Employee retention is a major issue for most businesses. After all, it costs a great deal to find, and train each new employee. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense to do everything you can to hold onto the ones you already have. Find out how you can do this by avoiding common mistakes in the area below.
Not investing in decent salaries and benefits
It’s hardly shocking to discover that as a whole people work for money, and not because they choose to. What that means is no matter how dedicated your employees are to their chosen career, the salary and benefits you offer matter. Indeed, if you aren’t offering competitive salaries and benefits then you run the risk that your best people will jump ship. Not only that but you will also struggle to recruit good people that you can retain over the long term as well.
To that end, it is vitally important that your business offers competitive salaries and an attractive benefits package. This means checking around to see what your competitors are offering and keeping pace, as well as making sure you include as many additional benefits such as flexible working, childcare, healthcare, and corporate gym memberships as possible.
Not using software to manage your retention
Another big mistake that many companies are making is not using software to manage and predict their employee retention rates. Indeed, with workforce management software you can utilize AI to help predict how many people will leave your business over the next 30, 60, or 90 days.
What that means is you can get ahead of your retention issues, and deal with them proactively, either putting things in place to reduce them or working on the recruitment side of things to minimize their impact.
Neglecting to offer opportunities for promotion
No one wants to stay static in the same job role, at the same pay rate forever. That is why if you want to retain staff long term you have to make sure you include plenty of opportunities for promotion, training and development, and increases in pay.
The way that you do this is up to you, and what will suit your business. However, you may want to fund professional qualifications or memberships for your staff, put in place a clear progression structure, or offer internal promotions.
Neglecting to attend to your company culture
Last, of all, one of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to retention is not paying enough attention to the culture within their company. Company culture is all about how it feels to work in a business, including whether employees feel heard, valued, and supported in their roles.
With this in mind, investing in training courses for managers can be an excellent way to ensure a positive company culture. This is because it will give them the skills to lead their team from the front and ensure a positive workplace environment.
Similarly, putting a system in place to ensure that employees feel heard, and can bring up any issues about work, or workplace interactions without fear of reprisals can be very useful in creating a more positive culture that will encourage people to stay in your business long-term.
