivated to work hard. Employees will look to you to show an interest in their future and if you don’t they’ll not hesitate to leave and find a company who does.

Invest time and money into your workers, giving your employees the opportunity to gain industry and job-specific training, to further their development within the company and the field.

Provide Good Equipment.

One thing many people complain about is outdated, and slow equipment which makes their job hard and frustrating. It gives the idea that your company doesn’t want to stay updated with the latest technology. It leaves a bad impression, as though you cannot be bothered or afford for your employees to work on more modern equipment.

Rewards and Incentives

Boost your employees morale by rewarding them for good work, finishing an important deadline or their commitment. This will show your employees that you appreciate their work and what they have done for the company.

Make sure you try to remember birthdays, personal achievements (eg. 1 year with the company), and company celebrations. These are all things that will change up the week slightly and boost employee morale.

Reward Ideas:

• Days out
• Bonus
• Extra days holiday
• Work celebration to commemorate an event.
• Personalized gifts (beers, wine, food etc)
• Team lunch or dinner

The best way to hold on to your employees is to show you care about them, their ability to advance and the work that they individually and collectively do for the company. Creating a positive and creative company culture will invite your employees to stay. Hopefully, work is something they enjoy and look forward to each day.

 

Stay Safe, 

Team Affecto.