2023 Employee Retention Strategies

Employee retention is important. It reduces the amount of money companies have to spend on recruitment and training. It also ensures that a company’s workers are experienced and ready to take on any task they are given.

So, how do you increase employee retention? Keep reading to find out!

Why Do Employees Leave?

There isn’t a single reason employees leave companies. However, a few of the main reasons are more common than others.

The biggest of these is salary. In a Pew Research survey, 63 percent of workers responded that their decision to leave their job was due to salary. Similarly, many workers also leave due to inadequate benefits.

Another key reason for leaving relates to advancement. Many employees leave a workplace where they see little opportunity for advancement.

In addition, time is a key component. Workers will leave if they feel they are spending too much or too little time working. More recently, having flexible scheduling has been a key worker demand.

Mentorship Programs

Mentorship programs go a long way in retaining employees. This is because they help alleviate some problems while also providing some benefits.

These programs immediately give a new employee something to aspire to. They start their new job with the hope that they can advance to the position of their mentor.

They also give employees an immediate connection to someone in the office. This inaugurates them into the office culture and has them start building connections. As these connections deepen, they will be less likely to leave.

High-Quality Orientation and Onboarding

First impressions are incredibly important. Because of this, you want new employees’ first impression of your company to be positive. This starts with high-quality orientation and onboarding.

By making this process effective, you will start out on the right foot with new employees. They will form an immediately positive impression of the company and carry that with them forward.

Plus, they will have a more exact idea of their job and what it entails. This makes them more comfortable with what they are doing and gives them the skills necessary to do their job without frustration, which makes them happier. It also improves the quality of their work from the very start, which helps the company.

Competitive Compensation

As mentioned earlier, compensation is a key factor that impacts employee retention. It is critical to pay employees at a competitive rate. You don’t necessarily need to be the highest-paying company, but you want to be competitive compared to similar companies.

Benefits are a part of this as well. Good health insurance or other benefits can be a key factor in distinguishing one company from another. Plus, once employees are used to the benefits they receive, they become more comfortable with them and are less likely to leave those benefits in pursuit of something different.

Extra Perks

Speaking of things that help distinguish one company from another, perks are a great way to set your company apart while improving retention. Google famously offers a range of perks that many believe make working there a dream. These perks include gourmet food, free rides to work, and even massages.

Your company doesn’t need to offer everything offered by Google. However, offering a few small things can go a long way. This is especially true if you can offer more or better perks than your competitors. In this case, workers have a tangible example of something you provide that they cannot get elsewhere.

Health and Wellness Benefits

Corporate health and wellness goes beyond just offering health insurance. Nowadays, many companies offer more benefits to encourage their employees to live better and healthier lives.

These include a range of unique and helpful offerings. Some companies offer discounts on health-related activities and subscriptions, like fitness programs or gym memberships. Others offer mental health and wellness services, like stress management programs or wellness app subscriptions.

This has the added benefit of making your employees better workers. Healthy workers show up to work more often, and those dealing with less stress are more productive. So, you end up helping everyone!

Want to add health and wellness benefits your team will love? Schedule a consultation with us to see how Xcellent Life can help!

Open Communication

Communication is critical in every situation. People want to feel like others are listening to them and taking them seriously. This is even more important in the workplace.

Poor communication causes frustration. An employee may not be doing their job right and may get in trouble because of it, even if it isn’t their fault. Plus, if employees feel that no one at the office is paying attention to them, they may look elsewhere.

This can be fixed by establishing good communication channels. Employees should be able to voice their concerns in a way that allows them to be heard. They should also receive communications in a clear and straightforward way.

Training and Development

Employees want to feel like they are going somewhere and that advancement is possible in the future. This is why one of the main reasons workers leave their jobs ends up being because they don’t see advancement coming.

By investing in training and developing these employees, you remind them that they are important. They feel they are going somewhere and will be able to take on a more advanced job in the future.

Plus, giving employees more training and development is always good for the company itself. The company ends up with a better workforce that is more capable than before.

Recognition and Rewards

Everyone likes to be recognized and rewarded for the work that they do. Doing this makes employees happier and makes them feel as if their work is making a difference. The rewards don’t even have to be that significant as long as they have meaning and purpose behind them.

One study found that these kinds of rewards had a “significant positive impact on the motivation of the employee and employee performance.” This means that these rewards don’t just help keep employees around; they help make them work better than before.

Recognize Milestones

Recognizing milestones is a great way to improve employee retention. For one, this recognition works as a reward, which we already explained positively impacts employees. However, it also gives them something to look forward to. A company that gives out nice watches after an employee has been around for five years will likely see many employees stick around to get a watch of their own.

Work-Life Balance

Now more than ever, a healthy work-life balance is an important part of community health. Many employees want to ensure they are not working to the point where their real lives become secondary.

Companies can create a proper balance by distancing work from an employee’s time at home. By emphasizing that employees aren’t expected to respond to emails or calls while at home, these employees will enjoy their situation more. Plus, it improves the employee’s mental health and satisfaction.

Flexible Arrangements

Woman in White Long Sleeve Shirt Sitting on Gray Couch Using Macbook

In recent years, flexibility has become more important in many jobs. Many workers no longer want to hold fast to tradition.

For some, this means the ability to work from home. Many consider this so important that they won’t even consider jobs with no work-from-home options.

For others, it means the ability to create a schedule that works for them. More and more offices are keeping non-traditional hours in order to accommodate employees who like to come in earlier or stay later.

Change Management

People generally dislike change. So, when a company needs to make changes, it is important to state these changes clearly. Providing employees with the information they need right away, rather than waiting, is a great way to start. In addition, providing regular updates regarding changes will allow them to stay on top of things.

Frequent Performance Feedback

Frequent performance feedback is something that helps everyone.

For employees, this feedback makes them feel seen and valued. If they are doing a good job, being reminded of that fact boosts their confidence. If they aren’t doing a good job, the feedback will give them an idea to work toward. Either way, they know the company is working with them, not against them.

For the company, this feedback creates better employees. It allows them to correct mistakes some employees make while reinforcing good behavior. Essentially, it allows the company to direct its employees in how they see fit.

Promoting Teamwork

A team is often more than the sum of its parts. By working together, employees on a team can collaborate and share ideas in a way that is impossible to do as individuals.

This also creates and solidifies connections within the workforce. If an entire workplace is indifferent or even resentful toward each other, they will enjoy their time in the office less. Many people end up leaving a workplace because they hate their coworkers. However, if people like their coworkers, work becomes a more pleasant experience. They will be less likely to leave the company because they feel it will let their friends down.

Use These Employee Retention Strategies to Keep Your Best Team Members

Retaining employees can be difficult at times. However, doing so helps the company.

By following the tips and tricks listed above, you can create an environment that employees will want to be in. Plus, many of these tips end up helping the company just as much as they help employees. So, in the end, everyone wins!

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December 23, 2022