The fact is that statistics highlight that for companies of all shapes and sizes, from startups to larger corporations, holding onto employees can often be a struggle. The issue is that after spending a certain amount of time working for one company, a lot of employees crave a new challenge. That’s why you see so many people choosing to jump ship and move to pastures greener after just a few years at a company. When it comes to employees leaving their role and moving onto something new, there’s a cycle that tends to occur - it goes like this: a new employee comes on board - they are energetic, motivated, and full of bright ideas. After the first several months they begin to lose motivation due to a combination of factors, such as a lack of appreciation and few opportunities for career advancement. After 18 months their attendance and reliability begin to suffer as do their ideas, motivation, and initiative, because of this, it’s unlikely they will remain on board for any longer than three years. To bring talent into a company, employers work exceedingly hard, which is why it’s such a blow when an employee decides to leave. As an employer, naturally you want to hold onto the skilled, talented, and hardworking members of your team for as long as possible, which is why knowing how to keep them onside and onboard is so crucial. To do that, focus on the tips below and implement them in how you run your company.
Offer regular training opportunities
Photo source It’s a well-known fact that employers who help and encourage their teams to hone their skills and learn new ones to help advance their careers in the future are the ones that hold onto their employees for the longest periods. As part of providing training, remember that every employee is different, which means that so are their learning needs. Don’t just offer one type of employee training, instead have a range of different options that you use, from virtual training to group seminars. This may mean paying to offer both on-site training as well as sending employees on residential training trips, but if it helps to keep your team on board, it doesn't matter. Everyone learns differently and providing training that caters to the needs of a range of people will go a long way to showing your team how dedicated you are to their careers.
Don’t forgo salary raises
For your employees to stay on board, you need to show them that you value their time and work. A great way to do this is to ensure that their salaries are always competitive and increase as the cost of living does. Don’t forgo salary rises - each year reassess what you are paying your team members and consider pay rises to ensure that your team members are earning a fair income for the work that they do. If your team are under paid, you will struggle to hold onto them.
Provide opportunities for advancement
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One of the most common reasons that employees choose to jump ship is due to a lack of career advancement opportunities, which is why if you want to hang onto your team members you need to take career advancement seriously. To show your team members that you are passionate about helping them to move up the career ladder, always advertise opportunities internally instead of externally. It’s vital to ensure that you also use salary benchmarking to ascertain a competitive salary (and benefits) for any role that you advertise internally. You don’t want your team members to think that you are cheap, and are only hiring internally to keep costs low. That’s why offering competitive salaries is so important.
Create an environment of open communication Having an open-door communication policy ensures that your team members feel comfortable coming to you or their manager to discuss any issues or concerns that they have. By creating an environment of open communication, you can ensure that your team feels that they can talk to you about anything, from the possibility of getting a pay rise to harassment in the workplace. To keep up to date with how each team member is doing, aim to schedule monthly one-to-one meetings with them so that you can reassess their career goals, projects, and get a general feel for how they are getting on in their role and how happy they are at work.
Respect personal time
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Don’t be the kind of employer not to respect their team members personal time. Understand that your employees have their own lives away from work and make an effort to help them to keep their work and personal lives separate. It’s important to ensure that each of your team members has the perfect work life balance - what you don’t want to do is overwhelm them with too much work so that their personal time is spent working. Implement a system where your team members know that work is for during work hours and that their evenings and weekends are their own.
Reward hard work
A common reason why a lot of employees lose their motivation and drive is because they feel unappreciated. As an employer, you need to ensure that you are rewarding hard work. Aside from offering a competitive salary and perks such as health and medical insurance, it’s also worth considering implementing a reward system for exceptional work. This could be offering your team an extra half a day of holiday, a voucher, or a bonus cheque - it doesn’t matter what reward is, just as long as you are rewarding them, and making your employees feel valued. The fact is that retaining team members isn’t always an easy task, which is why it’s so crucial that you are aware of what it takes to reduce the likelihood of your employees jumping ship. It’s not always easy to retain your employees, but by taking note of the tips above, you can make it more likely that your team members will remain on board for a longer period of time.
