How to retain your employees

April 15, 2024

How to retain employees

If employee retention is currently just a phrase you hear dotted about in yearly reports, it’s time to rethink! There are many reasons why including consideration for employee retention in your plan for 2024 could be a great move. Read on for some top tips on how to retain your employees.

Our current uncertain economic climate has translated to uncertainty surrounding the job market, which means people are more likely to be apprehensive about career changes or moving jobs. Spelling difficulty in finding the right fit for a current vacancy and potentially putting unnecessary strain on your team.

However, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up to date with what employees are looking for. Often an employee’s priorities can be very different to what you’d expect. Which is why it is essential to get to grips with what employees are wanting and be able to execute changes successfully. In turn, these efforts should help you to not only retain your current employees but attract choice candidates with greater ease when the need arises.

How you can tackle the challenge of employee retention?

Provide flexibility in work arrangements

With all the new ways to work and the technology to assist, work flexibility is easier than ever. Consider offering a few days at home a week or flexible hours to help employees fit life commitments into their working life. With it becoming the new norm to have both parents working, it is vital to provide flexibility to best support employees. A new report has found that up to 20% of mothers are having to consider leaving work due to inadequate support from work – among several other pressing challenges.

Support a healthy lifestyle

Offering a discounted gym membership is becoming commonplace amongst work benefits as we continue to see frequently emerging research demonstrating the importance of exercise for mental health, sleep quality and productivity. Maybe consider expanding your lifestyle benefits to include mindfulness app memberships or time off for mental health.

Stress reduction

Reducing stress can be tackled both in the workplace and at home. Try to understand the predominant sources of stress in the workplace and see if there’s anything that can be changed to alleviate unnecessary stress and allow them to redirect this energy to greater priorities. You can read our blog here on keeping your employees happy and healthy.

In terms of reducing stress at home, make sure to encourage a healthy work-life balance, including the separation of work and home life – especially for those working from home. This can be accomplished by having no work-related contact between employees – including managers – outside of operating hours. Perhaps set up some guidelines or a workshop on how to reduce stress. Here are our own top tips!

Training opportunities and growth

If employees feel as though there’s no room or opportunity for growth and advancement, they may have more motivation to leave. Offering training and career progression options can reduce the appeal of changing jobs as employees have a goal to work towards and with promotion, feel they are being rewarded for their loyalty and hard work. Employees will also be more engaged if they feel as though they are being challenged, hence this is a great all-round strategy.

Highlight purpose

Employees want to see the impact of their work and know that their contributions are making a difference. Having a more open business plan where employees can see how their work fits into company ambitions is a surprising motivator and can add to retention incentives. Additionally, it is just as important to properly reward employees for these efforts. This article by Forbes on employee retention states that companies who make it a priority to consistently recognise employees are 41% more likely to experience increased employee retention and 34% more likely to observe a rise in engagement.

Consider company culture

Company culture is a rather broad term that encompasses a lot of topics that relate to employee retention. If you are unfamiliar with it, it is described by Forbes as the ‘living, breathing persona of your company’, in other words, the values and practices a company operates with on a day-to-day basis. While company culture is known as very difficult to alter, it is still important and worthwhile to understand your own. It may help to identify common reasons for leaving or even ways to increase the happiness of employees. So, whilst you may not be able to make any quick moves to alter company culture, there are always small changes you can implement to work towards a better workplace environment and counteract any potentially negative values or practices.

References:

15 Effective Employee Retention Strategies In 2023 – Forbes Advisor
Why employers need to rethink retention – personneltoday.com
One in five working mothers considering leaving work, new report finds – peoplemanagement.co.uk
What Is Company Culture? Definition & Strategies – Forbes Advisor