With the increasing competition between workplaces today, there is a greater chance of turnover as your employees find work elsewhere. To keep your organization running smoothly, you want your best employees to continue working with you, even if they’re tempted by better offers at another workplace.
It is incumbent upon you to maintain high employee retention by giving them the drive to stay with you. The process involves treating your employees as human beings as opposed to disposable assets. Here are 5 simple steps you can take to show your employees that they are an important part of your organization and retain them in the process.
1. Empower Your Employees to Take Ownership of Their Work
You hire an employee because you believe they have a particular set of skills that will benefit your company. In order to show that you recognize that, you must allow them to offer their input in projects and decision-making processes. They should also be allowed to take ownership for their ideas and projects.
Your goal is remind your employee that their ideas matter, and that you trust that they will deliver when you need them to. This means that you give them enough space to come up with ideas and use them responsibly under your guidance.
You can’t be too heavy-handed with the amount of input you put in projects you expect your employees to manage if you want them to stay and grow at your company. Empower them to take initiative to get their work done and to manage it in their own way, albeit responsibly.
2. Reward Hard-Working Employees with Better Pay
You want your employees to know that you recognize and appreciate their hard work. A simple way to do that is to reward them for it. This will boost their morale and will keep them comfortable with staying at your company. If they don’t feel like their work is rewarded fairly, they will begin to look for an employer that does appreciate their abilities and the quality of their input.
Research shows that employees are unhappy with their workplace when they learn that those colleagues of theirs that don’t work as hard as them receive similar — or better — salaries and benefits. This makes them feel undervalued by their employers. It will also give them less initiative to grow, and they will be less productive because there is no drive for them to strive for improvement.
3. Check-In on Your Employees Every Now and Then
Your employees are human beings with their individual goals and aspirations. It is important for you, as an employer, to know what those are on an individual level. Show your employee through short weekly meetings that you care about making their goals possible.
This will help them have a more positive outlook on their time at the workplace. They will also be more motivated to work with you because they can see an opportunity to grow – increasing their morale (as well the general morale at the office) in the process.
Don’t take these meetings as an opportunity to be intrusive about their progress, but rather as a chance to be supportive and show your concern. Your employees will appreciate your effort and will rethink a possible decision of leaving your organization.
This will also allow you the opportunity to discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of each employee. You will then know better on which task to assign to whom to ensure the best results for your company. Your employees are more likely to be able to work on tasks that they find interesting, which in turn will keep them happy and motivated during their time working with you.
4. Be Transparent with Your Employees about Your Organization
Don’t make your employees doubt the way your organization works. They should be in the loop about those things that are relevant to their work. If they feel a lack a trust from your end, you are likely to lose them from your workforce. It is difficult for people to work in a workplace when their executives keep important details from them for most of the time.
A level of trust helps your employees feel that they know the organization and are an active part of it. Not knowing the details of important processes will make them feel alienated from the organization, and you don’t want that.
China Gorman, a seasoned executive in the Human Capital Management Sector, discusses the importance of transparency in organizations. She writes that “high levels of trust, pride, and camaraderie” are an important part of the best workplaces in the world. Greater transparency allows employees to be more empowered and to trust their executives’ leadership.
Trust is established through consistently credible information, respect of staff members, and fairness in work-policies. Many workplaces are choosing to be more open with their employees and are benefiting from it. Trust your employees and they will be more likely to continue working with you.
5. Be Flexible With Your Timings and Policies
Research shows that employees’ engagement in their work can be improved through better workplace flexibility. A good work-life balance is important for leading a healthy and happy life. That sometimes requires taking a day off on an important work-day, leaving early or arriving late to work.
You’ll help keep your employees happy by not being rigid about such things as long as they’re delivering quality work the rest of the time. It can become a rather toxic work environment when employees have a strict set of rules at the workplace, and are forced to sacrifice their work-life balance in the process.
Things come up and people have no choice but to tend to their problems even if they have to during work-hours. Maintain a pleasant work environment by allowing your employees to take time off when they need it.
It is important to recognize, acknowledge, and appreciate the hard work your employees put into making your organization what it is. Show them that you value them and their work and you are more likely to keep them working for you.
