7 Great Tips to Retain Your Best Employees

How would you like to be treated if you were working for you? It’s that simple, really! Hiring the right team is just the initial part. Retaining talent is also a factor that requires serious consideration when you’re thinking long-term. It is a key part of the company’s growth plan. 

A smart HR team should focus on hiring and retaining in equal parts. And there sure are some simple and great ways to keep employees motivated and happy. And even though job hopping is a common practice for us millennials, there are always steps that can be taken to make people stay. 

A big issue that companies face these days is the time and effort that goes into training an employee only to have them leaving in a few months to grab a better opportunity. You don’t need to wait till the exit interview to understand why you lost a valuable resource.  With some smart strategies and culture tweaks, you can nurture and engage your talent to stop them from leaving:

Get the right person for the job– This one’s a no-brainer! It all starts with a good hire. Identify what aspects of the company culture you want to emphasize and then seek them in your prospective employees. The longer an employee stays with you, the more productive they become over time. Keeping this in mind, when assessing candidates, focus not only on their skills and qualifications but also their personality traits to see if they are aligned to the organizational values. 

Positive reinforcement and appreciation– We often hear of people quitting high paying jobs because they don’t feel appreciated. We might have resigned for the same reason at some point ourselves. 

 Recognition is key. We all know that. But do we really go out of our way to reinforce it? Keeping an employee motivated starts with recognizing good work and making them feel valued. Experts suggest sending out emails within the organisation on the great work that employees are doing. Make the employee feel important as it is ultimately this feeling that everyone yearns for. The culture of appreciation emails encourages the same kind of behaviour in others. 

Mentoring and creating paths to advancement– This is another great tool in the recruitment arsenal. While promotions and increments are great ways to reward employees, another way to keep employees productive is through mentoring, training and workshops. 

Whether it’s tuition reimbursement for outside courses or corporate training within the organisation to encourage the acquisition of new skills- taking steps to further the education of employees can make them feel invested in the company. Studies show that high-skills training (80 percent) and soft skills training (74 percent) are among the proven top ways of retaining employees’ services over the next five years.

2-way communication– Your employees should know that their views matter. Find ways to promote 2-way communication so that teams can interact freely with managers. Conduct regular meetings so that ideas can be shared and employees have a platform to express themselves. Open door policies prevent team members from bottling up their feelings and create a free and open environment. This is a great way to nurture talent and help people in the company grow and learn. A relaxed work culture can harbour trust among employees, making it a happy (and grievance-free) zone for the team. 

Financial rewards– While aspects like job satisfaction and passion for your work are important, monetary rewards are great motivators as well. Offer employees financial rewards for meeting their performance goals. Provide meaningful annual raises and perhaps stock options as well. Stats show that employees can be retained for as long as 3-5 years (and even longer) when they are happy with the remuneration being offered. If you don’t wish to get weighed down by large permanent increases, create a bonus structure which motivates everyone in the team. 

Create a vibrant work environment– Bleak walls, spartan office spaces and permanent cubicles are passe. Creating a lively and colourful work environment can be rewarding in more ways than you imagined. Shared workspaces are becoming more popular and vibrant offices are what millenials prefer. Just because your work is serious, doesn’t mean that your workspace will have to look sombre too. Bright colours are a great way to liven things up. Free snacks, coffee, recreation zones and zen rooms are also an added attraction for employees. When you’re spending a major part of your day at the office, a positive work environment is more than necessary- its mandatory. 

Cut out toxic employees– Let’s accept the truth that not everyone is a good fit. If you want good employees to stay, you need to remove the toxic ones from the team. Trying to gloss over unpleasant situations can ultimately lead to the bad employees chasing away the good ones. 

In the end, we can all agree that retaining talent takes serious effort. But it’s well worth the effort as happy employees ultimately drive great business results.