Now that you have a great team of employees, how do you keep them? Employee retention strategies increase worker loyalty and build a positive work environment which decreases staff turnover rates. "Half of U.S. employees are watching the job market or actively looking for a job, based on findings from a new Gallup Workforce Panel study". With this in mind, let's take a look at methods to support retention of valuable employees.

Cultivate Company Culture

Evaluate the culture of your company periodically to find areas that need improvement. The culture must continuously evolve to increase employee retention and reduce human resource costs.

Professional Development

Offer training programs to prepare employees for advancement opportunities or to further develop professional skills. When companies invest in educating workers, they feel valued and become more invested in the growth of the business.

Effective Communication

When the level of communication is effective company-wide, departments will run more efficiently due to increased productivity and great morale because everyone feels included and that their opinions matter.

Surveys

Use surveys periodically to identify staff priorities and to test the waters before making significant changes that will directly impact employees. Implementing changes in response to survey results improves confidence and trust in leadership. 

Employee Recognition

Spotlight an employee of the month on the company website or one of the social media accounts. Also, give small tokens of appreciation like a gift card or lunch to all staff occasionally. The tokens of appreciation do not need to be expensive but make sure that they are meaningful and offered consistently for maximum effectiveness.

Promotion

As positions become available, promote from within when possible. Promoting from within is more cost-effective and current workers already know the company culture, performance expectations, and have a proven performance record.

According to a University of Warrick press release, Professor Andrew Oswald, Dr. Eugene Pronto, and Dr. Daniel Srgoi from the Department of Economics at the University of Warrick carried out some experiments to test the idea that happy employees work harder. The results of the study indicated that happiness made workers around 12% more productive.

By fine-tuning the strategies in your employee retention plan, employees will feel valued, appreciated and motivated to do their best work for your business. For more insight from a workforce strategy provider, contact us today.