We all know the adage “A happy employee is a productive employee.” A happy employee is also an employee who is more likely to stay and grow with the company. That means fewer resources are spent on recruiting, onboarding, and training.
So, not only does productivity go up, but also your overhead goes down. Keeping your employees happy just makes good sense (and dollars).
In this short article, we’ll take a look at how to make sure you have happy, engaged, and productive employees – from the recruitment process through to the annual review.
Employee Retention Starts at Recruitment
Employee retention starts at recruitment – so important, I had to write it twice. During the recruitment process, beyond assessing if the candidate can and will do the job, you also need to assess whether the candidate will love doing the job.
When targeting top talent to fill a position, there’s a temptation to oversell the job. In these cases, maybe you’ve managed to increase your chances of getting the talent. But on the other hand, you’ve also probably increased your chances of being right back at this stage in 6 to 8 months.
Depending on the situation of your business, that might be an advantageous trade-off, but it’s unlikely going to be a sustainable practice.
Some red flags a candidate might not stay long in your company:
- The candidate has a track record of leaving companies after a short stint.
- The candidate is a transfer, a recent arrival in the city.
- The candidate is contemplating or planning to do a master’s or PhD
- During the interview, the candidate asks few to zero questions that pertain to company culture.
Though it’s difficult to predict how long a given candidate would stay if hired, there are a few positive signs we can keep an eye out for.
- The candidate is a recent graduate, and your company offers opportunities for advancement.
- The candidate displays a lot of knowledge about the company, its products, or its services.
- During the interview, the candidate asks questions that pertain to company culture.
What Does an Employee Need?
You should have a specific answer to this question for every individual employee you’ve hired. This question should be asked during the hiring interview. You need to be sure that you can provide the specific things the candidate names as his or her answer to that question.
Beyond the answers your recruits will give you, there are general needs that an employer has in regard to their job.
- Opportunities for personal growth
- Opportunities for professional growth
- Opportunities for self-expression
- A voice
- The sense that they are contributing to something greater than themselves
- The sense that they are making a positive contribution
- The sense that they are good at what they’re doing
Continual Training
Give your employees continual training. Don’t make it optional, but rather mandatory, if possible. It’s ideal if the training yields tangible or quantifiable results. A certificate is a good start. The important thing is that the employee can see the result of their training.
When the training is continual (or regular) it is easy for the employee to dream about how much they will have learned after 3 or 4 years, how many new skills they will have acquired.
When employee retention is a priority, providing them with regular opportunities for betterment is a must. The training, itself, should yield results in terms of better sales or increased efficiency.
And the fact that it improves employee retention should be enough of a cost-saver to offset much of the costs associated with training.
Diversity
Diversity started to become a priority for businesses a few years back, but diversity and inclusion still matter in the workplace. Diversifying the workforce is not simply about hiring people from different backgrounds.
It’s about giving them a voice, learning from different perspectives, and broadening the way problems are identified and solved.
Rewards and Recognition
People need to know what they do has value. We base so much of our identity on what we do for a living that it’s difficult to feel bad about what you do and not feel bad about who you are. Fortunately, the inverse is true, too.
Rewards are tangible or quantifiable things given to employees based on performance or even in the case of hitting longevity milestones.
- Bonuses for hitting a target
- Commission on sales or volume
- Tickets to sporting events or cultural events
- Restaurant tickets
- Devices such as phones or laptops
Recognition is praise, verbal or written acknowledgment of someone’s value.
- Sharing good news personally when an employee’s efforts have led to quantifiable results
- Posting a picture and/or article about the employee on the company website or social media accounts
- Setting in place an Employee of the Month or Wall of Fame
Both recognition and rewards should be a part of your long-term employee retention strategy. For maximum effect, consider encouraging or incentivizing all the members of the team to take part in the distribution of rewards and recognition.
This can be done through collaborative software were giving feedback on a task-to-task basis is easy to do and track. It can also be accomplished by emphasizing this behavior right from the start and leading by example.
The Bottom Line
There is no shortage of employee engagement ideas to motivate your team, as long as you set employee retention as a priority right from the recruitment process.
Include diversity, rewards, and recognition in your employee retention strategy. And continually look for ways to provide your employees with opportunities for personal and professional growth. Or, spend your energy on continually looking for new employees.
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