Your staff are the biggest asset to your business. They’re the glue that holds your business together. Hiring your team is just the start of creating your workforce, but their retention and satisfaction are crucial to achieving long-term success.
But not every business owner has success with their employees. High employee turnover can quickly become a problem, and cost you a lot of money. There could be any number of reasons as to why a staff member leaves you, but with each recruit who leaves, you’re left wondering “was it me? Did I do enough to keep them here?” Ultimately, if you’re not doing enough to make your staff feel valued, you could be stuck with employee retention at an all-time low.
The business world is becoming increasingly competitive, meaning your top talent is in high demand. So, if you’re constantly fearing the worst, here are just a few tips to help make sure your employees stick around for a number of years.
Create a culture that everyone likes
Some business owners don’t think they even have an office culture, but something as simple as listening to music can form a part of how your office operates. You might be encouraging flexible hours, group lunches, music playing in the background of the office, or even regular banter! This all forms part of your office culture.
The important thing to remember is to be consistent. Having two different work cultures in the same environment (such as some working in private offices and some working in open spaces) will lead to opposition. Situations like that can become jarring for your staff, and it’ll leave them wondering why they aren’t getting the same treatment.
Hire staff that match your office culture
It’s crucial that you make sure that any new recruits you employ match the office culture you’ve created. You wouldn’t want an employee who doesn’t appreciate the office culture you’ve embedded within the business.
Part of this process will inevitably involve interviewing your prospective employees. There’s nothing worse than hiring someone who has signs of being a “job-hopper”, especially if you want a team of people who are with you for a lifetime. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with a staff member leaving to advance their career, you want to recruit staff who are interested in growing as a person alongside the growth of your business. This is especially important if your office culture encourages you to be open with your team about the business goals, the turnover, the successes and failures, and so on.
Encourage development and offer training
Staff who feel empowered are ultimately happier. Often, this comes in the form of receiving training, as it allows you to support them in developing their skill set and truly becoming an entrepreneur for your business.
It’s surprising to hear that many business owners still aren’t willing to invest in their team to help them maintain or develop their skill set. Having a team of fully qualified, trained and certified staff is always great, but if you don’t have this, offering the training as an additional benefit can offer great goals for both parties to work towards.
Training and development can come in many forms. The most popular options tend to include sending employees to learning centres or providing membership to e-learning sites. That being said, simply offering guidance to your staff can go a long way in showing how you take their education seriously. Providing regular feedback on their work or their performance really shows how much you care about what they’re bringing to your business. Without that, they could be left confused, disgruntled and despondent, which will inevitably lead to them searching for another career opportunity.
Don’t micromanage; treat everyone equally
As a business owner, you wouldn’t feel comfortable if you had someone constantly looking over your shoulder, checking every aspect of your work. It leaves you feeling nervous, it means you’re second-guessing your quality of work, and ultimately puts you on a track destined for failure.
So how do you think your employees would feel if you were doing the same? You might not even be hanging over their shoulder. You could instead be constantly hassling them about the work they’re carrying out.
Let’s not forget that you’ve hired talented individuals. They’ve got a team around them for support, so they know what they’re doing. Allowing them to take on projects they might not have done before or have no experience in isn’t an opportunity to micromanage them –it’s an opportunity for them to grow as an employee and take initiative. It’s an even better opportunity to take risks and try new things.
So, instead of being worried about them failing and micromanaging them to try and prevent them from trying something new, give them the space to try and succeed. If they do succeed, then they’ve got some new experience to add to their skillset. If they fail, then they’ve had an opportunity to learn from.
What to do next
If you’ve got this far in the blog post, then our guess is you’re facing issues with retaining your staff, and creating a team that are fundamental to the success of your business.
If that’s the case, then your first step in improving your staff retention is to take everything in this blog and begin implementing it into your business. Even if you change one thing about how you handle your staff, you’ll most likely start seeing results and improvement in how your staff operate.
That’s not to say we’re not here to provide further advice! If you want to discuss staff retention further, and chat about how it can help your business, then visit our website or call 01223 832477. Improving your staff retention could be the first step in transforming how your business functions and ultimately grows.