Hiring the perfect employees for your organisation is great, but the job’s not over yet. Ensuring that you keep these employees on-board is a whole other challenge. So what can you do to create a happy, compelling environment, where your people thrive and your most valuable resources want to stick around?
We’ve got 8 tips for building a solid staff retention strategy that will save your organisation time, effort, and of course money in the long run.
Consider the cost of replacing a team member, including:
- Recruitment costs
- Relocation costs
- Signing bonuses
- Resources spent covering a vacant position
- Opportunity costs associated with reallocating resources to cover the vacant position
In other words, replacing an employee is expensive.
Here are 8 tips for employee retention:
1. Hire The Right People from the Start
The best way to avoid a costly turnover is to improve your hiring. Clearly define the roles you create and ensure that the people you hire are not only effective workers, but complement the company culture. Employing a recruitment plan can help you to ensure that the people you hire are the right choice.
2. Competitive Compensation Packages
No matter how much your employees love working at your organisation, they still have their own needs to take care of. Offering competitive benefits and salaries can encourage your workers to stay, rather than pursue opportunities elsewhere.
Don’t forget that compensation includes more than just salary. Insurance benefits, paid time off and retirement packages can all be offered to your team. To keep the best people, you’ll have to offer salaries that at least equal your competitors, especially in a highly competitive market
3. Show Your Employees That They’re Valued
Feeling valued never gets old. Do you have regular celebrations? Create a schedule for the year to acknowledge professional and personal achievements from the big to the small. Celebrate birthdays, engagements and new babies. Highlight new business wins and meeting targets. Whether it’s hampers during lockdown or Friday beers – find a way to thank your teams. Demonstrate gratitude and say it like you mean it!
Recognising staff with rewards and accolades also drives a positive reputation for your organisation. Establish your organisation as a promising workplace that values the contribution that people make.
4. Offer Flexible Arrangements
Providing a flexible work environment can boost productivity and lower overheads, while giving staff a greater sense of trust and independence over how they manage their tasks.
Each of your employees has a life of their own, outside of work. Ensure that your employees are not compromising their personal lives to work. Any conflict between work and home life could potentially force a team member to look for opportunities elsewhere.
Minimise those conflicts and be adaptable!
Removing rigidity gives staff a greater sense of trust and independence over how they manage their tasks.
5. Provide Opportunities for Internal Upward Mobility
Let’s face it. Career progression is a big deal. We all want to work with an organisation that allows career growth. If employees can see examples of upwards mobility in their colleagues, and understand what is required for a promotion, they are more likely to stay with you.
When required, this can include upskilling an existing employee to fill a role instead of hiring someone new. Providing opportunities to internal staff will give them confidence that working at your organisation is a good move for their career.
6. Partner New Hires With Mentors
New employees can gain some much-needed advice and insight from a more senior member of the team. Acting as a mentor, as opposed to a supervisor, provides a sounding board to your new hires and allows them to feel like they’re being looked after, rather than watched.
Effective mentoring requires feedback from mentors and mentees and relevant training to facilitate growth, but the results are great. This can also be rewarding for the mentors as they feel their seniority and experience has been recognised by the organisation.
7. Seek Feedback from Employees
No one knows why your employees may want to leave more than the employees themselves. So why not ask them? Ask for feedback. Find out what’s working and what isn’t. This also lets the team know that you value their input, and acting upon their feedback promotes an inclusive, positive culture.
Employees will be much more likely to stay if they know that their needs are being heard.
8. Offer Training Opportunities
Training facilitates and encourages internal mobility, giving employees the tools they need to further their careers. Doing so also keeps them interested and engaged, allowing for growth while demonstrating how much you care about your employees.
It can be as simple as setting a time in their daily schedule to complete online training modules or meet with a mentor. If your company has the resources, you could also set a personal development budget, this could allow employees to identify and pursue skills aligned both with their interests, and those of the organisation.
An effective retention strategy is vital to improving productivity and managing the costs of maintaining your workforce. Rehiring is expensive, and losing all of the time spent training and working with your employees is far from ideal.
Hiring the right people is the first step in improving retention, and an expert recruiter can help you to find the right candidates. A good recruiter will also provide you with a replacement guarantee within a certain time frame, on the off chance that your new hire doesn’t work out.
On TalentVine, you can compare these guarantees along with rates, recently placed roles and reviews of the top recruiters specialising in your industry. Simply list your role on the platform for free, and within 24 hours you will be presented with bids from top recruiters looking to work with you. Select one or more, based on the metrics on their profiles, and you begin your journey to making that perfect hire, and keeping them.
