Employee retention remains a key challenge for businesses in 2021.
Employee churn rates, the rate at which you lose employees, continues to grow for a wide variety of reasons. Employees can move on to explore other prospects or you may need to replace employees who were the wrong fit for a position. It is also possible that employees take what they need from your business and then move on to fresh prospects elsewhere on the market.
The problem with employee churn is that it costs businesses an absolute fortune. If you have a high rate, then you will need to spend more time, money and effort, recruiting new employees and providing them with the necessary training. This is also going to impact levels of productivity in your business model. It’s particularly problematic if the level of churn is constant or even rising. That’s why you need to focus on improving employee retention. There are numerous steps you can consider here so let’s explore the possibilities.
Learning And Development
You should make sure that you are focusing resources on helping your employees develop new skills and gain fresh levels of knowledge. Often, employers hope that the employees they hire are going to show up at their door with the right level of training and certification. While this can be the case, particularly when you get the recruitment process right, it’s still a continuous process. You need to make sure that you are putting a focus on increasing levels of learning and development.
There are numerous approaches to take here from membership to an e-learning site or an e-learning centre. It will require a financial commitment from you but it will also help increase levels of retention. So in the long run, you could save more than you lose.
Why is this so important? Employees will see this as an investment in their career. As such, it will ensure that they feel more valued and do not see their position as a dead end. They know that they can evolve or grow.
Career Growth
That does bring us neatly to the next point which is ensuring that they do have room to grow in their career. You need to ensure that there is a structure in place that will allow employees to move up the ladder. This could be the opportunity for promotion with the right level of commitment. It will also be tied to ensuring that you are helping them to develop their skills and providing them with increased levels of training. It could even involve creating new positions. Remember, there are various ways in which employees will be able to grow in their career with your help.
You need to make sure that you are providing the right level of guidance too. This will help ensure that employees are able to succeed. They will know what they need to accomplish and be aware of their duties in the business. You need to make sure that you are providing regular feedback to employees all the time. The last thing you want is for employees to be confused about their place in your business. If there is any confusion here they are more likely to move on where they feel there will be a better fit.
Hiring The Right People From The Start
If you hire the right people from the start then you should never have any issues with levels of retention. You need to be wary of hiring someone who is a job-hopper. A key sign of this is an individual who regularly switched businesses, even over the course of a year. If this is the case, then they are unlikely to settle and may just be looking to get what they can from your business before moving on. This isn’t always a complete negative but ideally, you should be looking for someone who is interested in becoming a long term asset in your business rather than a short term solution.
You also need to make sure that you are focusing on the right variables when determining which candidate is right for a position in your business. This is about finding the right fit for your company overall and to do this you need to understand your business culture. First, you need to work out what your culture is and this will help you decide on the type of employees who will be the right match. You could be looking for someone who is going to fit well into a highly structured business model or you could need someone who is more flexible and laid back. Once you understand your culture, you can work to attract the right employees into the fold.
Many business owners are keen to rush through the recruitment process. However, this can lead to you accidentally hiring someone who was never going to fit well into your business model.
Work-Life Balance
Finally, you need to remember that overall your employees are going to spend more than one-third of their life working. Taking sleep and traffic into account that means they’ll be at work more than they are with their families. That’s why it’s important to ensure that you are creating the right work-life balance. It’s absolutely crucial that going to work each day doesn’t become a chore for your employees. You need to make sure that you are creating a healthy work environment and they can enjoy it on some level. They should also feel connected to your business and feel rewarded by being part of the team. You can do this by arranging activities outside of the workday where you will be able to bring people together.
Remember, studies show that people are more likely to quit because of an issue with their boss, not the company. You need to ensure that you are someone who they can relate to, connect with, and most importantly, respect.
We hope this helps you understand the best ways to improve your retention rates this year.