No matter which field you operate in, every single company competes to recruit the best talent in their industry.
Why?
Well, talented employees will lead your business to success and take it to the next level.
However, despite offering big salaries, attractive compensation packages and generous incentives, talented employees will leave.
The reason being, sometimes monetary reward alone is simply not enough.
Today, a mighty 75% of millennials will job hop in order to advance their careers, which means employee loyalty is not sealed forever.
As such, it’s your job as an employer, to constantly work hard to retain them. Don’t just wait until the very end to find out why your top talent is leaving, take proactive measures early on and prevent the exit from even happening.
Plus, when people actively move in and out of a business, this will have a damaging, rippling effect.
Because, when someone leaves, another employee will have to step up and take on their responsibilities and tasks. And this leaves existing employees with a long to-do list, placing extra strain on them.
Consequently, they can end up feeling demotivated, disengaged and uninspired. But worse, get to a point of burnout and eventually resign when they’ve had enough.
With that said, here are 5 great ways you can retain your talented employees.
1. Flexible Working
Traditionally, working a strict 9 – 5 hours schedule was considered the norm.
Often, if employees are late on a regular basis, they may receive a warning from the HR department.
Other times, they may receive a deduction in their pay, even if they have a valid reason for being late.
Times have changed! A strict working schedule and location is sooo outdated.
And flexibility is crucial when it comes to retaining the top talent.
To put it simply, flexible working means giving employees full freedom over choosing when and where they work, as long as they align with the business’s goals.
The main benefits of flexible working include:
- Increased productivity
- Lower absenteeism
- Increased creativity
- Boosting employee’s morale
- Greater control over one’s life
It’s no secret that the demand for a flexible working environment is growing.
So it’s time to update your policies to reflect what the top talent is looking for in your industry.
2. Offer Perks
Statistics reveal that 80% of employees would rather choose additional benefits over a pay rise.
So this is a clear sign that salary alone is not enough if you want to retain your company’s best talent.
In order to convince your employees to stay, you need to offer perks and benefits.
Just look at Google: the company is famous for its generous benefits and perks, like free lunch, medical insurance, free cooking classes and a lot more.
If you’re unsure of what you can offer to your employees, here’s a few examples:
- Private healthcare
- Paid time off
- Performance bonuses
- Gym memberships
- Wellness programmes
- Flexible schedules
3. Build a Good Company Culture
Sometimes, employees will leave because of a toxic work culture.
So not only can a bad company culture cost you money and talent, it’s going to have a negative impact on your employee’s mental health and wellbeing.
Briefly speaking, company culture refers to the environment that determines how people work, behave and interact.
Take a moment to think about yours: is it a hostile environment or fun-loving?
It’s important to recognise any signs of workplace toxicity as early as possible. Consider if employees are:
- Constantly feeling stressed out
- Overworked
- Being bullied by other members of the team
4. Invest in Their Growth
Learning is a life-long journey, and it’s important that you want your talented employees to learn and evolve with your business.
Unfortunately if there’s no career progression, your employees will most likely resign as no one wants to waste time.
By investing in their growth and career development, this can help to improve their performance in regards to problem-solving, leadership and motivation, as well as improve communication.
In addition, this can create a more productive, engaging working environment and you’ll find a lower turnover rate as employee morale is kept high.
5. Regular Performance Reviews
If you want to ensure your employees are on the right path, performance reviews are essential to track.
It doesn’t matter if your top talent is in a junior or senior role, performance reviews help you and them to understand where they are currently and how they can improve.
Sometimes known as an evaluation, a performance review is a standard procedure implemented by most businesses to evaluate an employee’s work and results.
When reviewing an employee’s performance, you want to cover:
- Their achievements
- Their work results over the last 3,6 or 12 months
- Their attitude
- Any mistakes?
- Did they live up to expectations set?
Generally, performance reviews are usually done once a year, but you can still have smaller, monthly catch ups more regularly in between.
The Bottom Line
If you value your employees, then you need to show them and make them feel appreciated.
For instance, a simple thank you for a job well done goes a long way, and when combined with monetary rewards, perks and benefits, this makes the appreciation even more significant.
Overall, by implementing some, if not all, of these ways above, it’ll be a lot more difficult for employees to want to leave, meaning you’ll have a talented, loyal and committed team.
To learn more, get in touch with me today.
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