4 Ways to Improve Employee Retention at Your Company
Staff meeting of a young successful team in the light modern office equipped with modern office equipment .
In today’s workplace, people change jobs from time to time. In most industries, the idea of having a job for life just isn’t the norm anymore. While people will inevitably come and go at your company, a high turnover of staff can be detrimental to the company. Not only will you have much higher recruitment costs but workplace productivity will suffer, morale will fall, and building a company culture will be extremely difficult.
Below we look at some ways to improve employee retention at your company.
Tighten up Your Recruitment Process
At a basic level, you need to be attracting the right people to your business to stand any chance of improving employee turnover. Take a look at how and where you advertise for jobs. Be specific about the skill and attributes you are looking for. If you already have a really specific advertising and job description, is your focus too narrow? Being overly prescriptive can deter many good applicants from applying.
Screen Employees Carefully
Once you’ve started getting a better range of applicants for your positions, screening them for company fit is important. A multi-stage interview process is necessary for some positions and should include people from different departments within your organization. Often, others will have insight that you missed if you hold a single, one-to-one interview. It doesn’t have to be too demanding, perhaps a telephone or Zoom interview first, followed by a face-to-face meeting.
When you think you have your candidate, be thorough in your background check on their previous employment and qualifications.
By making your recruitment process more rigorous, you are in a better position to make an educated decision on a candidate before you offer them a job. Running a thorough contract analysis is also key to identify any weak points in your current manpower. Keeping employee retention high is one thing but you want to make sure first that your current talents are top-notch
Create a Positive Company Culture
Many companies with low retention rates have fundamental issues with company culture. Add to this an ever changing workforce, and it’s difficult to then rebuild that culture.
It is an employer’s responsibility to build a welcoming, friendly workplace where employees feel at ease and engaged. This has many levels, from ensuring that your employees feel secure, supported, and listened to in their jobs, to creating opportunities to have fun and bond as a team. This could take the form of team socials, free lunches, or similar initiatives. Just make sure you get the basics in place first; a free lunch is great, but it doesn’t make up for a poor working environment.
Recognition and Reward
Many surveys point to the fact that a lack of recognition and reward is a big factor in reduced employee engagement. Engaged employees are more productive, stay longer, have less sick days, and go above and beyond for their employer.
In some cases, recognition and reward do include a financial incentive, but not always. Regular recognition of someone’s good work can take the form of an employee reward program, opportunities for promotion, and time for professional development. In some cases, even just a shout out in a team meeting is a positive step to show your company recognizes that their employees are important.
Low employee retention is bad for business, both from a financial and culture perspective. Companies need to take a hard look at themselves to identify why that is the case and then take steps to change their processes.
If the problem is your company culture, you need to address this as a priority as even the best recruitment process is worthless if employees don’t want to stay there.
