High staff turn over and low staff retention is a management and HR nightmare; it cultivates more work, increased expense and can be stifling for company growth as the new candidates start from scratch once again, staggering project development.

While constant new injections of talent are a positive thing for a company to experience as the diversity of the team evolves and therefore so does the skillset and experience of the team, the idea is that this experience and skill set will stay and develop with the company – or most of it at least!

Losing talent frequently is a sure sign that something is up, and it’s time to look at what can be done from your side of the table to reduce the frequency and increase staff retention.

Overall happy, content and fulfiled staff are more likely to stay with a company.  Richard Branson is a huge advocate for putting staff first, and let’s face it, Virgin isn’t a bad example to follow.  His take on this is that to ‘put staff first, your customer second and shareholders third’ will create a happy workforce who provide a better service to your customers, however the secondary benefit of putting staff first and creating a happy workforce, is that they are more likely to remain in your employment, where they’re happy.

Mastering Staff Retention

Perks

Perks are a huge part of the ‘package’ in 2019, as the working world welcomes younger generations who value quite different aspects of the job to their parents, offering the ‘right’ perks with the position can keep staff content with the company.

This might include flexible working days and the opportunity to work remotely, this might include activities offered in the office or social activities arranged by the business. Of course, including more traditional perks is still a good idea, but looking into signing up to something like Perkbox might be a good idea to get some inspiration and build some engagement with your employees.

Communication

Communication through the whole organisation is a vital point of concentration, but when looking specifically at staff retention, open communication lines can encourage staff to come to you to voice issues or concerns rather than becoming quietly discontented and leaving their position.  Showing your workforce that you’re there to listen as well as to lead is a key leadership quality to work on.

Culture

Take the time to evaluate your company culture; is your business a pleasant place to work? To do this you’ll need to engage with your employees and gain an honest response.  Observing is another simple way to assess this yourself, are there cliques or is interaction in the office minimal, not particularly friendly, or even hostile?

For new members entering your workplace, this a huge factor in how quickly and how well they settle in to and remain with the company.

Opportunity

Can employees easily progress within your company or at least develop their own skillset?  In a business environment that changes with pace, individuals need to be able to upskill and continuously build on their knowledge. If you don’t offer this and/or opportunities to move up through your company and develop skills on the job, you might find that there is a certain expiry date to your staff.  Look into the average length of time spent with your company, this might show you when you’re losing your best staff and suggest when you might introduce learning and development opportunities.

Value

Value your staff, encouragement is something which no member of staff at any level dislikes.  Being told you have completed a good job, presented well or impressed a client never goes ill-received. Handing out praise and gratitude where it is earned shows that you value and respect the work that is being done and acknowledges those who’re making it happen.  This builds strong relationships which are less easily broken and cast aside, not only this but it encourages continuing hard work too. 

These small changes for your working business are able to have a huge impact on the operations and even the expense for your company, so it’s worth adapting, even if it’s only one or two!