It’s no secret that it’s great employees who make great companies. Ensuring employees are happy at work should be a major point of discussion, especially during the present “Great Resignation” induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Management after all would be redundant without a team to manage.
LinkedIn statistics predict that
Β 41% of employees will leave their current employer
and that 46% of employees will change career entirely this year.
To continue building a company that provides a great service to society, as well as being a great place to work, continue reading for our 7 Top Tips for High Employee Retention.
Who are Your Engaged Employees?
Pay special attention to the enthusiastic, engaged employees. These are the ones who are excited about contributing & who are excited about the vision; those who speak up about their ideas, suggestions for improvement & are assertive in actions to help move things forward.
When they go quiet, you know something is up.
This is, however, the tipping point. Keep track of these and the remaining 80% of employees who are disengaged, listen and engage now, to ensure this tipping point is never reached. Discover our top tips in achieving high employee satisfaction, engagement and retention below.
7 Top Tips for High Employee Retention
1. Cultivate a Culture with Strong & Regular exchange in dialogueΒ
and a Safe Space for people to Air their Views. πΌπ£
It may be management who control the work culture of an organisation. Management decide who to hire & let go, the voice for internal communications, flexibility and company attitudes to work-life balance, who to reward & how to deal with difficult problems, crises and employees, good and not-so-good. All of these aspects contribute to a healthy work culture, but it’s communication that is number one.
Open, casual internal communications, a relatively relaxed work culture, together with regular “Ideas Meetings” and constant feedback between employees and Management will help keep employees engaged and feel valued. π‘ππΌ
2. Allocate Time for Employees to move Their Projects Forward
…and check the progress. β° Projects as a result of open discussions above/employee reviews (below) need time to action at work, and not during personal time. This may not only improve the efficiency of your business (by backing projects that improve efficiency & efficacy of an employee to do their work for example) but also boosts employee engagement, responsibility & self-confidence and their trust in management which altogether strengthens the work culture.
3. Give Your Team the Right tools π
from the start and keep training up-to-date. An employee should have access to documents, software etc. & should been shown everything they need to hit the ground running on day one. Training needs to be thorough, continuous & measured with opportunity to retrain, refresh, deepen and/or broaden their skills as needed and/or if desired. They should be given the time, the processes, deadlines, the opportunity for open discussions & any help needed to enable them to make positive changes to their life at work. This tends to be good for the business, and often results in enabling employees to π±πΌ ππ΅π²πΆπΏ π·πΌπ― πΊπΌπΏπ² π²π³π³πΆπ°πΆπ²π»ππΉπ & π²π³π³π²π°ππΆππ²πΉπ, in way that makes them happy. πͺπΌβ¨
4. Rewarding & Celebrating efforts and talent but also letting go of the wrong people
Hard work pays off of course, when talent runs out; healthy work cultures are where everyone who contributes feels valued. And it’s not just compensation or benefits, but genuine communications, regular feedback and recognition in 1-2-1 employee reviews. It’s also reprimanding, educating and/or encouraging change in those who aren’t pulling their weight, and if it comes to it, letting go of an employee who clearly doesn’t deserve to be part of the team.
Letting the wrong people hang around is not only unfair, but devalues great work & demotivates great employees. π
5. From the start, Hire Right β
…with the mindset “this person will stay with us for a very long time” not “they’ll probably leave within the next year”. You’ll be more invested in their training and career progress, more willing to listen, more willing to make the positive changes that could actually improve your business (and tenure!) and be more invested in choosing the people who fit. π€π»π§©
Of course, your regular work day in management requires a lot of focus and time. It also takes focus and a lot more time than you think to establish a. exactly who you are looking for and b. to find this special person. For those managers already stretched or need a position filling fast, try working with a reputable recruitment agency who is a specialist in your industry.
An experienced, specialist recruiter will save you time and money in the long run, regardless of the fees; which tend to be a drop in the ocean for what you get back in time & employee quality. In addition, fees are deducted upon successful placement & agreed probation period, even reimbursing clients when candidates don’t make it. Backed by a database of thousands of suitable candidates, our superior screening processes, the hiring experience and industry knowledge needed, we fill 90% of our vacancies within the first 8 weeks (most in 4 weeks), and 97% of all vacancies overall. To decide the best agency to go with, check reviews, ask peers or reach out to the agency’s Senior Management team & discover exactly how they work from the top down. ππβ¨
6. Provide a Personal Career Path for Each Employee. ππ―
An employee should feel like they have the option to advance if they prove themselves. Most employees are capable of learning new skills, but it’s the manager’s task to recognise which. Effective & illuminating insights can be gained from bi-annual, 1-2-1 meetings set up to discuss what exactly employees want from their time at your company. Assess how their needs can fit with business objectives/opportunities/improvements, set actionable steps for the next 6 months, and watch them grow into engaged & inspired employees, actively invested in company success. Itβs a two-way street.
7. Increase Work Flexibility π€πΌβ¨
According to LinkedIn, for the past year or more now increased work flexibility has been (and continues to be!) the most attractive feature for job seekers across all industries, above salary/compensation & work culture respectively. For the finance sector, we speculate that salary remains the number one most attractive feature, whilst a good work culture is tied closely with career progression and ESG-alignment in third place.
Itβs a job-seekers market out there, with ample roles to fill but the talent being more choosey than ever. Empowered by the taste of work-from-home (WFH) experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and the knowledge that it is almost 100% possible, itβs no surprise most employees are now actively seeking hybrid/WFH/remote rolesβ¦ or may change their career entirely!
There’s been a lot of resistance in increasing work flexibility; a lot of it has to do with trust. This comes back to point 5 and point 1; you can’ have trust if there’s a lack of communication and you’re unsure you’ve got the right people.
But if the WFH/hybrid model is not possible, consider…
Other ideas for increasing flexibility
- The ability for an employee to reject overtime β if they donβt want it (this of course needs a business with the structure to support this, which some of our Clients with Fund Accounting departments are actively creating)
- More flexible work time (e.g. 8hours/day between 8am-8pm) π’
- Time paid in lieu; optional and dependent on employee wishes, time off chosen when the employee wants to take it π΄πΌ
- Working holiday allowance on top of annual leave π»π
Employees may also appreciate additional compensation;
- Paid overtime, usually at increased rate
- Extra rewards/benefits if employee has gone above & beyond
Final thoughts
It’s probably worth pointing out that usually
what is important to employees, should also be important to their employers,
and those companies who invest in their employee training, rewarding equivocally, employee well-being & company work culture tend to be the strongest businesses with the greatest success.
π