8 Secrets/Tips That’ll Lead to Higher Employee Retention
The average cost of turnover is 33% of the salary of the position you’re trying to fill. That means a $60,000 position could cost your company as much as $19,800 to find and train someone to occupy that role.
Given that expense, it behooves businesses in every industry to makes sure they’re proactive in holding onto team members for as long as possible.
How can one master the art of employee retention? While there’s no silver bullet solution when it comes to holding onto people, there are several things you can do as a leader which can improve your retention dramatically.
Keep reading to discover how you can make your team happier and more prone to sticking around!
1. Compensate Fairly
One of the primary reasons people leave for other jobs is because they want to make more money. If there are no other jobs similar to the ones you’re offering that offer higher compensation, that’ll be hard to do.
When companies set salaries, they should always do so by assessing what their competitors are paying for similar work. As long as you stay in lockstep with those figures, you won’t have to worry about teammates making lateral moves into other organizations.
Better yet, if you can offer slightly more than the average salary being offered for positions, it’ll make it so lateral moves are a losing proposition.
2. Value Autonomy
Very few people like to be micro-managed. It feels much better for employees to be in charge of their responsibilities and have the freedom they need to do things in their own effective way.
Nurture that desire by letting managers know they should push for their subordinates to be autonymous. With autonomy comes accountability and with accountability comes a sense of ownership over one’s destiny.
That’s something your team will find value in.
3. Ask for Feedback
No matter how much you try to make your organization one where people want to stay, there could be things you’re missing. The only way to discover those blind spots is to ask team members how you’re doing.
Soliciting employee feedback can be simple, anonymous, and can take place online which means that feedback can be logged instantaneously. Several online services enable digital feedback collection so start exploring the many options available to you online.
4. Keep Your Door Open
Open door policies are when people in positions of power let everyone on their team know they’re always welcome to come into their offices to have a conversation. That may not seem like a benefit most would value but believe us when we say that it is.
Having access to senior-level members will help your team feel like their voices matter and that they’re not second-tier within your organization’s hierarchy. People that feel respected in that way are much more likely to stay at a job than people who feel they’re low-tier cogs in a big machine.
5. Provide Insight Into Growth Trajectories
A wonderful way to foster employee retention is to help your employees visualize themselves being at your company years from now. The best way to do that is to make clear to them what your plans are as far as promoting them goes.
Something as simple as telling a low-level employee that they have manager potential and are being watched can inspire team members to stick things out given the hope that professional growth may be just around the bend.
6. Offer Training
Any employee that wants to stay stagnant in their education isn’t an employee you want on your team. The good news is that almost nobody is disinterested in learning.
Knowing that, make it a priority within your organization to offer professorial growth opportunities.
Something as simple as offering leadership training, training on particular pieces of software, or conducting workshops on social topics like inclusion will give your team the impression that staying with your company means retaining access to career-altering learning possibilities.
7. Foster a Fun Culture
Work generally isn’t about having fun but if it can be, in part, that definitely won’t hurt your ability to retain team members.
Fun can’t be forced when you’re trying to build a playful culture. It can be coaxed, however, by having team outings, being open to joking, having casual conversations with team members, celebrating birthdays, and the like.
With some effort bringing people together on your part, eventually, your team’s culture of fun will start to grow on its own.
8. Communicate Stability
In these challenging economic times, people want to know that their positions are safe. If you can communicate that to your group or give them any inkling of hope that your business will be able to weather whatever difficult economic storm you’re facing, share that information.
If you don’t, there’s a good chance team members will start searching for jobs in more stable industries which will leave you high and dry.
Employee Retention Is Worth Investing In
Any business that’s not willing to invest in paying team members more, promoting them, or investing in their educations for financial reasons doesn’t understand the expense involved in employee retention. Believe us when we say that you stand to save money over time if you’re willing to make occasional concessions for the sake of your team’s happiness.
We hope the tips we’ve shared give you some idea of how to accomplish that. We also welcome you to check out the newest content on our blog if you’d like more guidance on employee retention strategies!
