by Stacey Lennon, Digital Marketing Executive with Intelligo Sofrware who provide Corporate HR Software and Payroll Software
It’s every employer’s nightmare when one of the best employees resigns out of the blue. A million questions pop into your head ‘Why do they want to leave?’, ‘What can I do to make them stay?’ At this point you may not be able to get them back on board but you can make strides to avoid it in future. Employee retention is one of the key aspects of human resource management and crucial for a company’s success. This rings true as the competition for top talent in the job market grows. After all, no one wants to lose their best employees.
All things taken into account, losing an employee affects your business. In ways you may not even realise. From the costs of recruitment, to training and low levels of morale, there is always an aftershock affect. Succeeding in employee retention requires businesses to look at things from employees’ point of view. This can be a hard thing to do, so we have three key improvements that are important for employees and will aid in your retention efforts.
Have Stay Interviews
This is one of the simplest steps you can take towards employee retention. Why wait until employee leaves the business to find out what made them leave? Instead conduct regular ‘stay interviews’, don’t wait for the inevitable exit interview. A stay interview is a face to face sessions with valued employees. The aim is finding why the employee continue to work for your business. Likewise it highlights potentials reasons they might consider leaving.
The results of these interviews gives you the knowledge to retain your employees. Waiting for an exit interview is too late to identify the reasons why you lose your best employees. Even if there’s no way that you can address their problems at the moment, the fact that employees are being heard goes a long way. They know they’re listened to and appreciated for their needs and opinions.
Clear Career Paths
Providing clear career paths and opportunities for advancement in your company is vital. It ensures your best employees move within your business and not out of it. People are always looking to better themselves, so if offered the opportunity to do so within the company, they are less likely to look elsewhere. An employee is inclined to stay with the business if they’re encouraged to improve their skills. They can see that there is a clear career path ahead.
Sit down with your employees to set goals for advancement. Offer development and training opportunities to help them reach these goals. Giving employees a clear path of advancement avoids them becoming frustrated in their roles. While rewarding talent and promoting from within encourages a culture of loyalty and stability. It also provides a greater return on the investment put into employees. While ensuring they feel that they’re valued and a part of the company’s success.
Avoid Micro-managing
Knowing how much supervision employees need can be difficult to balance. Too little, and people could get lost and become unproductive. Too much and you could create demoralised and frustrated employees. But if you’ve hired talented individuals, there’s no need to micromanage – it’s as simple as that.
Allowing employees to take on new tasks or projects without the shadow of management allows for professional growth. It encourages them to take initiative in their roles. You may be thinking ‘What if they make mistakes?’ That is a good thing! Making mistakes is an effective way to learn and grow. You should want employees in your business to take risks and try new things. If they succeed, it’s a great thing. If they fail, then they learn from their mistakes. Then they feel trusted and appreciated.
These employee retention improvements have the potential to create a positive effect on your entire company. Ensuring you have the best and brightest people on your side who want to work for you. Of course, sometimes employee turnover is inevitable. People move on for different jobs, career changes or personal reasons and there’s simply nothing you can do about that but wish them the very best.
