Effective Employee Retention Strategies

As the startup culture continues to grow, the demand for skilled professionals is higher than ever. Unlike the past, skilled candidates today have more options than ever before, and retaining employees has become a difficult challenge. Oxford Economics estimates the cost of replacing an employee to be around £30,614. Add the startup work culture and newer employee benefits to the mix, and the importance of employee retention becomes more than apparent. If you’re not making your top performers happy, another business would. If yours is a business that is struggling with employee turnover like many others, follow the below-mentioned steps to see an instant improvement in your employee retention numbers.

Employee Retention Strategies

As mentioned earlier, businesses are bringing innovation into their workplace culture every day. While change is always good, there are also businesses that are getting by just fine without jumping on the “cool” work culture wagon. The key to success lies in bridging the employee’s expectations and the kind of work culture you can offer. That means, if you’re a strict corporate business, it is best to look for candidates with a similar personality. This way, when a new employee joins the organization, the comfort of working in familiar conditions will ensure they don’t start thinking about a switch immediately.

Employee Retention Techniques

Every individual likes knowing that their efforts are being recognized. This can be done on multiple levels:

• A rewards and recognition program is a great way to reward hard-working employees while igniting a competitive fire within the teams.
• Make sure each employee is thanked and appreciated for the extra mile the sometimes go in order to deliver projects on time. Also, ensure that this appreciation is not just communicated in terms of numbers but in terms of benefits. For instance, instead of telling an employee how much revenue their work brought in, tell them how their work helped a client solve an issue. Knowing that you are doing meaningful work is one of the top factors affecting employee satisfaction.Team away days and excursions are another way of showing appreciation, while also giving your team a much-needed breather from all the office work. Fill the day with away days activities like clay pigeon shooting and rage buggy to make the day more memorable.

Optimize Your On-Boarding Process

The on-boarding process the necessary yet boring process of assimilating a new employee. Since the process holds critical importance, employers have been hesitant to make changes to it, and employees have always had to quietly endure it. Make a few changes to your onboarding process, so that the process not only functions to get the new joiners assimilated but is focussed on getting them excited about joining the organization. For instance, each new employee can be treated with a joining “care” package that contains a welcome note, their nameplate, and other small things they might need to get started.

Retention Strategies

A buddy or mentor program is a great way to ensure new joiners are getting along well with the existing team members. Not to forget, the faster your new employees gel with your teams, the quicker they will get comfortable at the organization. This will not only improve overall operational productivity, but it will also greatly enhance employee retention.

Conclusion

Improving retention numbers does not have to be difficult. With a bit of proactive thinking and trying to understand the employee’s perspective, getting employees to love working at your organization will be a walk in the park. Did we miss out on any points? Share them with us and the other readers in the comment section below.