Retaining employees is crucial, now more than ever. How are you ensuring your staff is happy, fulfilled, and supported?
Below are seven employee retention strategies to keep and grow your valuable staff during 2023.
What is employee retention?
Employee retention is the ability to keep employees; or have a low turnover rate.
Why is employee retention so important?
A key ingredient to company success is having a team of people you know and trust. Undoubtedly, when people love their jobs, employee engagement is boosted. Company culture thrives. Performance skyrockets. Revenue increases overall.
What are the top reasons employees leave?
- Poor leadership
- Toxic work environment
- Lack of good benefits
- Industry change
- Unbalanced workload
- Outdated pay scale
Top Employee Retention Strategies
Be open to feedback.
Satisfied employees feel a sense of contribution. They feel heard and understand that their opinion matters. As the employer, it’s your responsibility to listen to them.
Listen, then do something about it. Take action and follow up. Otherwise, staff may feel nothing changes when they do express concerns.
Trust your employees.
Trust is necessary for employees to thrive, according to Forbes. Confidence in your staff allows for a sense of security and safety in the workplace.
When people feel safe…
-
- their minds are clear.
- they are ready to focus.
- they feel free to work without worry.
Your trust allows your staff to make decisions independently. They can successfully carry out the work that their roles demand.
Transparency.
Transparent leaders are trustworthy leaders. Trust goes both ways. Staff like to know the reason behind decisions, especially when they are directly affected.
Workload needs to be challenging, yet manageable.
Most people who feel fulfilled in their roles have a workload that stimulates them, engages them, and challenges. The pacing and rigor of your employees’ workload should be balanced.
Benefits, benefits, benefits.
Benefits and perks matter. Consider reviewing the benefits you offer. What can you improve or add to your benefits to make the lives of your staff easier, healthier, or more enjoyable?
Unique benefits/perks to consider:
- EAPs
- Paid access to a gym, health coach, or nutritionist
- Provide healthy snacks, occasional lunches, coffee, or tea
- Unlimited paid time off
- Flexible work hours
- Remote work options / stipend
- Paid volunteer time during the work day
- Parent leave
- Employee recognition program
- Free books / professional development
- Mental health resources
- Occasional office parties or events
A healthy work environment is a must.
Overall, people want and need to work in a place where they feel supported. Ideally, your work-culture should be encouraging. Support leads to confidence and ultimately ends with higher performance and growth.
Having a strong sense of “togetherness” is crucial. Occasionally, challenges arise. Staff should feel comfortable asking for assistance.
If they don’t, eventually they become isolated. Isolation is not sustainable. It leads to frustration and more frequent mistakes. Collaboration is key!
Appreciate your staff.
When was the last time you expressed your gratitude to an employee? Gave positive feedback? Showed how proud you were of them?
Expressing how thankful you are to your staff is important. Whether by action or words, show gratitude.
Strong, healthy leadership.
Ideally, leaders manage staff individually. A “one-size-fits-all” method will not work. Know your management style, but stay open to new ideas.
Conclusion…
People stay at jobs where they are happy, trusted, supported, and appreciated.
Remember to:
- Be open to feedback.
- Trust your employees.
- Be transparent.
- Balance workloads.
- Have great benefits.
- Foster a positive culture.
- Appreciate your staff.
- Use strong leadership.
Need more support?
If you’re needing management support, it might be time to reach out to Chief of Staff KC.
We stay up to date on the best and most current retention strategies so you don’t skip a beat.
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