With ongoing skills shortages wreaking havoc across many industries, finding talented recruits isn’t always easy. Therefore, when you’ve found and hired a fantastic new employee, it’s in your best interest to retain them for as long as possible.
What’s more, poor employee retention rates can create further problems with team morale, company culture and the overall success of your business.
To help you out, this article explains not only the importance of employee retention, but also how you can improve your staff retention rates.
Hiring can be a tough process
Whatever techniques you choose to use in your recruitment process, it’s important to note that it can sometimes be time consuming and costly. After all, agencies can be expensive and shortlisting, interviewing and deciding between candidates takes time.
In addition to this, recruiting can be stressful for managers, who have to balance finding the right hire with their daily tasks and other responsibilities.
Worse still, even if you think you’ve found the right candidate, there’s still the probation period to get through and you may actually discover that they’re not the right fit after all. If your new employee fails to meet expectations, you’re back to square one again.
Employee retention can affect team morale
Consider the impact that employee retention can have on your wider team. If you’re finding that there are large numbers of employees leaving your company every month, it’s likely that their colleagues have noticed it too.
Remember, your employees are only human and will naturally make friends with, and speak to, their colleagues. Therefore, to find out someone you like is leaving can be de-motivating and cause unwanted change.
As well as this, it may cause even the most loyal staff to think about their future within your company. Especially if their friends, teams or managers are frequently dissatisfied or leaving.
Along with the additional pressure placed on your team to pick up the workload, team morale could become low. Therefore, staff retention is key to a happy workforce.
Here’s how you can improve employee retention
Improving your employee retention rate isn’t a one step process. The key is to show you care about your workers and focus on what you can do to keep your staff happy. Below, we’ve chosen our top tips for how you can retain your staff.
Pay reviews
They say money isn’t everything, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. After all, your employees have bills to pay. So if your staff feel that they can get a higher salary elsewhere, you risk them leaving for a better-paid opportunity.
Organising regular pay reviews for every staff member ensures that you have a fair process in place. Plus, you should be able to spot those employees who deserve a pay rise and adjust their pay accordingly.
Company perks
Company perks can be anything from a staff lunch, to gym discounts, or even flexible working. These are a great way to boost your company culture and reward employees.
They don’t have to be expensive either. For example, an early finish on a Friday or ‘dress down’ days could be all it takes to boost your employees’ productivity and happiness.
Regular catch-ups
Having regular catch-ups with employees provides an opportunity for you to get feedback about the company and your management style.
It can help you to flag any problems early on, so you can tackle these before they get worse. This could help you to keep staff happy and increase retention rates.
Engage newcomers
It’s essential to engage with newcomers from the second they walk through the door. In fact, our research has found that 41% of new employees decide whether to stay in a new job within the first week of working there.
This means that first impressions really do count! Make sure your new recruits feel welcomed and see that your company offers progression – otherwise, they may continue to look for better opportunities elsewhere.
Article courtesy of CV Library.