It's no secret that employee retention is a huge challenge for businesses today. The cost of replacing an employee can be astronomical, and it's often difficult to find someone who is a good fit for your company's culture and values. Today, we share our best 10 tips for retaining your employees and keeping them happy and productive!
Why keeping good employees around is good for your business.
If you want to give your business a competitive advantage, you need to have the right people in place to help achieve your company’s goals and keep your overheads to a minimum.
The cost of losing an employee is high. When someone leaves, they take all the knowledge and expertise they've gained with them. This includes institutional knowledge, which can be difficult and costly to replace.
A high turnover rate can also negatively impact morale among the remaining employees. It disrupts the team dynamic and productivity levels when someone leaves. New hires often require more training and supervision, which takes time away from other employees' productivity.
It's much easier (and cheaper) to keep your good employees than it is to find and train new ones.
Happy employees are more productive and more likely to stay with you
It's no secret that happy employees are more productive employees. If your employees are unhappy, it will show in their work. They'll be less engaged and motivated, and their performance will suffer.
Unhappy employees are more likely to leave your company in search of greener pastures. Turnover can be extremely costly for businesses, so it's important to do what you can to keep your employees happy.
There are several things you can do to keep your employees happy and engaged with their work.
10 Tips for employee retention
1. Create a positive work environment
Your employees shouldn’t dread coming to work every day. If you create and maintain a supportive and friendly atmosphere at work, your employees will feel valued, and appreciated and will be more likely to stick around.
2. Encourage open communication
Encourage your staff to share their ideas, concerns, and feedback freely. As well as making them feel valued, understanding their point of view will help you identify potential problems early on and prevent them from becoming bigger issues down the track.
3. Offer competitive compensation and benefits
As well as offering a salary that’s relevant to your industry, offering benefits are a way of showing your employees that you value their time and expertise, which can help you keep your top talent. This could be as simple as providing snacks in the office, treating your staff to the occasional lunch, or formalising time off work with official birthday leave or RDOs.
4. Show appreciation
When employees know that their hard work is appreciated, they are more likely to show you loyalty and stick around. You can show your appreciation by giving thanks – either in person or through a formal recognition. You can also give rewards to your top achievers, such as bonuses, gifts, or extra time off.
5. Encourage teamwork
Collaborative cultures are proven to be more successful than those that encourage competition. Get your staff working together to achieve common goals – not just so they can share ideas but share the burden of taking on challenging projects.
6. Encourage work/life balance
Most businesses say they offer work/life balance but how many actually follow through with this? Where possible, give your employees the opportunity to work flexible work hours, work from home, take time during the day for personal matters, and take time off throughout the year for annual leave. Not only will this make your employees feel appreciated, but you’re likely to have a reduction in sick leave when you let staff take time out to manage their personal lives.
7. Promote from within whenever possible
When you promote an employee, you’re showing your team that there are opportunities for advancement within your company. This can be a great motivator for them to stay with your company long-term.
8. Be transparent about company decisions
Honesty is key to maintaining trust between you and your employees. Share information about company decisions with your employees so they feel like they're in the loop.
9. Lead by example
As the leader of your company, you set the tone for the culture and values. It's important to lead by example and show your employees that you're committed to the success of the company.
10. Invest in employee development
Employees who feel like they're growing in their careers are more likely to stick around. Offer opportunities for employees to receive training and development opportunities to invest in their professional growth. Save time and money by helping your employees formalise their qualifications through RPL rather than starting a new qualification from scratch.
