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Employee retention rate is an important metric that can significantly impact your business’s prosperity. A poor retention rate can have many negative outcomes for a business, including disrupting productivity, negatively affecting staff morale, and spiraling costs. Finding, hiring, and training a new employee is not cheap. If they leave within a year, then the value of that investment declines significantly.
So, that’s the bad side of a poor employee retention rate. The question is, what can you do about it? Our collaborative blog provides a few tried-and-tested ways to nudge your retention rate in the right direction.
Enhance Your Employee Retention Rate
Make Work Fun
OK, ‘fun’ might be pushing it as there is work to be done. Nevertheless, consider the overall ambiance of the space. Is it a generally pleasant atmosphere? Does it seem like people are happy to be there? If not, then that could be the source of your troubles. People must spend a lot of time at work, and if they’re having a miserable time there, it’ll be no surprise if they look elsewhere.
Even small changes, such as providing free refreshments, adding a few plants, and hosting after-work drinks, can make a big difference.
Pay Well
Employees do care about perks, flexible working schedules, and plants in the office — but what they care about most is the paycheck they’re taking home each month. Paying well is always crucial, but it’s especially important now that costs are rising. While your team might stay with you for a little while if you’re paying poorly, all it’ll take is an offer from a company that’ll pay them slightly more, and they’ll be packing their office bags and moving on. If you cannot offer raises, consider reducing expenses in other areas. Most employees would rather have cash in their pocket than perks.
Offer Perks and Benefits
But talking of perks: if you’re able to, offer them. Studies have repeatedly shown that employees are drawn to perks and benefits to the point where the extras make the difference between a staff member staying with a company and moving on. You’d be more likely to stay with a business that offered a gym membership and wellness stipend each month. Employees like working for those types of businesses, and when you break it down, the cost of offering those perks to businesses is relatively small.
Be Open to Conversations
No business gets things right all the time with their employees. For one thing, the business does have its own needs and objectives, and sometimes they’re not in line with the needs of the employees. There’ll be times when you make decisions that your staff doesn’t like. But it doesn’t have to be a problem. What counts is whether you have open and honest conversations about the decision. Good management listens to the feedback they get from their employees and, if possible, incorporates whatever feedback they get moving forward.
More broadly, it’s best to have an open-door policy that allows employees to come in and air whatever is on their minds. Even if you can’t always act on what they say, they’ll still appreciate being able to talk to you (though you’ll very much have to act on what they say sometimes).
Take Care of the Essentials
Many businesses consider adding fun perks to employees’ work experience to keep them on board. While those things are welcome, they can’t compensate for a lack of thought in other areas. For instance, safety. A business could pay well and offer an array of benefits. Still, if it shows a lack of consideration for the employees’ safety, they’ll inevitably look for new employment. Happily, this is fully within the control of the business.
Standard safety equipment and protocols will help create a safe work environment in any industry. Consider investing in appropriate safety today, whether it be gas detection, hazard signage, or dust collection systems. Aside from improving your employee retention rate, it’s the right thing to do.
Offer Growth Opportunities
Your employees might love working for you, but if they don’t see a path leading to professional development, it is only a matter of time before leaving. The best employees know how good they are and want to step up. Review your hierarchy structure; is there space for employees to work through the ranks and take on more senior roles? It’s not an exaggeration to say that breaking existing structures to accommodate this is often worthwhile since it’ll ensure more of your best team stays on board.
Send Managers on Leadership Courses
The number one reason employees leave their jobs is because of management issues. While all employees at a company are important, some have a greater influence on the overall ambiance of the workplace, including managers. A good manager has a high employee retention rate because people want to work for them. If they’re not so good, people will leave their jobs to get away, which, by extension, impacts the brand. Businesses lose nothing by sending their managers on leadership courses, which will, among other things, positively impact the employee retention rate.
Conclusion: Enhance Your Employee Retention Rate
If your employees are leaving in droves, you have a problem. By taking a proactive approach to your employee retention rate, you can help improve your employees’ work experience, which can have a hugely positive impact. For instance, you will save money on the cost of finding and hiring recruits and benefit from improved productivity and collaboration, which can significantly improve a business’s prosperity.
Related: Achieving Success: A Business that Delivers Profit and Enjoyment