Some of your best employees are some of the biggest assets for your business as all companies spends much of their resources in polishing these gemstones. Some of these employees become favourites of the top management and mostly for the right reasons. We are taking the best-case scenario here where workers do not use leg pulling, backbiting, schmoozing, and dirty politics as a ladder to move up in the management hierarchy and instead earn the promotions and raises truly on merit base. When one or more such employee quits, the rest of the employees as well as the employer is left to wonder what went wrong. If you are facing any such problem or have dealt with one, whether you are looking at how to retain caregivers in your healthcare agency or lawyers at your law firm, you better read on and find out how you can try and retain some of your best employees.
Proven Practices to retain employees
1. Every employee deserves a fair and equitable treatment not only in terms of money but in terms of respect as well. If some employees, who have been working with you for long, have salaries that are lower than the one who recently joined with no apparent skills, they will seriously be de-motivated. Many companies have set rules where sharing information about salary and asking others about their income is against their policy. This is not the solution as there is no way to stop people from communicating with each other and getting close enough to share such information. What you need to do instead is to give old employees their due worth and make them feel important and at the same time have fair salary criteria.
2. If a supervisor treats one employee better than the rest, it creates jealously among them. Such environment encourages foul play and employees are compelled to use unethical ways for attention seeking. Those who cannot do so find it hard to survive and consider themselves better off by not being part of such working environment and quit. Sometimes, some of your best employees fall victim to this whirlpool. Therefore, to retain good employees and keep the rest in line, be fair and show equitable behavior to all of them without any discrimination.
3. Many employees quit their jobs just because they do not find many learning or growing opportunities in an organization. This kills their motivation, which is the real death of their talent. Devise a system, which allows them to learn, grow, step up, and attain better posts in the corporate hierarchy. For this purpose, arrange seminars and workshops, assign new and challenging projects to them, hold competitions, and launch regular training programs. All of these efforts will help you tell the hard working members apart who have the right skills for special posts and deserve promotions. Such training process and healthy competition among different departments will also keep the office’s environment healthy and fresh.
4. Threatening employees is worse than firing them. Certain rules are necessary for maintaining decorum in offices but the right way to practice them is through the managers of each department in coordination with the HR manager, who should link you to the entire company. Pointing at employee directly without following the hieratical order may leave the rest of the staff feeling insecure. Do not make them all believe that they are being watched during the office times. Give them free space. Let them grow and become the asset for your company. Find out better ways to deal with the employees who are not serious enough to work good on their own.
5. Make sure your employees feel rewarded, recognized, respected, and appreciated. Always give them the liberty to express their thoughts freely about work and company’s operations. Make a proper benefit package for all employees according to their positions and needs. Offer some essential perks for every employee, including health insurance, retirement saving plan, life insurance telecommuting, conveyance allowance, leave encashment and flexible working hours.
6. Longer working relations are not solely dependent on good working conditions. A little more is needed. Keep an update on what’s happening with your employees. Try to become a part of their happy and sad days. A few words of condolence and a few lines of encouragement go a long way in strengthening the relationships. It will make them feel important and watched-over by the company.