Employee retention is often a sensitive topic, but it needs to be addressed head-on. While many managers see their staff dispensable and replaceable, good managers know the true value of their employees. They’re a critical part of your business operation, and having a good set of employees can mean the difference between a successful company and a failing one.
Why Care About Retention Rates
But is employee retention really that important? It actually is, as it can contribute quite significantly to your business. Here’s how it helps a business.
More cost-efficient training
By training a set of employees and allowing them to get familiarized with your system, you won’t have to continuously spend resources and manpower training new hires. Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire more, but it only means that you won’t be in that position very often. This lowers your overall training costs, allowing you to put more resources into making your training system per se better.
Increase in overall production quality
Because the same people who’ve worked with your business will be staying for quite some time, their skill and expertise will improve the longer they stay. This improvement will reflect your business’s product: consistent quality, more efficient production, and techniques developed through experience. Your veteran employees can share their knowledge and experience with new hires too.
Increase in staff morale
An employee leaving always hits quite a bit differently. Especially if it’s through a management dispute, it can leave quite the impact on your current staff. That’s why focusing on retention is important- it keeps everyone happy and more likely to stay.
How to take care of your employees
Of course, treating your employee right doesn’t happen on its own. You have to make a conscious effort to do so. Here are some tips and strategies that can help you out.
Train them properly
Employees value training and development within the company. Technical skills training and soft skills training provide employees with a sense of growth, making them feel valued. People who receive regular education opportunities at work become more invested, and they grow to value their worth to the company. This is an important factor because as the business world continues to evolve, so are there constantly new skills to acquire. Having the opportunity to build on one’s skills to remain competitive in their field from within the company is one of the major reasons an employee would choose to stay.
Scale the workload
A common problem many business owners face is subjecting their new hires to the same tasks and workload the veterans take on. This often happens in companies with a high turnover rate, as the population of their seasoned employees is low. But by keeping retention high, you can scale the workload better, allowing you to assign easier tasks to new hires to train them and gradually increase the difficulty of their workload.
Offer fair compensation
Of course, compensation is an important part of taking care of your employees. After all, that’s what everyone is doing there in the first place: to earn money to get by. Offering fair compensation with a good incentive package for employees is a guaranteed way to increase employee retention. When your staff can support their life with the salary they get, they’re less likely to leave.
Always communicate openly
Misunderstandings always begin through miscommunication. By keeping your communication lines open and honest, you’re creating a sense of trust and community. Meetings, where everyone can talk (not just the veterans or the manager) and express their ideas, help a lot in establishing a sense of openness. Keeping an “open-door policy” that has your employees talking directly and frankly about their work and personal concerns also makes it so that you can avoid problems and hassles down the line.
Use technology to assist them
Automation has been a big discussion in recent years, with many people fearing it will take away jobs from people. However, it does the opposite, instead of allowing people to focus more on creative tasks. Automation removes the need to manually do repetitive and mundane tasks, such as collecting data for spreadsheets, tracking attendance, and more. This allows your employees to feel more fulfilled and productive when it comes to their work.
A good company starts with its employees. By keeping retention rates high and turnover rates low, you satisfy your employees first and foremost. Their happiness will reflect on their work, which in turn will reflect on how your clients view your business.
