With unemployment figures on the rise you think it’s easy to replace employees who leave right? Well think again… trust me the rise in unemployed people doesn’t mean they are the people you want in your business. So how can you keep your staff, how can you make them happy? Here are some things to consider when your employee gives you notice they’re out of there…
- Replacing them can be expensive and time consuming
- Employees that leave take valuable business knowledge with them and worse still that information could end up in the hands of your competitors
- What about the loss of productivity and additional recruitment expenses
The cost of losing an employee can be as much as 150% of their salary… Yes 150% of their salary!
Additionally an employee who is not satisfied in the business can also have a detrimental effect on not only productivity but also staff morale which then puts the vicious cycle in play again and again…
The solution is quite simple – Give workers an incentive to perform at a high standard and to stay with the business for as long as possible.
So how can you make your employees happier and wanting to stay?
- Reward high performing employees – The key to this point is to get your employee involved, find out their motivators and what they see as an attractive reward and then reward based on the employees contribution to the business.
- Provide career progression and training opportunities – It’s important to demonstrate to employees that there is a career path for them, even if it’s a small company, it might not be a title change, but it can be additional duties, special projects, training to further enhance their skill-sets. This will keep your employees focused and striving towards meeting their goals.
- Flexible work environments – Did you know that 80% of workers who work in a flexible work environment actually work longer than their standard working hours each week? And they do this not for extra pay or recognition, its because they have access to their emails, work tools from home and they can quickly respond to the needs of their customers, even when dropping Johnny off to soccer practice. Employees who can work from home particularly ones with families or other commitments will appreciate the flexibility and the demonstrated trust and are likely to be even more productive than they would have been in the office. Better still some companies offer a (BYOD- Bring your own device) so it doesn’t cost the business a thing.
So if you are having issues with retention, get your employees involved and ask them what drives them and work on a career progression and/or training plan together, you will be surprised by the results.