(Akiit.com) Most entrepreneurs begin their businesses by themselves, but very few can say they stayed that way for long. With so much to do and so little time to do it in, there will come a time when you need to bring on permanent employees. After spending time and money recruiting new talent, the last thing any company wants is to lose it to somewhere better. Employees quit their jobs for a number of reasons, but it’s up to you to make sure that yours don’t want to. Keeping that in mind, here are ten surefire ways you can reduce employee turnover in your business.
Offer A Competitive Salary
Jobs these days are about so much more than money, but no one can deny the importance of it regardless. Unless you offer a current and competitive salary, you’ll receive very few applications for positions in your company, to begin with. Those that do decide to work for you will also move on the moment they find somewhere that will pay them what they need. For this reason, you should research other companies and ensure that your salary and benefits match up with theirs.
Hire The Right People
Hiring the wrong people for your company is one guaranteed way to increase employee turnover. After all, if a person isn’t right for the job they’re given, either they’ll leave themselves, or you’ll have to let them go. To better your chances of bringing on great employees, you should improve your hiring process. You can find advice on how to do this in a hiring blog, podcast, or book. Make sure to consider every candidate’s personality, as well as their skills and experience. Once you have good employees on board, you need to focus on keeping them with you for as long as possible. Finding the best lms will help with employee training and productivity, giving them, the best chance at thriving within their position.
Learn To Let Go
Even with a great hiring process, there is still the chance that you could hire someone that doesn’t quite fit in your company culture. This could start to affect your team as a whole, leading more and more talented hires to move elsewhere. To prevent this, you should learn to let go of employees that aren’t right for your business. This isn’t by no means an ideal solution, but it will prevent any further damage that this employee may have caused in the long run.
Don’t Ban Office Romance
Romance and other personal relationships are outlawed in many companies all over the world. This usually to prevent the negative impact of a breakup or any accusations of favoritism among colleagues. Unfortunately, even with rules in place, it’s impossible to ignore feelings when they’re there. Instead of forcing employees to hide relationships, or, worse still, move to another job because of them, you should ask that couples remain professional when in the workplace.
Encourage Work-Life Balance
There is a big difference between wanting employees to work hard and working them to the point of exhaustion. The latter will only ever lead to stress and burnout, which might spur your team members to move on elsewhere. For this reason, you should instead encourage a healthy work-life balance. You can do this by offering flexible schedules and allowing employees to choose their own hours. You could even allow employees to work from home now and then.
Have Some Fun Together
Despite what many believe, you’re not actually supposed to hate your job. In fact, at least some of the time, you are meant to enjoy it. If your employees are miserable and bored at work, they could start to look into workplaces with a little more fun. Keeping that in mind, you should aim to create a happier office environment by planning ways for you and your team to have some fun together. For example, you could dress up at Halloween or go on team building days together.
Reward The Hard Work
For the employees consistently hitting their targets, it’s crucial that you find ways to reward their hard work. This shows that you appreciate their help and care about them as people, rather than just workers. There are many ways to reward your employees, but you should ensure that you tailor them to individuals, rather than giving every team member the same thing. After all, what one employee will gratefully appreciate, another one may have absolutely no use for.
Make Opportunities For Growth
Sometimes employees may not necessarily want to leave your company, but, if they believe that they’ve got as much out of it as possible, then they may have to do so anyway. With that in mind, you should ensure that you regularly challenge your staff and provide opportunities for them to grow as professionals and people. Give them new tasks regularly, send them away for additional training, and bring them along on business trips. This shows that you’re invested in them.
Keep The Workspace Clean
As insignificant an issue as it may seem, an unclean, untidy, and unorganized workspace can wreak havoc in your company. Unbeknownst to many, clutter and mess are subtle sources of psychological stress, which can make your team dread coming into work. If the mess has reached dangerous levels, it can also put your employees at risk of injury. Because of this, you should consider employing a cleaner a few times a week to help keep your office in order.
Hear All Team Concerns
There’s a lot that you can do to reduce turnover in your business, but, without being an employee yourself, it’s difficult to know everything that could be causing problems. For this reason, you should ensure that employees have a way to voice their concerns, by setting up a suggestions box somewhere in your office. Make sure that you check this box regularly and find solutions to the issues that are frequently mentioned. You can go over these solutions in your staff meetings.
Employees quit their jobs for a whole host of reasons, and while there is sometimes nothing that you can do about this, in many cases, you, as the employer, has some control. Instead of wasting time and money replacing your talent, you should work to keep your team together by following the advice above.
Staff Writer; Jason Ford