Updated: May 15, 2023
Gone are the days when professionals would stay with the same employer all throughout their careers. People change jobs frequently not only to earn more money but for the sake of a better work-life balance and self-fulfillment. From the company’s viewpoint, employee turnover reduction helps cut down expenses on attracting and onboarding new teammates. It’s cheaper and easier to promote the existing staffers to high-level positions than hire outsiders who aren’t familiar with the business. In this article, we’ll list the best practices for employee retention. They should come in handy for organizations of any size and niche.
Invest in Onboarding
The more effort you put into the onboarding process, the better it will pay off:
- Inform your new staff members not only about their duties but also about your corporate culture, mission and values
- Provide them will all the necessary tools and explain how to use them
- Give them access to the set of documents that contain your company’s policies — and if you lack such documents, create them
- Introduce the newcomers to the team in a chat or by email
- Show them around the office
It would be great to prepare welcome gifts for your new employees, such as your branded hoodie, cup, pen and other supplies.
Assign Mentors
The mentor should be ready to answer all the questions that the newcomer might want to ask. An ideal mentor ticks these boxes:
- Is sociable, eager to help and positive-minded
- Works in the same niche as the new staffer (a senior developer can become a mentor for a junior developer)
- Has worked for you for several years and knows your company inside out
When the trial period is over, allow the recently hired specialist to stay in touch with their mentor and ask for consultations whenever the former needs it.
For remote work, mentorship is more important than for an office. In the office, there are many people whom the newcomer can ask questions. While working distantly, it’s vital to have a direct contact who can share advice.
Pay Generously
It’s one of the most obvious tips for keeping your best talent — but let’s have a look at it from a fresh angle. What if you can’t afford to pay large salaries to your staff? Try to compensate for the lack of funds with flexibility, educational opportunities, a nice atmosphere in the office and other perks (we’ll discuss them in the next passages).
Pay the salaries punctually. Create transparent payout schemes and make them available for all employees. Everyone needs to know the conditions for receiving bonuses and the amounts of rewards for various achievements.
Allow Flexibility
By saying “flexibility”, we mean:
- Remote and hybrid work
- Paid leaves
- Four-day week
- Lack of necessity to stick to conventional business hours
Some people love to work at night. Others reach their peak of productivity at 5 am. If possible, let your remote teammates work whenever they feel comfortable. Decide when and how you’ll communicate with them and how you can reach out to them in the case of an emergency.
If you make the team work extra hours, compensate for that: pay them a bonus or allow them to take a few days off.
Encourage your employees to regularly go away on vacation. Teach them to set boundaries, such as go offline at the end of their working day and on weekends. These are the most efficient ways of preventing burnout.
Come Up with Wellness Offerings
When building a strong employer brand, it’s essential to take care of your staff’s physical and mental health. Here are a few examples of what you can do:
- Run stress management programs
- Offer retirement planning services
- Reimburse for fitness classes
Make sure everyone on your team is polite and tolerant, which is vital for maintaining a healthy atmosphere.
Communicate with Every Staff Member
Effective employee communication suggests that managers should find time for face-to-face conversations with every employee. During such meetings, you can discuss the following topics:
- Achievements and aspirations of your staff members
- Issues that they face at work and ways for overcoming them
- Their short- and long-term professional goals
Help your staffers plan their professional future. If they want to land a specific position, explain to them which skills it requires and how to obtain them. Outline their future scope of responsibilities and salaries.
Create a report template for all your staff or a dedicated template for each separate department. Let your employees send mandatory reports to you at the end of each week. It’s a superb tool for assessing people’s productivity. In their reports, your teammates can list:
- Tasks that they accomplished
- Tasks that they’re currently working on
- Respective time frames for each task
- Their outstanding achievements
- Problems that they have faced
Encourage constructive criticism. You team members shouldn’t be afraid to say that they don’t like something about your business. Their feedback is your valuable opportunity to detect your weak points for free, without hiring third-party auditors. Ask your employees about the suggested ways of overcoming these issues. Reward them for helpful ideas.
Encourage Teamwork
The importance of employee engagement is obvious:
- Staff members develop a sense of belonging to your brand
- They start to trust each other more, which leads to better cooperation and coordination of efforts
- Your company achieves more impressive results thanks to the synergy effect
To create a positive work environment and culture, learn to celebrate successes. Host offline or online events to mark the end of a large project, your company’s anniversary or the commercial success of one of your products. Hire networking experts to organize team-building events for you.
Create Training and Development Opportunities
Technologies and tools are evolving at a mind-blowing speed. Professionals need to continuously upgrade their skills to be able to cope with different solutions — which is known as upskilling. To keep progressing through the career path, they need to acquire the skills that they previously lacked — this is reskilling.
Provide free educational courses to your staff. Reimburse for their education outside your company. Give them time to attend conferences and seminars. Praise them for their efforts. Thanks to this, your business will get a competitive edge and your teammates will be likely to stay with you longer.
Final Thoughts
To sum it up, the optimal employee retention strategies include Investing in onboarding, assigning mentors, paying generously, allowing flexibility, coming up with wellness offerings, communicating with every staff member, encouraging teamwork and creating training and development opportunities. Today, if professionals need to choose between an employer that lets them keep a work-life balance and another one that pays more but is notorious for its toxic culture, they will be likely to opt for the former. Try to make your staff happy — and they will ensure sustainable development for your business!
In addition to the mentioned strategies, fostering a culture of inclusivity and diversity within the organization can significantly contribute to employee retention. Creating an environment where individuals from different backgrounds and perspectives feel valued and supported can lead to increased engagement and loyalty. Moreover, providing opportunities for career growth and advancement, such as mentorship programs and clear progression paths, can motivate employees to stay and thrive within the company.
