Forming the right team is one of the most critical parts of starting a successful business. Then, once you have the ideal team in place, talent retention becomes one of your business’s most crucial challenges to successfully meet.
Unemployment levels are relatively low in many countries including the United States and Australia. With talent being hard to come by, employers have to beware that recruiters will likely be attempting to lure your top employees away from you.
So how do you keep your top talent? Let’s
discuss 4 ideas for retaining your best employees.
1.
Give Them Outstanding Managers to Work With
It’s really true what they say: Talented people don’t quit their jobs; they quit subpar bosses. So it stands to reason that, if you want to avoid having people quit, you should give them exceptional people to work with in the first place.
If your managers are in the habit of taking
credit for their subordinates’ work, micromanaging their employees or keeping
their staff in the dark about important business matters, your company’s
employee retention rate will be low. These sorts of behaviors should not be
tolerated from your management team.
2.
Compensate Them Fairly
For most employees, work isn’t all about the paycheck; there are many factors besides just the paycheck that can motivate them to remain employed with your company — or not. But, all things considered, the paycheck is usually one of the top motivations for coming to work every day. So make sure your top talents’ compensation packages, particularly their annual salaries, are competitive with what other companies in your industry are offering their employees.
3.
Invest in Their Training and Professional Development
Unless robots could successfully run your startup, your employees are the most
influential component of your company’s success. And with the business
environment currently changing at an ultra-fast pace, it’s becoming
increasingly important for companies to consider investing in
ongoing employee training, re-training and upskilling.
Online education offers countless
opportunities for employers to empower their employees and invest in their
professional development. There are online opportunities for every possible
type of learning. Whatever your business needs, there’s a course available to
teach the relevant skills and lessons to your employees – from an open
enrollment language course to a professional certification to an MBA online.
Some employers will pay for their employees’ college tuition through
tuition reimbursement programs, educational
assistance program or other means. Other employers run their own in-house
training programs to ensure employees are trained with the competencies they
need to succeed at their jobs.
4.
Communicate With Them and Give Them Honest Feedback
Talented employees tend to crave honest communication and feedback. They want to know where they stand with management and their peers. They want to be thanked for a job well done. They also want to be challenged to do better and achieve more, particularly when they’re falling short of their goals. They want ever increasing levels of responsibility. When changes happen, they want to know what to expect and how their roles might evolve.
If you starve them of this communication, they
will be likely to resent it. So if you want to keep them, give them honest
feedback and communication.
The Bottom Line:
These aren’t the only ways to ensure your
employees remain loyal to your company, but they’re 4 of the most important
things your company can do to retain your top employees. Implementing these
suggestions can make a huge difference in whether your employees will remain
employed at your company in the long term.
