As a business owner, you want to retain your employees and have them stay with your company for as long as possible as it can get costly to replace your staff frequently. Nobody wants to put in money to hire and train employees only to do so again six months later. Learn how happier employees could lead to a happier you– here are some tips to keep your employees, and yourself, happy and productive.
Why They Leave
Before getting into the tips, we must first get into the reason for why employee retention might be on the decline. Business can lose employees for a multitude of reasons—whether it’s because of a whole family move, to stay home with the children, or going back to school. However, most of the reasons why people leave their jobs are under the control of the employer. Elements such as the company culture and environment, as well as how the employee perceives his or her job and opportunities there can all be influenced by you, the employer.
Communication
One of the best things an employer can do to improve retention rates is to have better communications with their employees. An employer is too much of an integral part in employees’ daily work life that having a good professional relationship with their boss causes improved morale, productivity, loyalty. It can also reduce mistakes that happen from lack of communications, and prevent angry employees from disrupting the workflow of your company.
To improve communication with your employees try implementing more of the following:
Having face-to-face conversations: Interacting with employees personally not only
strengthens the work relationships, but it also helps build trust and respect that emails and text can’t provide.
Being approachable: Before you can have face-to-face conversations, you need to
be approachable. Be more engaging and take your employees out to lunch.
Keeping employees informed and up-to-date with company happenings
Listening to them or providing avenues for sounding off: Communication is a two-way street, and you need to listen as well. Hear them out by having regular staff meetings, a suggestion box, or have a running employee satisfaction survey.
Acting on any complaints: What use is listening if you don’t do something
about it. Act on what you hear and provide solutions to your employees’ complaints.
Boost Teamwork
Another root cause of employees leaving work is disagreements or discomfort with fellow team member. Employees spend most of their time at work with co-workers, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that improving the relationships they have with one another will help keep them happy and more likely to enjoy coming into work.
Try these tips with your teams to improve employee relations:
Outlining Clear Roles: Working with members to outline skill sets and deadline
charts before the start of projects helps identify individual roles and reduces stress levels.
Identifying existing problems: Leaving issues to resolve themselves over time may
not be the most optimal solution. Having group members collectively discuss problems as they arise solves the
risk of the issues growing larger later.
Mediate Disputes: Providing detailed instructions to teams on how to remedy
issues will empower members of the team to solve them efficiently and productively.
Encouraging social activity: When workers know each other well allows them to be
more comfortable with discussing issues, thus increasing team work.
Implementing recognition programs: Rewarding your team for good performance
will encourage them to keep up the work and keep producing quality material.
Next Steps
Improving your relationship with your employees as well as their relationships with themselves will get you back on track for a productive year. If these tips weren’t enough, HR Synergy can help you take care of the most important aspects of your business because we know that employees are everything to your business.
Written by:
Bianca Wee Sit, Public Relations Intern
HR Synergy, LLC.