In today’s challenging labor market, employers feel more need than ever to hold onto talent. Why, however, is this such a major challenge? Largely thanks to the worldview of millennials, who expect things fast, search for experiences, and are simply not willing to stay in a job long enough to wait for the benefits. Bad news is, with generation Z soon to come into their prime, the situation isn’t bound to fix itself any time soon, because if you thought millennials were an HR-handful, the follow-up is even more so.
The solution is – invest in retaining your employees.
5 Steps to Retaining Employees:
1. Ensure Supervisors can Connect with Workers
What we mean by connection isn’t painful, theory-X monitoring and control. That would be bound to drive the young workers out the door from day one. Without a doubt, it’s a supervisor’s role to keep the finger on the pulse, but there is more than one way to approach it. Entrusting responsibility, avoiding micromanagement and being on the lookout for ‘teacher’s pet’ scenarios typically ensures that the sense of hierarchical authority doesn’t switch from respect into contempt or envy.
2. Set Up Workers for Success
Easier said than done? Truly, theories are filled with approaches that use fear as the predominant push factor, while the mindset of success gets ignored. Is it right? Not quite so. Although workers do tend to respond to fear well, and at times a crisis may be exactly what one needs, the dominating company environment should be that of positivity, success, brighter future on the horizon, and belief in each one of the employees. Flexicrew believes you can do this and is at times much more effective. We hope you will get yourself together for this one… It’s all about attitude.
3. Competitive Pay and Benefits
Almost every employee feels they are underpaid. This is hardly a feeling that goes away, simply because belief in monetary self-worth is rooted in each one of us living in the modern world. Certainly, you should aim to recognize achievement and hard work, and make sure to reward it accordingly, but what if you are a smaller business and resources are running on the lower side? You would like to reward your employees, but financials are so tight you are worried you can’t afford to do it left and right. Luckily, it’s not all workers look for. Medical insurance, a gym discount, free pizza on Thursdays, ability to occasionally work from home for young mothers, a ping pong table in the back of the office for employees to enjoy during break times – you would be surprised what a difference a relatively inexpensive benefit can make for employee retention percentage increase.
4. Employee and Work Team Recognition
Everyone talks about team work, and make no mistake, a good team is the absolute key to the success of your business. Sometimes it may, however, seem difficult to encourage it to go the way you want it to. One of the main issues is – in many workplaces, an ego of an employee still stands above the success of a team as a whole. This is human nature. If an employee isn’t feeling his skills are recognized, he may free-ride team tasks, and be reluctant to contribute as much as he could have. How do we deal with this? We uncover personal motivation. For some it’s a bonus, for another – public recognition (studies have proven that this particular procedure resulted in a better employee job satisfaction percentage than a higher compensation). And for someone else – it’s a simple pat on the shoulder and a ‘good job’ aimed his way.
5. Offer Workers Means to Provide Input and Feedback
Last but not least, each one of us wants to be heard. Having a voice is crucial for a healthy job environment, so make it happen today. Suggestion boxes, anonymous supervisor evaluations, monthly meetings with the question on the agenda: “What should we do better?” The best suggestion which ends up implemented can even be rewarded! At the end of the day, no matter if you are a business owner, a manager or an HR specialist, it’s all about asking yourself which environment would an employee happily be in X hours per day / Y days a week for at least 2 years.
And of course, start taking these baby steps today.
For more advice on retaining employees, give Flexicrew a call 866-720-FLEX (3539) or connect with one of our branches.