At times, employees who are remote from the office can feel disconnected from the team, resulting in low morale and higher turnover. It’s hard to get an employee to commit to a role when they’re not physically in the office. Several studies have shown that the effect is even more pronounced for the tech industry, which is facing the biggest talent shortage in decades.
While most business owners know the value of retaining good employees, it seems that putting this into practice is a little more difficult. A survey by the State of Managers found that more than one-third of companies lose more than two in three of their employees, and many more suffer from growing employee turnover.
Here’s how to improve employee retention:
- Mentorship programs
In the past few years, mentorship programs have been rising in popularity as businesses look to leverage the wisdom of their employees as a way to stay relevant and improve their productivity. Mentoring provides a way for employees to connect with top executives and learn directly from them. Often, these programs are structured around a semester or quarter, allowing employees to participate in the process for a designated amount of time. Do you know someone who could be your mentor? Mentorship programs allow for one person to guide and help another person through their career. Mentors can assist their mentees in getting a job, a promotion, or a specific skill set. Individuals who are in need of a mentor often turn to their professional networks — which can include employers, coworkers, and internal talent managers — for mentorship recommendations.
- Employee compensation
A large portion of your employees’ pay comes from their salary, but it’s a very small percentage of their total compensation. The majority of their worth to you is dependent on the other benefits they receive as part of their compensation package. Compensation is essential in any business. Current compensation structures have evolved to reflect the changing needs and desires of the workplace. There are many benefits to the varying compensation structures for employees, the companies, and the employees themselves.
- Perks
The average employee is one of the most valuable resources in any company, and the cost of losing them is steep. It’s easy to attract and retain employees but much harder to keep them when they’re no longer happy or motivated. Employees need to feel rewarded, so they’re happier and more productive. Let’s assume you have an employee who is a loyal and hard-working employee. You have been happy with the employee’s work and performance, except for one thing: this employee is leaving you. You don’t want to let this great employee go, but it’s inevitable. You are eager to make this person happy by offering them a great stay offer. Maybe you make them a “new hire” offer, which is not quite what the employee wants. How can you get them to stay? The answer is to use the “rewards and incentives” approach. If you use rewards and incentives, the employee will be much more valuable to you and, most importantly, feel like a valued member of the workforce.
- Communication
In business, employee retention is absolutely critical since it is the cost of losing an employee that hurts you the most. One of the biggest issues in retention is communication. Many businesses fail to give their employees the tools they need to feel appreciated, engaged, and loyal. Communication is the backbone of a strong, smart, and successful team of any kind. The more communication there is, the better the team will function. As a result, the more information that is shared, the more productive your team will be.
- Training and development
When you start a business or join a new team, you always want the people you hire to do their job well and provide good service. You want to be able to count on them to be dependable and reliable. You want to make sure they are performing at their best and creating positive results for the company. Therefore, you should make sure that your onboarding and training process fully integrates them into the company, and that they have a clearly defined career path so that they know how they are going to progress.
In today’s work environment, employees come and go. Unfortunately, more and more are leaving their jobs in search of new jobs where they think they can advance their careers and earn higher wages. This is a problem because companies lose money when employees leave before they get to the point where they are seen as productive members of the workforce. In order to increase employee retention, it is therefore important to make sure your employees are happy and productive, and feel like they are genuinely a valued member of the team.
