You may hear a lot of talk about how businesses value an existing customer several times over a new one; loyalty is hard to find, whereas acquisition is costly. Similarly, organizations value their current employees – hiring the right replacement can be a tricky process. Yet employers can be mistaken if they assume that offering higher compensation and benefits will solve everything and retain employees; here are other things which can be done.
Provide opportunities for growth
Do you know anyone who complains that their job has no room for growth, or is a career dead end? The truth is that most business processes give rise to a lot of high-volume, repetitive tasks that must be carried out nonetheless. Employees may understand this to a certain extent, but delegating so-called ‘grunt work’ can be taken to excess. Even if it’s in their job description to handle such tasks, anybody whose entire day consists of data entry, for instance, can quickly feel disengaged from their work. Giving employees a productive break by letting them shadow more skilled colleagues will show them that the company offers growth potential and allows them to perform other tasks eventually. Outsourcing can also help free up employee bandwidth for learning; back office service providers in the Philippines make it their core competency to handle such work meticulously and efficiently.
Align with mission and values
Sometimes even a hard-working employee can lose their motivation when they don’t feel that their work is serving a higher purpose. This is especially true if their daily grind takes place entirely within the office environment; a company may be doing good things in the community, but failure to drive internal engagement can cause individual employees to feel disconnected from their mission and values. A manager giving praise and timely feedback for employees’ efforts can work wonders for their confidence, but this could be only half of the equation; managers can involve their people in community events, for example, to show them how their work makes a meaningful difference.
Allow work-life balance
How many times have you heard about a person quitting their job to be their own boss? It doesn’t mean they had a horrible supervisor; there may still be managers out there who employ oppressive methods, but more often, it could be a case of employees simply not getting a reasonable work-life balance. In the digital age, several tasks can be performed from home; offering the option of some form of remote working arrangement is one way to give employees more control over their time, while still ensuring that expected productivity levels and deliverables are met.
Establish good relationships
For some employees, the social environment at work can be the most crucial factor in determining how long they stay with a company or enjoy what they do. After all, these are the people you probably spend most of your day being around. Not everyone can thrive solely on career growth or skill training, especially if they aren’t particularly thrilled to work with colleagues. Skilled managers can take steps to foster a positive environment and help employees to build better relationships with each other; this not only keeps a team together but boosts their collective morale and performance.
Employee retention is never a matter of one-size-fits-all solutions; every individual who leaves a company will have something different to say. By taking these steps and looking for other ways to improve, organizations will be able to minimize churn and better retain their culture and continuity.
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