Tips on How to Keep Your Best Employees
Employees are great assets to an organization and losing a good employee will spell doom for any organization. The value a good employee will add to an organization may be difficult to find elsewhere and so retaining good employees should be an organization’s paramount responsibility. More so, if an employee leaves an organization, getting a new employee can be very expensive. You will have to train new employees and give them proper orientation which is very tedious and expensive. Retaining an employee is cost-effective and a wise decision.
Some employers can affirm that there are a lot of fish in the river; but what if your right-hand man such as Financial Manager leaves the organization? His role in the organization is indispensable. Organizational influence, external and internal relationships, and the overall effect on other employees make losing such a personality highly damaging to the organization.
How to Keep Your Best Employees
- Encourage Input and Feedback from Employees
- Mentor Employees and don’t Micromanage
- Pay above Average or Standard rates
- Promote Employees that are due
- Show love and appreciation to Employees
- Provide a flexible work schedule
- Encourage Creativity and Innovation
Encourage Inputs and feedback from Employees
One of the ways to retain employees is by giving room for them to give opinions about the organization. Create a forum and give employees a chance to make input and involve your employees in decision making. Appreciate their contributions and apply them if you feel they are good. Leaving out employees from a company’s decision-making will make them feel that their contributions to the company are not needed.
In addition, employee feedback is another crucial way of retaining them. Give room for employees to air their views about what they feel or their complaints. You can also get employees’ feedback using surveys and other apps. This will foster a sense of community and build your organization.
Mentor Employees and Don’t Micromanage
Good employees know what to do at the appropriate time. The relationship between you and your employees should be that of mentorship and not micromanaging. You don’t have to remind your employees of what to do all the time but let them be. Micromanaging employees can hamper the overall productivity of an organization. You don’t have any business with the process of a project but the final output should be your focus. Employees should be given a chance to plan, execute and manage a project how they want to; as a leader, focus on the results rather than the process. This will give your employees freedom in the organization and you will be able to retain them.
Pay Above Average or Standard Rates
The reward for labour is wages and salaries. One of the best ways to retain your employees is to pay them better than average salaries. This will make them stick around with the company and new job recruiters will not entice them. To retain the best employees you have to pay among the best salary and not some standard for an average worker. Pay your workers their worth and also add incentives, allowances, and bonuses. Paying 10 – 20 percent above the standard payscale can help you to retain your employees. This is very cost-effective because it prevents you from conducting interviews and recruiting new employees which are quite expensive.
Promote Employees that are due.
Promotion is known as a change in the title and salary of an employee. When an employee is putting extra effort and is making a lot of difference in the organization, it is very important that such an employee is appreciated to make the company more efficient.
In addition, promote employees that have been working in the organization for a long period of time as long the employee is adding value. Many people are working to build their careers and so getting stuck in a particular job position for a long time can be frustrating. Promoting an employee is building that employee’s career and showing appreciation for his loyalty and dedication to the organization. Employees will not stay long in an organization that does not offer promotions.
Show Love and Appreciation to Employees
Show your employees that you care about them by celebrating them on their birthdays and achievements. Show concern for their welfare such as footing medical bills for sick employees and giving free dinners or lunch treats. Make your employees feel at home in a work environment and show them that they are family
Appreciate employees by giving small rewards when a project is successful and also give awards like employee award of the year to motivate them. This will increase other employees’ morale and help them to perform better. Invest in potential employees.
Provide a Flexible Work Schedule
One of the ways to retain your employees is by making the work very convenient for them. Do not bombard employees with a lot of duties and overwork them. Too much stress may make them quit their job. Make the working hours very flexible such that employees can find time for friends and families. For example, some organizations demand that employees must come to work Saturdays and Sundays. Except your business is an essential service, you should let employees have the weekend off to spend time with friends and families. Alternatively, you can run a shift so as to create free time for your employees. Setting principles in an organization is very important but do not set harsh principles that will make the working environment unfriendly. In addition, do not set horrible deadlines for employees; allow them to work at their own pace for better results and proficiency. Make the working environment conducive, comfortable and convenient to retain your best employees.
Encourage Creativity and Innovation
Give employees room to brainstorm and come up with fresh ideas. Give them the resources to test these ideas and let them create a team to implement them. Encouraging creativity among employees is another way to retain them and make the work environment exciting for them.
In conclusion, retaining your best employees is highly beneficial to the productivity, effectiveness, and profitability of an organization. Adhere to the tips mentioned above to keep your best employees.