Employee Retention Strategies

The Top 5 Employee Retention Strategies You Should Focus On

More companies are spending a great amount of time and money on finding out the reasons of their company’s employee turnover.

Most of the time, management fail to have an employee retention strategies or plans in order to keep their turnover low. As management or business owners, you not only need to look after the sales or the profit of your business, but you would also need to look after your employees. In this article, we looked into the top employee retention strategies other companies have been practising.

Fair Wage

One of the employee retention strategies is the wages that your employees are getting. While money is a sensitive topic to discuss during their performance review, it has to be brought up sooner than later. Most of the time, employees need to know that their job and task completed are worth the wages they are getting each month.

They may start off getting the minimum and they are fine with it. However, as the task and workload increases, they may feel of little value to the company they are working for. They may not bring it up over the next few months, expecting the management to increase it after reworking their effort that they have put in or the workload that was handed to them. Yet nothing was mentioned during these performance reviews as it did not crossed management’s mind or they may not even mention it as it was never brought up.

As management, you should create a reminder during each performance review and make a note as to whether they wages should be increased or otherwise. Another great way is to have an open-door policy, where employees are able to bring it up to you without feeling embarrassed.

You may want to think about also offering retention bonuses, compensation after long projects, a creative benefits plan and flexible work schedules. Do not forget that non-monetary rewards can be just as important. Think about what might work for your company as some solutions or benefits may not work for you.

Photo: Serge Saint, Flickr

Photo: Serge Saint, Flickr

Awesome Colleagues

One of the employee retention strategies is the team of colleagues that they are working with. While it may be a patty reason from a management point of view, to leave a company because of colleagues, it could be a major issue to your employees. You would want your employees to come in to work feeling excited and eager to start their day.

Management or business owner must get to know all of your employees as you do not want to show that you are not interested in them and only interested in profits and sales on the business. Showing that you understand and appreciate your employees is an important aspect of getting them to stay.

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A strong team can be one of the most important elements of a successful business. Learning how to communicate and cooperate lays the foundations for a healthy workplace. Read about some unusual team building ideas to encourage and strengthen teamwork on our blog.

Career Growth

Everyone wants to move up the corporate ladder. They will either look out for ways to improve within the company they are working for or leave for another that looks out for their career growth. Management should aim to nurture an aspiration among their employees to want to stay with your company because you are encouraging them to work towards their career growth.

Look out for your key team players and assist them in their career development from within. Find training courses or conferences for your employees to attend. By doing so, employees will realise that the management is interested in their growth within their company. This will then make them want to stay with the company instead of finding a better one.

Exciting Work and Challenges

Another one of the employee retention strategies is creating an exciting workplace and challenges. Doing the monotonous day-to-day work can get a little dull and eventually lead to boredom. This can be dangerous as it can lead to a loss of productivity and focus. Instead of letting your employees just go through the motions, challenge them with stimulating work that has a direct impact on your company’s success.

All companies have a vision and goals, and by sharing them with your employees, you are providing your employees with a clear understanding of the direction in which your company is going. Start practising an honest and open communication to help build trust and loyalty. Set expectations and let employees know when they are doing something right.

Look out for employees who are able to take up a challenge without whining it behind your backs or to other colleagues. Where there is a challenge involved, employees will have something to look out for and try their best to solve them, as they would want to prove to management that they are capable of handling such task.

Photo: Mauro, Flickr

Photo: Mauro, Flickr

Supportive Management or Leaders

Last but not least, one of the employee retention strategies is being a supportive leader. It is all the same with leaders or business owners, where their main goal is to make profits and turning the company into a successful one. Management should not be the reason why employees leave.

Learn how to work through the tasks with employees to improve skills and talent until the manager does not need to worry about a task being done correctly and the employee is fully empowered in a particular area. Be a true leader for your employees by earning their respect and help develop them as a better employee.

Everyone is a leader but only a selected few are a great leader. Regardless if have worked your way up the corporate ladder or just started your own business, the route to leadership is never an easy one. Here are some qualities that define a good leader.

In Summary

Regardless of the industry you are in or the type of businesses you are managing, it is important to look after your employees. Ask and get feedback from employees about know what employees think and feel about your company and about their positions.

Take pro-active steps towards retaining your top employees and avoid the expensive method of replacing good employees. Not all employees are staying with the company just for the money. Engage with your employees and you might learn more about them then what you expect it to be.

Good luck in keeping your top players!

Avatar for Heryati R

Written by

Heryati is a member of the customer success team at 6Q, and is based in Perth, Western Australia. Heryati enjoys writing, reading and live music. She believes 6Q is awesome for employee engagement surveys.