Retaining Your Best Employees: Why It’s In Your Company’s Best Interest

Recruiting new talent is exciting and potentially beneficial to your organization immediately and, if done well, long into the future. Training them in the necessary job skills and ensuring their cultural fit are necessities. When you put that much quality time into your people the last thing you want is for them to take that solid foundation and move it to another company–potentially a competitor–within a few months. So, how can you keep them and all your best employees? Let’s dig a little deeper.

 

Let The Right Ones In.

You know what needs doing in your company and you know what kind of person can do it. You need to make sure they know it too. To do that you need comprehensive and up to date job descriptions. Vague hiring tactics without clear parameters will produce employees who don’t know how they can help advance your company’s mission and meet your goals. And that’s not their fault. This goes for new hires and for current employees–everybody needs an accurate and updated job description. A place for everyone and everyone in their place.

 

Let Opportunity Knock For Them.

Who’s there? The future. If your best employees can’t see their future growth within the company, or if they hit a roadblock, they will look for answers elsewhere. One way to keep them interested and growing–that benefits both of you–is career development. This can include seminars, classes, even degree advancement programs such as EMBAs. You can offer to help them with the cost of job-related classes.

Be sure to have a fair and open means of evaluating their growth and a way of recognizing their achievements. The best employees will take pride in their growth and will feel a much stronger bond to your organization.

 

Who Benefits From Benefits?

Sure, salary and job title are powerful motivators but–especially in times of uncertainty–your benefits offerings can really work to keep your most productive and responsible employees on the job. Health benefits are most important and essential to recruiting. Another old standby is help with retirement and matching contributions to 401k savings still have power.

There are less traditional ways to benefit your best that work especially well with the younger segment of the workforce: generous paid time-off; flexible work hours; maternity/paternity leave; and especially today, work from home opportunities.

 

Communication = Trust.

Your best employees recognize that when they do a good job its good for the whole company. When they hear positive direction and feedback from management, they develop trust. That trust strengthens their feeling of ownership in the company–it’s their company too.

Communicate this trust by allowing employees to do important work without micromanaging them.

Trust builds competence and loyalty.

 

Forty Hours A Week Is Only A Small Part Of A Full Life

As rewarding financially, psychically and in any other way their job might be, it is only a small slice of your employee’s life. So, for starters, keep regular office hours. Don’t demand nights and weekends of them.

Additionally, find ways to share and celebrate life outside the office. Here are a few actual examples from successful companies: feature an avid birdwatcher in your company newsletter; allow employees to recruit volunteers for the local film festival; make t-shirts for a company team in 10k fun run or marathon. Easy and fun.

And always recognize (as your employees do) that this job allows them to have a good life.

 

Keep Communications Open

Feedback is everywhere these days. Online reviews. Text messages. Web chats and DMs. When your employees don’t hear from you, they get worried. If it stays that way, they may leave you. So, listen. And, be sure to give them feedback.

 

Two Little Words That Make A Big Difference

You probably already guessed them.

“Thank you.”

They don’t have much of an impact on overhead, but they can make a big difference in retaining your best employees. I can’t underscore this enough. I recall an instance in a past worklife where an associate came in to resigned. He loved his job but felt his manager did not appreciate the work he was doing. I knew that the manager valued him greatly and had him on a path to promotion. The manager had been extremely busy working on a huge company initiative and missed providing ongoing positive feedback on the employee’s performance as well as timely “thank you’s” for his work. Fortunately, we were able to retain this valueable employee. It doesn’t always work out this way.

You can also make your appreciation known with small perks–meals, event tickets, cash–but the power of a simple and well-timed “thank you” is mighty.

Thank you for reading this.

 

Would you like to talk about retaining your best employees? Contact Cisso Bean & Dutch for expert HR guidance today.

If you need advice on how this could benefit your company, we may be able to help. Contact Cisso Bean & Dutch today to partner with skilled HR experts that can help you benefit from a vibrant company culture.