Employee retention is important to the survival of any company. Whenever an employee leaves, it costs the company in time, resources and morale. The manager has to find new talent, which costs time. They need to read cover letters, conduct interviews and compare interview notes, all of which require time and resources. They also have to train the new hire, all while assuring their other employees that their jobs are safe.
Retaining employees with common sense employee retention policies will help managers protect their time, resources and company morale. This article looks at different ways in which managers can keep retaining employees instead of replacing them.
Small Things Make A Big Difference
A well cared for employee is a happy employee, and happy employees are more likely to stay.
Any given job is only worth so much to the company. But there are still plenty of perks and benefits the company can offer their employees at little-to-no cost. There are some benefits that may cost the company almost nothing but will still mean the world to individual employees.
Any opportunity a company has to make the employees’ lives better is an opportunity to improve retention. Any opportunity to make their lives easier at little cost to the company is obviously worth taking advantage of.
Conduct Stay Interviews
Stay interviews are similar to employee engagement surveys in the sense that one is looking to measure employee opinion. Stay interviews are either conducted with employees who put in their two weeks, or they’re conducted among employees who stay whenever someone in their department decides to leave.
The idea is to find out why the employee is leaving, and what would it take to make them stay, or to better understand why other employees decide to stay, and what it would take to make them leave. The company can use this survey data to decide whether they need to change their work policies to improve employee retention.
Improve Onboarding To Improve Retention
Part of retaining employees deals with the onboarding process. It’s important that employees are assimilated into the company as efficiently and effectively as possible. But if one has to choose between efficiency and effectiveness, they should choose efficacy.
Properly trained employees, who understand policy, procedure and culture, are much more likely to stay with the company because they better understand their place within it.
Recognize Good Work
One common reason employees eventually leave is burn out. It’s hard doing the same job day after day while feeling unappreciated, especially if there are other job opportunities out available.
Simply recognizing the hard work of employees can make a big difference in employee morale. Additionally, finding ways to help employees see the real impact their work has within the company can also improve morale. That’s because it lets employees see why their work matters
allowing them to take ownership of that work.
Promote From Within
Whenever possible, promote from within the company. Company employees like to learn new skills and advance their careers as much as anyone else who may apply for the job. Hard work should be rewarded and it’s easy for employees to feel snubbed when a new person is given the job instead of someone from within the company who has worked there for years.
Conclusion
Although retaining employees is important, it doesn’t need to be difficult. With only a handful of common sense policies, employee retention can be easy. Try implementing these policies today to see whether or not they make a difference in your company.
Contact us today or call (800) 617-6172 for one of our representatives to assist you.
